Continuous Passion More than meditation, more than faith, is the critical importance of passion in the spiritual life of a Jew. Our portion begins with the commandment that there shall be a fire burning on the Altar in the temple: "And the fire on the altar shall burn on it; it shall not go out." Like everything else within the actual temple, this has a spiritual equivalence in the service of every Jew. The Altar represents the heart, the Torah commands us to ignite a fire on the Altar, to create a passion, a fire, in our heart for the service of G-d. It is insufficient to just do the right thing; we must strive to do it with alacrity, passion, and excitement. But is passion for everybody? Are there not intellectuals, who understand and relate intellectually to the Torah and its values, do they, too, need passion in their service of G-d? Is their intellectual mediation insufficient? And, on the other extreme, are there not people who are too materialistic, too engrossed in negativity, that passion in Divine service is beyond their spiritual capacity? Should they instead focus on merely taking the right action? The Torah reiterates the commandment to ignite the fire: A continuous fire shall burn upon the Altar; it shall not go out. (Leviticus 6:6) The word "continuous" is redundant, because once the Torah states, "it shall not go out" we know that the fire must be continuous. The Jerusalem Talmud, therefore, explains that "continuous" teaches us a novel law: "continuous, even on Shabbat, continuous, even in a state of impurity." In normal circumstances, the fire, the passion, must always burn. The additional word teaches that even on Shabbat, which represents a state of intellectual awareness, and even when we are in a state of impurity, engrossed in the temptation and distraction of the material world, we are commanded and empowered to kindle the fire of passion. Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe, Lekutei Sichos Tzav vol. 1