נטיל רבי אבא חד ורדא בידיהThe Rose in the Fire

netil Rabbi Abba ḥad varda bideiIn Gamatria ↗

Offer your own warmth, and the red turns white.

Repentance begins with fasting, and Kaidanover explains its power through the Zohar. R. Abba, walking with R. Yitzḥak, picked a rose and carried it; R. Yosi, meeting them, knew a teaching was coming. R. Abba smelled it and said the world stands only on scent, as the soul is fed by scent, which is why one smells myrtle after the Sabbath. Offerings rose as 'a pleasing scent'; now prayer stands in their place, and the breath of one who fasts is like their smoke. A rose is red, and cooked in fire it turns white: sin turned white. In a fast a person offers his own fat and blood, and his body burns. Then the cautions: do not idle, publicize the fast, or grow angry; feed a poor man first; do not gorge afterward; name your sins aloud.

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