נשמת האדם דומה לנרThe Shaken Candle

nishmat ha-adam domah le-nerIn Gamatria ↗

A good flame shaken burns brighter; a poor one goes out.

'Your camp shall be holy': the limbs are the camp of the Shekhinah, and each of the 248 words of the Shema draws holiness into one limb. Then why do careful people still suffer? The Zohar on Shelach answers that the soul is like a candle. When a good candle burns low, you shake it and it flares. A poor candle shaken goes out. So God sends suffering to a soul dimmed by sin. If it is accepted in love, with regret and repair, the soul shines brighter. If it is kicked against, it returns harder and the candle sinks. Since the Temple fell, saying the offerings takes the place of bringing them. Kaidanover tells from the Zohar how R. Acha stopped a plague: forty pious men at the town's four corners recited the incense passage for three days.

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