Afire — דלק

Tzedek Chicago Torah discussion tossed around a number of ideas regarding God and this burning structure:

• Our world on metaphorical fire;
• Climate change and a world quite literally burning up;
• God communicating via fire (e.g., “The Torah was written in black fire on white fire” — Devarim Rabbah 3:13); and
• God using fire to get the attention of someone(s) — including a reference to the Burning Bush story (Exodus 3), which is often compared to this one.

Tzedek Chicago Torah discussion also wondered if the fire was set — by God? by humans? — or an unintentional side effect of another action or process.

And who has the power to end it: Is God choosing to leave it in human hands? Somehow unable to put it out without human help? Or maybe just waiting until someone, like Abraham, notices? Somewhere in the discussion arose the idea of God as arsonist attempting to get humanity’s attention.

אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק מָשָׁל לְאֶחָד שֶׁהָיָה עוֹבֵר מִמָּקוֹם לְמָקוֹם, וְרָאָה בִּירָה אַחַת דּוֹלֶקֶת

The root dalet-lamed-kaf — “doleket” in the story above — can carry the meaning of “to burn” or “to kindle” in a physical sense:

• Ezekiel’s vision in Chapter 24 is pretty wild, but the words expressing it are straightforward: “…heaping on the wood, kindling [hadleik] the fire… (Ezek 24:10).
• A common blessing says, “…l’hadlik ner shel [to kindle the lights of] Shabbat” (or Yom Tov, Hanukah).
• In Deut 28:22, people will be punished “with fever [vadaleket].”
• In Aramaic, as in modern Hebrew, “delek” is fuel.

In some Bible verses, dalet-lamed-kaf also carries a more emotional or psychological meaning:

• Isaiah says woe to someone “inflamed [yidlikim] by wine.”
• We find “ardent [dolkim] lips” in Prov 26:23.
• Jacob was incensed [d’lakta] with Laban in Gen 31:26.
• A meaning of “pursue eagerly” is found in Lam 4:19, 1 Sam 17:53, Ps. 10:2, and in Ps. 7:14 (King James Version) where we have “arrows against persecutors [l’dolkim].” For the latter, JPS has “sharp” arrows with one of those “Hebrew uncertain” notes, while the New Int’l Version has “flaming” and other Christian translations use “with fiery shafts.”
• Finally, there are images in Obadiah 18 and Daniel 7:9 which seem to carry a physical meaning of flames plus a sense of burning in anger.

Jastrow’s Dictionary also includes the “light” or “illumination” aspect of fire in defining dalet-lamed-kaf. The entry, in fact, begins with a citation to the above story: “Gen R. s 39 saw a castle דּוֹלֶקֶת [doleket] lighted.” This suggests that perhaps the point — or at least one point — of Rabbi Yitzchak’z story is about illumination of the structure perceived as the individual is crossing. This reading jives with the use of Psalm 45:11-12 to explain why Abraham was told to go: It’s through the individual crossing from place to place, leaving behind what they were taught — and so perceiving this illuminated/flaming structure — that God comes to desire the beauty of their actions (following Rashi on Ps.45).

From Across and Afire