[Avodah] the Sne and the Aish

[Chana Luntz]

I was looking at Shemot 3:2 the other day and thinking about the Sne, and it
struck me that what Moshe Rabbanu saw in the Sne is described as "aish" and
"bo'ar eish" despite it not being consumed.  And it struck me that these are
the same words used in the pasuk in Shemot 35:3 ie the same root in lo
t'vairu aish.  Now we usually think of aish as being fuel + oxygen -> carbon
dioxide + water, ie the scientific definition of fire - and certainly that
is mostly what they were kindling over the years, and what they were
avoiding kindling on Shabbat in the midbar.

 

But, is not the use of the same words in the pasuk about the Sne suggesting
that actually aish is a wider category than fire?  And I passed some Xmas
trees (well it was that time of year), and I thought to myself - are these
not bushes that have fire in them (some of them had flickering LEDs that
were good approximations of flames) and yet are not consumed?

 

And I wondered if this could be the missing link that we have been looking
for?  ie perhaps this pasuk in Shemot 3:2 is making it clear that aish, as
prohibited over in that pasuk in Shemot 35:3, includes not only what we
might think of as classic aish where some fuel has to be consumed, but also
where there is production of visible light photons (what else could Moshe
has seen - and note it says that he saw, not he felt, the key aspect was the
visual, not any warmth that might or might not have been generated) even
though no fuel is consumed?  Now at the time of the midbar and Chazal, we
were not in a position to deliberately generate visible light photons in any
other way than by classic fire - but now we are (inter alia LEDs)!  And in
fact the pasukim were coming to teach us, amongst other things, that such a
generation is within the category of fire even if nothing is consumed? And
maybe that, inter alia, explains why m'avir is the one melacha explicitly
mentioned in the Torah, and not merely learnt out by Torah sheba'al Peh from
the melachot in the mishkan?

 

Have you seen anybody make this link before?

 

I also thought about the fact that aish hachama is not prohibited for use
d'orita and whether that negated what is being said (since aish hachama is
produced by nuclear fusion).  But given that it takes place in what is,
halachically, understood to be shamayim, it seemed to me that it could be
excluded for that reason, and were we to manage to produce nuclear fusion
here on earth as our primary source of light and heat, we would still
understand that as aish, even though again it is not classic fire.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Regards

 

Chana

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