<b>And thou shalt overlay it with brass (Exod. 27:2).</b> R. Judah the son of Shalum stated: Moses had said to the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, You told me to make an altar of acacia-wood and to overlay it with brass, and You said also: <i>A fire should burn perpetually unto Me on the altar</i> (Lev. 6:6). But will not the fire penetrate the overlay and burn the wood? The Holy One, blessed be He, replied: Moses, normally this does happen, but think of the angels of glowing fire who are near Me, and of the treasures of snow and hail that I possess, as it is said: <i>Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail?</i> (Job 38:22), and it says also: <i>Who layest the beams of thine upper chambers in the waters</i> (Ps. 104:3). The water, however, does not extinguish the fire, nor does the fire consume the water. The creatures of fire, likewise, are unaffected by the waters of the firmament above their heads, as is said: <i>As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like the coals of fire, burning like the appearance of torches; it flashed up and down among the living creatures</i> (Ezek. 1:13). It is also written there: <i>And over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, like the color of the terrible ice, stretched forth over their heads above</i> (ibid., v. 22). They bore the entire body of water which was the thickness of the firmament, a distance of five hundred years’ journey, and they also supported the great bodies of fire, which stood between the firmaments, that were a distance of five hundred years’ journey.
R. Berechiah stated in the name of R. Helbo and in the name of R. Abba: The hoofs of the beasts are also a distance of four hundred years’ journey, and all of them bear fire through the firmament which is filled with water, and the fire does not consume the water, and the water does not extinguish the fire. Why was that? He makes peace in His heavens. Yet because I told you to burn a perpetual light on the altar, you are fearful that it might burn the wood!
The lifeless and dead things are brought before Me, and they depart alive. This refers to the staff of Aaron: <i>And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses went into the tent of the Testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and blossomed blossoms, and bore ripe almonds</i> (Num. 17:23). The cedars that Hiram king of Tyre sent to Solomon for the building of the Temple absorbed the living spirit of the world and were restored to life.
R. Levi said: When Solomon brought the ark into the Temple, all the trees and cedars there came to life and bore fruit, as it is said: <i>Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God</i> (Ps. 92:14). They brought forth fruit and supplied a large share of the provisions for the young priests. But when Manasseh brought the idol into the Temple, the Shekhinah departed from it and the fruit withered, as is said: <i>And the flower of Lebanon languisheth</i> (Nah. 1:4). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: The staves which you employed in the ark will grow longer during the next (four hundred and) eighty-four years, as it is said: <i>And the staves were so long that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place</i> (I Kings 8:8).
The lifeless brought before Me depart alive, yet you fear that the wood in the altar erected in My honor will burn! Who commanded the fire to burn? Learn from your own experience! When you entered into the midst of the wall of fire and walked among the bands (of angels in heaven), you should have been consumed, yet you came unto Me, as it is said: <i>But Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was</i> (Exod. 20:18). I am a consuming fire, as is said: <i>For the Lord thy God is a devouring fire</i> (Deut. 4:24), and it would have been normal for you to have been consumed. Why were you not (consumed)? Because you ascended for My glory. Likewise, in the case of the altar of the burnt offering, concerning which it is written: <i>Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually</i>, neither the brass will be affected, nor will the wood be burned.
If you should be of the opinion that the brass was not affected because it was thick, R. Nehemiah declared that the overlay was but the thickness of a dinar. R. Phinehas the son of Hama said: If you should believe that the fire descended from on high only for a short time, and that is why the altar was not damaged, the fact is that this altar was so important that the fire was not removed from it either by day or by night, as it is said: <i>The fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually</i>. Why was the overlay made of brass? In order to atone for the brazen brow (i.e., Israel’s stubbornness),<sup class="footnote-marker">19</sup><i class="footnote">See Kiddushin 70b.</i> as it is said: <i>And thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass</i> (Isa. 48:4).
You find that the altar erected by Moses was more precious to the Holy One, blessed be He, than the altar for the burnt offering made by Solomon. Proof of this is that when Solomon built the Temple, he built an altar for the burnt offering, as is said: <i>A thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar</i> (I Kings 3:4). but because he knew that the altar of brass that Moses had erected was more precious to the Holy One, blessed be He, he brought out the brass altar (which Moses had made), as it is said: <i>Moreover, he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof</i> (II Chron. 4:1).
Observe how precious the altar of brass that Moses constructed was to the Holy One. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Because of this altar upon which fire will burn day and night, I will call to account the kingdom of Edom through fire, and she shall burn day and night, as is said: <i>It shall go up forever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste. None shall pass through it forever and ever</i> (Isa. 34:10).