We know that if you play with fire you’re bound to get burned. We always describe fire’s destructive powers; a fire that destroys and consumes everything it touches. But there are two types of fire. There is the fire that destroys, forcing people to flee its burning flames and there is the fire that illuminates, a fire of warmth, and holiness that draws people closer to it. This fire has the potential to unify and create because it is a fire from within, a fire that brings warmth to those around it. Hashem spoke to Moshe from inside the fire that was on the burning bush, Moshe merited to see a fire that did not consume; a fire of purity and unity. For Moshe like a talented goldsmith would gather up the broken pieces of our nation and cast them together in a fire of unity. Moshe saw and shared a fire that took all the broken Jews out of slavery and united them into a nation, his prophecy was like looking through a crystal clear lens – there was no separation from what Hashem had said to what Moshe said. It was repeated exactly, thus his words allowed broken fragments to be molded into one form. According to the Midrash, the fire Moshe saw on the bush was the same fire The Torah was in on Har Sinai, that fire was also a fire that not only united Klal Yisrael to God Above, but it also unified all of physical creation with spirituality.

What caused the fractures and the destruction before we were unified was a fire of destruction, although it may be bright and warm it leaves in its path a trail of bleak darkness. We each have experienced a damaging fire in our life, whether it be because of a sin we may have done or because of a mistake we have made but going through that fire allows us to be pieces ready to be formed together with our fellow Jews. No longer a singular golden bar we are, now we are a unified golden block. The purpose of falling is so we can help others get back up when we get back up. The Lubavitcher Rebbe gives a Mashul of a saint wearing a fur coat. This saint, he sits in his house with a fireplace full of wood. But there is no fire, there is no light. The House, and everyone within it are shivering from the cold. All except for him, because he dons a fur coat and he is warm. So we ask him “Why do you warm only yourself? Why not kindle the wood in your fireplace and warm others as well?” He answers, “It’s not just this house, the entire world is bitterly cold. Do you expect me to warm up an entire world?!” So we explain that he doesn’t have to warm up the whole world. But perhaps he could warm up one, maybe two individuals. Perhaps he could warm one little corner of the world. “For a person such as I,” he replies “it is not fitting to warm up only one corner.” So there he sits, in his cold, dark house, all comfy in his fur coat.

We can look at ourselves after the mistakes we have made and decide to sit in the cold, to sit in the darkness shattered. But we each indeed have the ability to warm even one other soul so why would we waste the fuel that’s in the fireplace, the fuel that is in our possession. The lighter is in our hand, ignite the flame and make the world just that much warmer, perhaps like Moshe we may just be able to take the broken pieces and through the Divine fire of Hashem help create a nation of unity and love.