In the World's Heart Burns a Torch of Fire

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In the world's heart burns a torch of fire,
In its footsteps, eternal wanderers we have gone.
Embodied light of all that transpires
It is the fire-core for everyone....
--S. Shalom

The above is an excerpt from a poem that I discovered when trying to research my d'var Torah. Aside from consulting with our limited selection of Rabbinic discourse and interpretations, I checked out some of my university books from when I was doing my B.A. with a Jewish Studies minor. I have some wonderful books from University of Toronto days, but none that provided me with fodder for my talk.

Then I discovered my book: Modern Hebrew Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology-- I was given the book twenty years ago, for my twenty-third b'day, by my brother's then-not-quite-yet in-laws. They knew I'd come home from Israel several months earlier and that I loved poetry. (And to be able to read a beautiful poem in English with the Hebrew translation by its side is a bonus!)

So I was flipping through the poetry book yesterday, and came across this lovely poem. I felt it needed to "see the light" and be shared with a bunch of blog readers. It's too bad that I can't provide the Hebrew translation for the same excerpt because in that language, the words are even more lyrical and lovely.

But I do think that this excerpt can be easily incorporated into my d'var Torah about the Ner Tamid, and the significance of light in Jewish life.