It is beautiful that all things have an inner message and energy. There is also the fact that all things are made of matter, which ultimately cannot be created or destroyed and according to Stephen Hawking has always existed. The Torah says Hashem is infinite and has and will be forever. Hashem is therefore within everything and is everything.

Like the fire of the sun....I see G*d still speaks to those who can perceive him in everything.... the shekinah always draws us in, if we CHOOSE to listen....Shalom.

Maybe the metaphor of the mansion on fire is more literal. Like the mansion on fire, our world left to its own devices is self-destructive. We have utterly wiped out entire species and physic's law of entropy spells out the fact that the universe is on an irreversible one-way path to eventually burning out. That is, if there is only nature. So it makes as little sense to believe that nature made everything as it does to believe that the mansion made itself, as both are part of a world that is inherently destructive, not constructive. Logically, the mansion MUST have gotten there via a "spiritual" force outside of nature, just like the world around us. There must be a master/Master.

We live in a natural world that tends towards entropy. If nature is beautiful and growing despite its own rules, it can only be due to a force outside nature.

This makes me wonder if Abraham had a hint of the relationship between matter(all things) and energy. I find it interesting that another Jew, Albert Einstein was the first to express that physical relationship mathematically, e=mc2.

Fire seems to be a big part of Jewish rituals and holidays. To me, fire is something that can be both dangerous and beneficial. I always thought that fire was a force of destruction. Maybe that's just physical fire. I like the fact that this points out that each object/davar has a meaning behind it. I think fire is good because it doesn't only do destruction, it brings out the good part of things. When Abraham looked at the sun he saw more than what was just there, light and warmth, he thought and saw that there had to be a creator behind it: something/someone that made it be there.

The article talks about how we can attribute everything to chance and cover up the Divine Providence, if you will. I think that some things are just not able to be attributed to chance. There is no way statistically that all the miracles that have happened are jut chance encounters. There are ovbious miracles. Even the world today, which is so secular, uses words like "miracle" and other words like it to describe recent events everywhere. Also, there is no way that a country as small as Israel, with all the odds stacked against it (like Israel) could continue to survive without some kind of Divine Being helping out.

We need to be like avraham and look deeper into the meaning of what Hashem does for us. He looked and the world and understood that there was a master who created everything. On Lag Baomer, we must look at the flames of the bonfire and realize that tehre is a deeper meaning to everything that Hashem does. Not everything is tangible and we, the Jews, need to learn from Avraham.

I find the fact that fire is used to represent R. Shimon Bar Yochai interesting as it seems to me that fire is often used to represent G-dly and holy things. For example the bonfire on Lag Baomer, the shabbos candles, havdalah, and burning the chametz on pesach all use fire to carry out G-d's will. I think it shows how we are supposed to take everything and use it for good. Fire can be so destructive, but instead of fearing it we are instructed to embrace it and use it for something as close to G-d as a korban! Just something I found interesting.

This article was very interesting. Who would have thought of fire in such a way before? I think that perhaps there was a little bit of over-analyzing at some points, but it's a pretty nice dvar torah. Avraham was a really unique guy; he was an iconoclast whose ideas differed completely than those of everyone else at his time. Fire is the perfect way to represent a cleansing. And lag baomer, apparently. Cool.

this was inspiring I now want to look more into Judaism and consider conversion.

good article.

This is a great, in-depth perspective to have for Lag Ba 'Omer! I'm sharing this with all my buddies!

This is beautifully stated and the deep truth within, is apparent, A PARENT, meaning what's within all Creation is Divinity itself, the sparks that are deeply about what is divine, as in Divine sparks, an essential truth of Kabbalah. If we examine flame we see there is surely the rose within, and this is beautifully explicated in a wonderful Cirque du Soleil offering I saw some years ago, in which the rose becomes the flame. But there is more to this. Flame itself is for love, as in to say, in English, I have a flame, and flame is surely a word that does connote, passion. And there is this reverberation, to the fire that was not consumed, as in, Moses and the Burning Bush. We say, we're fired up by enthusiasm, by inspiration, and we are also fired, meaning our jobs taken away from us. There is in the word burn, a deep bipolarity of meaning, as in consumed and that which is not. All words it could be said, are containers for life's paradox, as our lives. Think about the word cleave, as in split asunder but also as in come together, to cleave to another. I can go further, and I do, in explicating what some have called, The secret language of birds. Surely, as you so beautifully state, God is forever and always in the wings, and what we perceive as chance, is not, but rather a knot binds us all together and deeply to the ONE Divine Presence, and this, as presence is to presents, is a gift. This perception shall sweep the world, because we're entering a new state of consciousness. in truth/ruth

This is a poetic beautiful commentary. if you regard fire you might see as I do a conflagration of roses, the Hebrew letters, a constant emergent beauty. yes to what speaks to us, to the sentient feeling in "tongues of flame". It is possible to traverse worlds. I do.

awsome knowledge Wow....you all have done itr to me again! whispering flames was a awsome story ot letter or whatever it was. Thank you aish and I thank our beloved creator for you too. love Brian Estill

I thought this was a wonderful perspective that should be more well known

I highly recommend __The Science of God_ by Gerald Schroeder, PhD. Does a wonderful job of correlating science and Torah.

The moment you use the example of a 'system', and then follow it up with examples of living systems, you have cheated. Without a designer, you can't have systems. The sun itself is a system. Matter is a system, an orderly crystallization of energy in a manner of speaking. Ultimately, light energy. "Let there be light", sound familiar? I don't understand question 2, but to me entropy is just the natural course of events without the intervention of willful intention. But don't judge Aish by that, I haven't given it that much thought. One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him. The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't you just go on and get lost." God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, "Very well, how about this, let's say we have a man making contest." To which the scientist replied, "OK, great!" But God added, "Now, we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam." The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt. God just looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!" http //www getyourowndirt com

Joe -- while I can hear the objection to the laws of physics as stated above - the statement that things tend to "fall apart -- crumble" that the author brings, please note it is not merely science --it is Torah, Shlomo Hamelech pointed it out, as does the Rambam. And your argument that our world is not a closed system also misses a Torah point -- that we talk of our universe, which includes the sun, not of planet earth alone. So when talking about Avraham's searching, it had to include a closed universe, not a closed planet earth.

This is a beautiful, profound piece of writing. I found this intensely meaningful on a personal level. I believe we are evolving towards greater compassion and that this is a soul journey. We are on different rungs of that ladder. Yes, to see the beauty within the rose, and to peel away those layers, to enter into the profound metaphoric connects, is to encounter the Divine in all creation. It all speaks and those who hear the music, truly hear the music, come to a different place. This symphony has a conductor. As to fire itself, does it not bring us to Moses and the burning bush? There is so much that can be said for the language connects themselves and the deeper underlying metaphoric meanings.

In reply to Lucille Helman (5/2/2007)''s comment, what science evidences are the physical mechanisms by which G-d''s will is manifested (including evolution). Thanks also to Joe for his lucid exposition of the concept of Entropy.

Eyeopening thoughts of "INTELLIGENT DESIGN". THIS IS WHAT THE CREATIONISTS BELIEVE. HOW TO BLEND THIS WITH SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE?

I was reading and enjoying this article and then we had to confound it with bad science.

It was my understanding of the Midrash, that Avraham Avinu was not in the ID business. Rather, he was contemplating what was greater then what and looking into the notion of a first cause.

But perhaps I am mistaken on that. Not having the appropriate Midrash in front of me as I type, I might be misremembering. What I am *not* mistaken on is the fact that people who do not understand Thermodynamics should not have the chutzpah to write about entropy.

The Second Law of Thermodynaics does indeed state that entropy always increases - IN A CLOSED SYSTEM. The Earth is *not* a closed system. In fact, it gets it's energy from the Sun. If you look at the Earth/Sun system, you will indeed find that the total entropy is always increasing. However, most of the entropy increase comes from the Sun burning, and the energy realeased by the Sun's burning can be used by systems on the earth to fight entropy. A great example of this is that when you eat lunch, your body gains the energy needed to ward off entropy. The energy from that lunch ultimately came from the sun. BTW in the You/Lunch system, say you had a Hamburger. You fought off entropy, but I promise that the cow's entropy went way up!

Be very careful with arguments about physics teaching what can and can not be a product of chance. Because you started from half understanding half of a definition, you came to a completely incorrect conclusion.

The hidden undertone that the ID crowd frequently uses *and gets utterly wrong* is that since systems tend towards disorder - entropy increases - Evolution could not have happened. Unfortunately, since these people never passed - or have forgotten - freshman physics, they do not take the role of the Sun into account when they make their arguments. There is no thermodynamic violation of Evolution on the Earth. If there were, it would not be an accepted theory - and the community is smart enough to have thought of looking into Thermodynamics already - on its own.

For any who are offended by this response, I ask the following two questions.

1. What is Entropy anyway?
2. What does it mean to have five fingered clarity?

I hope that in the future, Aish writers, who I am certain understand question 2, will apply it's lessons to question 1.

wish every hunan could understand this fact
NOT A MYSTRY I KNOW ABOUT THIS

In deed, a very revealing message, one which represents the absolute truth about the underlying nature present in all creatures and things, 'the Divur' of our Creator. We must learn to tap into the special 'vision' to be able to recognize the intelligent, loving energy present in all Creation, which 'unifies' everything and everyone in G-D.
Keep the Fire 'burning' and continue to 'fan' it!