Metzora 5632 First Ma'amar

The first half of this week’s parsha describes the procedure that a metzora/leper must undergo in order to return to a state of purity.  Chazal teach us that tzora’as/leprosy is a consequence of slandering.[1]  The Midrash says that the word metzora alludes to this because the word can be split into two words, motzi ra/spew out evil (speech).

The Sfas Emes understands the word ra/evil here, homiletically as an allusion to the evil inclination.  God created us with a good and an evil inclination.  Chazal teach us that we are expected to serve God with both the good and the evil inclinations.[2]  How can we serve Him with our evil inclination?  The evil inclination provides us with challenges and opportunities to grow.  Acknowledging this makes it easier for us to accept the challenges that occur in our lives.  We can even welcome them since they are the means by which we are able to grow closer to God and accomplish our mission in this world. 

The Sfas Emes understands Chazal’s play on the word metzora  - motzi ra - as an allusion to spewing out or expelling the evil inclination.  If we expel our evil inclination and do not accept it for the tool that it is meant to be, then instead of helping us it becomes rather a hindrance in our service to God, a source of impurity.

This concept may be alluded to in the procedure for purifying the metzora.  The procedure calls for two pure birds.  The Sfas Emes says that these birds may represent the two inclinations within us, the good and the evil.  However, even though one of those birds represents the evil inclination, the Torah also refers to it as pure just as it refers to our soul – which contains the evil inclination – as pure.  The key is not to reject any part of the root of our soul but rather to take advantage of everything that God has given us even if at first glance it appears to be unhelpful.  In reality, we need all of it to achieve the mission for which God sent us into this world.

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[1]                      VaYikra R. 16:4

[2]                     Brachos Mishna 9:5

Metzora 5635 First Ma'amar (Part 2 of 3)

This week's parsha describes the process of purifying a metzora/leper.  The Torah makes a big deal about leprosy.  Two full parshas in the Torah, deal with its laws.  Why is this?  Chazal[1] teach us that leprosy comes from speaking evil about and slandering others. 

The Sfas Emes explains that Chazal are teaching us an important underlying concept about the connection between the physical and spiritual.  Leprosy is the physical manifestation of spiritual damage caused by speaking lashon hara.  Chazal are teaching that there is a close parallel between what happens to us physically and spiritually.  Furthermore, we can learn about the spiritual by observing the physical. 

The Sfas Emes explains what we learn.  The primary physical sources of life are the heart and lungs.  The blood goes out from the heart to all parts of the body and returns.  The Torah teaches, “... דמו בנפשו ... his blood is associated with his life-force …” (VaYikra 17:14)

Spiritually, Chazal[2] teach us that the strength of our nation primarily involves the mouth particularly when we study Torah out loud as Chazal learn from the pasuk in Mishlei (4:22), “ כי חיים הם למוצאיהם .../For they are life to those who find them …”  Chazal[3] understand that this pasuk refers to one who learns Torah and in a play on words read the last word, “למוצאיהם/to those who find them, as “למוציאיהם/to those who bring them out (or, say them out loud.)”  Furthermore various Chassidic masters[4] have taught us that things which a person says with all his heart, enter the heart of others more easily – דברים היוצאים מן הלב נכנסין אל הלב.

Combining these two ideas the Sfas Emes teaches that when we learn Torah out loud with all our hearts, those very words of Torah return to ourselves with new and novel understandings just like the blood goes out to all a person’s limbs and returns.  Chazal[5] alluded to this very idea in a Midrash on the pasuk in Koheles (1:7), “כל הנחלים הולכים אל הים והים איננו מלא אל מקום שהנחלים הולכים שם הם שבים ללכת/All the streams flow into the sea yet the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they return to flow again.”  The Midrash teaches that all the Torah a person learns is in his heart.  Just as the streams don’t fill up the sea, the Torah will not fill his heart.  He will always desire to learn more.  And just as the waters return to flow again, the Torah even as he teaches another from the depths of his heart always returns to him, the teacher.  What does this mean?  Obviously, the teacher doesn’t lose what he knows by teaching it.  The Sfas Emes therefore understands that the Torah that he says out loud (so others can hear) returns to him with new and deeper understandings.

It is exactly the opposite when someone slanders another.  This also comes from the heart, specifically the left side of the heart where a person’s evil inclination resides as we find in another pasuk in Koheles (10:2), “... ולב כסיל לשמאלו/… and a fool’s heart tends towards his left.”  Just as the Torah that a person speaks returns to him with new and deeper understanding, a person’s “leftist” speech returns to his heart as an air of nonsense – רוח שטות.

It is the tongue and the mouth that connect the physical and the spiritual.  This is why Chazal[6] teach us that everything depends on the tongue as we find in a pasuk in Mishlei (18:21), “מות וחיים ביד לשון/Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

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[1] Arachin 15b

[2] Tanchuma Balak 3; Mechilta Beshalach Masechta 2:2

[3] Eiruvin 54a

[4] Kedushas Levi VaYigash viz ויגש אליו יהודה; Noam Elimelech Toldos, viz ויזרע יצחק; Kol Mevasser Devarim 1

[5] Koheles R. 1:7:5

[6] Tanchuma Metzora 2

Metzora 5635 First Ma'amar (part 1 of 3)

This week's parsha describes the process of purifying a metzora/leper.  The Midrash in this week's parsha quotes a pasuk in Tehillim (50:16), "ולרשע אמר א-להים מה לך לספר חוקי ותשא בריתי עלי פיך/And to the wicked God said, 'To what purpose do you recount my decrees and bear My covenant upon your lips?"  The Midrash[1] explains that God does not desire the praises of the wicked.  The Midrash brings this pasuk to shed light on the beginning of our parsha, "זאת תהיה תורת המצורע ביום טהרתו/This will be the law of the leper on the day of his purification." (VaYikra 14:2)

What is the connection between the pasuk in Tehillim and the pasuk from our parsha?  To answer this question we need to understand why the pasuk uses the word toras/law of.  In fact, the Torah uses this word in various places.  For example, "תורת הזב/the law of the zav" (VaYikra 15:32) 

Even though in these instances, the word תורה means law, it hints to the Torah.  The Torah is not simply a scroll with words on it.  The Torah is a powerful spiritual entity through which flows spiritual power into the physical world.[2]  

Our pasuk that begins the description of the leper's purification contains the word תורה/law/Torah so that we may infer that rectification comes about only through the spiritual power embodied by the Torah.  In fact, not only rectification but all actions are possible only because of the power those actions receive through the Torah.

To the extent that we rectify our actions we can come close to and experience the spiritual power of the Torah for everything in the physical world has its spiritual roots in the Torah.  Our very souls have their roots in the spiritual entity that we call Torah.  However, to the extent that our souls are flawed, we cannot come close and experience our spiritual roots.  When the Midrash teaches that God does not desire the praises of the wicked it means that they are spiritually incapable of connecting to their source.

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[1] VaYikra R. 16:4

[2] The Zohar (1:5a) teaches that God used the Torah to create the world

Metzora 5632

The first half of this week’s parsha describes the procedure that a metzora must undergo in order to return to a state of purity. Chazal teach us that tzora’as is a consequence of slandering. The Midrash says that the word metzora alludes to this because the word can be split into two words, motzi ra/spew out bad (speech).

The Sfas Emes understands the word ra/bad here, as an allusion to the evil inclination. God created us with a good and an evil inclination. Chazal teach us that we are expected to serve God with both the good and the evil inclinations. God gave us the evil inclination, as well, to utilize in our service to Him. The metzora erred in that he motzi ra/expelled the bad (inclination.) The evil inclination becomes a hindrance to our service, a source of impurity, only when we reject it as a tool with which to serve God. Otherwise, it helps us to come close to God by providing challenges and opportunities that enable us to grow.

This concept may be alluded to in the procedure for purifying the metzora. The procedure calls for two pure birds. The Sfas Emes says that these birds may represent the two inclinations within us, the good and the bad. The Torah refers to both as pure just as it refers to our soul – which contains the evil inclination – as pure. The key is not to reject any part of the root of our soul. We need all of it to achieve the mission for which God sent us into this world.