Up and Down Arrows – Tazria-Metzora
The “double feature” of Tazria-Metzora is not a simple Shabbat לדרוש. Blood, leprosy, stains on garments and walls are not stimulating topics for a shiur.
This however, is a special Shabbat as it combines three events that are seemingly not connected. Firstly it is parshat Tazria-Metzora which deals with brit milah, טֻמאה וטהרה. Secondly it is ה' באייר which is the actual date of Yom Ha’atzmaut (it was brought forward to Thursday this year to enable festivities). Thirdly it is the 20th day of the Omer which, in the order of the Sfirot, is יסוד שבתפארת. I will therefore attempt to explore a principle in this week’s shiur that weaves these three, supposedly disparate, topics together.
Just six weeks ago, on parshat Parah we read about the Parah Adumah. Shlomo Hamelech, the wisest man who ever lived, said about the red heifer – אמרתי אחכמה והיא רחוקה ממני (קהלת ז, כג). As we know Parah Adumah is a חוק, something we are obliged to observe without understanding it. And it is a conundrum! To purify someone who is impure, the Kohen must sprinkle ashes of the red heifer on them and in doing so, the Kohen himself becomes impure.
If Shlomo Hamelech could not fully understand the concept I certainly will not presume to. Instead I would like to explore hints from the psukim that point us in the right direction to at least achieve a basic understanding of the concepts of טֻמאה וטהרה.
To do so, we need to go back to the beginning of time, when HKB”K created Gan Eden and man.
It was HKB”H’s original intention to create the world without טֻמאה, a world that combined the “spiritual” and the “physical” in a sense of total purity, which was entirely aligned with and subservient to HKB”H. That was the intention, but the reality turned out differently.
On the third day of Creation the אדמה rebelled against the Creator. Hashem commanded the earth to bring forth trees - עץ פרי עשה פרי - that the fruit of the tree would taste the same as the branches and trunk of the tree. Instead of unquestioningly obeying HKB”H, the earth tried to reason with its own logic. “If the tree tastes the same as the fruit, then man and animal will eat the tree as well as the fruit and in the end, there will be no tree left.” As a result the earth brought forth עץ עשה פרי, where the branches had a different taste to the fruit (this tree was the עץ הדעת – see my shiur on parshat Truma, Branches and Fruit https://www.showbreadinstitute.org/truma2021 ).
This was a breakdown in the perfect alignment and subservience of the physical world to HKB”H and caused a separation of the “physical” and “spiritual” into separate entities, thus creating טֻמאה. טֻמאה is therefore a “cause and effect” - a severing of the “spiritual” from the “physical” originating with the אדמה. This is hinted at by the fact that the word טמא has the same gematria as the word אדמה = 50.
This first “rebellion” against HKB”H sparked numerous others. The very next day the moon “rebelled” against HKB”H, using its own reason and logic and was subsequently diminished.
Two days later, HKB”H created אדם with dust from the (four corners of the) אדמה and in addition HKB”H “breathed” into him נשמת חיים, a spiritual נשמה. Adam Harishon was originally a combination of the “physical” and the “spiritual”, coexisting in perfect purity, as HKB”H originally intended. Adam Harishon was the perfect creation and he was born מהול.
After experiencing the rebellion of the אדמה and the moon HKB”H felt it necessary to make a pact, a ברית, with Adam Harishon - a pact of unswerving allegiance to HKB”H. This pact was שבת, the 7th day of the week, a day in which man is totally focused on only one thing – unquestioning loyalty and service of HKB”H. The gematria of שבת is the same as ברית המילה (702).
However, the seed of rebellion (from the אדמה) was an integral part of Adam Harishon and in the end caused him to rebel against HKB”H with the עץ הדעת and be expelled from Gan Eden (after the expulsion, Adam acquired an ערלה).
Subsequently HKB”H severed the (originally intended) connection between the “physical” world (עולם הזה) and the “spiritual” world (עולם הבא) and this is the physical world we live in today. Only when משיח comes and we merit תחיית המתים, will the situation be restored to the original Divine plan and our נשמות, which now bask in the glory of the Shechina in עולם הבא after we die, will be returned to the physical world to continue to bask in the Shechina in the restored, idyllic situation where the “spiritual” and the “physical” are recombined in a sense of total purity.
Unlike the animals, which cannot alter their status of טֻמאה וטהרה, we humans can. In last week’s parsha, Shmini, it lists the pure animals (which we are permitted to eat) and the impure animals (which we are forbidden to eat). A lion, pig, eagle or hippopotamus is born impure and remains so throughout its lifetime. A sheep, cow, goat or dove is born pure and remains pure its entire life. It doesn’t matter if the cow comes into contact with something impure it still remains pure, regardless. We humans are not like that - our levels of טֻמאה וטהרה fluctuate. We have the ability and the choice to rise or fall on the scale of טהרה depending on our choices and circumstances.
After that preamble it is now clear why all טֻמאה has its origin with the אדמה. All the things that can become טמא (אדם, כלים, בית, אוכלין, משקין) all originate from the earth. Although the אדמה was the source of טֻמאה, it only created a “cause and effect” when it resulted in Adam Harishon sinning. Therefore, just being associated with the earth is insufficient. The object can only acquire טֻמאה if it has specific use for man. For example, broken כלים, rocks, etc. cannot become טמא.
All the things that can cause טֻמאה (מת, נבלת חיה/שרץ, קרי, נידה, זב, יולדת, נגע צרעת) also originate from the אדמה, but they have something else in common – they all represent a departure of the “spiritual” from the “physical”. When the spiritual neshama departs the body, what remains behind is merely the physical. When body fluids meant to create life are wasted without creating life, their spirituality departs leaving only the physical.
In the beginning of this week’s parsha we read about the יולדת. The mefarshim ask why a woman who has just given birth becomes טמֵאה? There is no waste of the fluids of procreation, quite the opposite, the woman has just given birth to a נשמה טהורה, so why does that make her טמֵאה? The answer is that during the nine months of pregnancy the woman is basically a mobile “Gan Eden”. The fetus is eating Lechem Abirim and being taught the Torah by a מלאך round the clock. When she gives birth however, this spirituality departs from her and results in טֻמאה.
Similarly with the נגע צרעת, by sinning and speaking lashon harah, the person causes spirituality to depart from him. But worse than that, he not only sins himself, but causes others to sin - it is like a snowball effect. The person who listens to the lashon harah is also guilty of a sin, it causes the listener to behave differently with the person about whom the lashon harah is being spoken, it destroys achdut and undermines the very fabric of society, which is a kind of rebellion against HKB”H who commanded us כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה and הוי דן כל אדם לכף זכות.
That is basic טֻמאה וטהרה 101 and there is reason and logic behind it. However, why, when a Kohen sprinkles ashes of the פרה אדומה thus purifying someone else, does he (the Kohen) become טמא? Not even Shlomo Hamelech could figure that one out. And the answer is – because he was not meant to figure it out - there is no figuring it out, it is a חוק. It requires unquestioning obedience to HKB”H without trying to reason with your own logic. Perhaps that is a tikkun for the אדמה, the moon and Adam Harishon who rebelled against HKB”H by trying to use their own reasoning and logic.
That is what the ברית מילה and שבת are all about. There is no apparent logic behind them. They are both an אות, a pact with HKB”H that ultimately require unquestioning obedience. Chazal encouraged us to delve into the Torah and try understand the reasoning behind it, because by doing so, we achieve a greater understanding of HKB”H and what He expects of us. But we must never delude ourselves that the תרי"ג מצוות are contingent on our powers of reason and logic. We must blindly obey without question, even if we do not understand them. That is the tikkun.
The concept of perfect symbiosis between “spirituality” and “physicality” in man is graphically depicted in the Magen David. The symbol of the Magen David consists of two triangles, two arrows actually – one pointing up (to the spiritual) and the other pointing down (to the physical). The two triangles are not separated or even adjacent. Instead they are interlocked, creating six smaller triangles and a seventh, central hexagonal area (the ברית מילה/שבת), our pact with HKB”H that holds everything together.
We celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut and fly our blue and white Magen David high, as a sign of Hakarat Hatov to HKB”H for returning us to the land promised to אברהם, יצחק ויעקב, gathering in our exiles and bringing us closer each day to the Geulah.
The symbol of the Magen David was used in the Beit Hamikdash, in the “perach” of the Menorah. According to the Rambam (הלכות בית הבחירה ג, ט) the “perach” was shaped like a שושן (which is the flower Lilium candidum). It is called שושן because it had six petals (arranged in the shape of the Magen David).
It is not by accident that this symbol was chosen to represent Am Yisrael, in good times (blue and white) and in bad (yellow and black). It is Hashgacha Pratit, because no symbol more perfectly depicts our true purpose as a nation. The eternal battle between the spiritual and the physical, all the time trying to elevate the physical with the spiritual, all held together with a central, seventh area, symbolizing our eternal pact with HKB”H.
It is also not accidental that Yom Ha’atzmaut falls out on ה' אייר, which is the 20th day of the Omer יסוד שבתפארת.
We are the Twelve Tribes, בני ישראל, the sons of Yaakov. Avraham Avinu was חסד. Yitzchak Avinu was גבורה. Yaakov Avinu was תפארת – which is a combination of חסד and גבורה. No people on the face of this earth better combine the qualities of חסד and גבורה than Am Yisrael. We are a nation of גומלי חסדים. Just visit any Jewish community anywhere in the world, especially in Israel and you cannot but be amazed by the vast number of גמ"חים, עמותות and individuals dedicated to selflessly helping their fellow Jews. We are a nation of גיבורים. We have withstood almost 2000 years of exile and oppression and continue to valiantly wage war against the enemies that surround us, both physical and spiritual.
But תפארת is not enough to build a sustainable Nation of G-d. You need another element, you need יסוד. In the tefila פתח אליהו (that our Sefardi brethren recite before Shacharit and Mincha, which is actually the preface to the Zohar Hakadosh), it associates the Ten Sefirot with parts of the body. יסוד is associated with the ברית מילה. Am Yisrael need חסד וגבורה but they also need the ברית with HKB”K to hold it all together like in the Magen David. We need to constantly remember our pact with HKB”H, the ברית מילה and שבת – this is our raison d'etre as a nation, not UN Resolution 181 (29 Nov 1948).
Part of our nation likes to flaunt the גבורה aspect, building our physical strength to protect us from our enemies. Another takes pride in the חסד aspect, our technological advances that help mankind, airlifting aid to disaster areas, etc. Yet another places emphasis on the יסוד aspect, concentrating on the Torah, שבת and increasing our population.
The secret of Yom Ha’atzmaut and the restored Nation of Israel is יסוד שבתפארת. All three elements יסוד, חסד וגבורה are required and essential. They are like the three legs of a chair, remove a leg and the chair falls. They are a like the three faces of a triangle. Remove one face and you have two parallel lines or two lines moving away from each other. Only when you have the third face is it one integral unit – a triangle, an arrow pointing up, interlocked with a second triangle, the arrow pointing down - in perfect balance.
As we celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut this year, תשפ"א, in the shadow of (as it currently appears) a failed 4th election. We need to take a long, hard look at our Magen David and what it really represents. We need to pay close attention to קריאת התורה on Shabbat as we read about the serious repercussions of lashon harah, a deadly plague that currently afflicts us, much worse than COVID-19. We need to remember that we are in the period of Sfirat Ha’Omer, where 24,000 of Rebi Akiva’s students died in a plague – because they lacked respect for one another. Imagine if we would have had another 24,000 Tana’im - what Am Yisrael would look like today! We need to keep focused on the goal – to reach Shavuot after elevating ourselves from מ"ט שערי טֻמאה to מ"ט שערי טהרה like Am Yisrael did when they left Egypt and we desperately need to reconnect with HKB”H and unquestioningly shout נעשה ונשמע. That is what it means if all Am Yisrael kept one שבת, the pact with HKB”H – משיח would come. And it would be כהרף עין – all our troubles would evaporate, Iran, anti-Semitism, Putin, Biden, Nasrallah, COVID-19, פרנסה, etc. etc. in the blink of an eye.
And it all begins this coming שבת.
