Can we do תפילות prayers for:
AZAMRA?
So that through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?Shalom dear friend
For the coming weeks until Shabbat 19 May a different Torah portion will be read in the Diaspora from the portion read in Israel. This is because on Shabbat 14 April Israel returned to the weekly Torah reading, while in the Diaspora that Shabbat was the Eighth day of Pesach with its own special Torah reading, leaving the Diaspora one week behind Israel in the usual annual cycle of readings.
On Shabbat 21 April, those in the Diaspora will read Parshat Shemini, while in Israel we will read the double parshah of Tazria-Metzora. Readers in Israel, please scroll down this email for the commentary on Tazria & Metzora.
With the new month of Iyar being celebrated on 22-23 April, I wish you a good and blessed month!
From Jerusalem with love!
Avraham
UNIVERSAL TORAH: SHEMINI
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
Torah Reading: Parshas SHEMINI, Leviticus 9:1-11:47
Haftara: II Samuel 6:1-7:17 (Sephardi ritual: II Samuel 6:1-19).
THE EIGHTH DAY
The "eighth day" with which our parshah of SHEMINI opens was the first day of the month of Nissan, one year since the Exodus from Egypt. This was the day marked out for the final inauguration of the Sanctuary following seven days of consecration of Aaron and his sons for service as priests. Those seven days had started on the 23rd of the preceding month of Adar. On each of those seven days, Moses had erected the Sanctuary in order to conduct the priestly consecration rituals, in which he himself served as the "high priest", only to dismantle the Sanctuary afterwards. However, on the Eighth Day -- the first of Nissan and first day of the New Year -- the Sanctuary was left standing, so to remain for as long as the Israelites stayed in the same desert encampment. On that day Aaron and his sons fully assumed the role of priests forever after.
The rabbis stated that the first day of Nissan "took ten crowns": It was (1) the first day of creation; (2) first day of the first of the months of the year; (3) the first day of the priesthood; (4) the first day of the Sanctuary service; (5) first day of the inauguration sacrifices of the princes of the twelve tribes; (6) first day for the descent of fire from heaven on the altar; (7) the first day that sacrifices were eaten; (8) the first day that all other altars (such as private altars) other than the Sanctuary altar became forbidden; (9) the first day that the Divine Presence dwelled in Israel; (10) the first day on which the priests blessed the people (Mechilta, Shemini 1).
In calling this the "eighth" day, the Torah alludes to the fact that, with the inauguration of the Sanctuary, it was the day on which the Israelites completely transcended the natural order, which was brought into being through the "seven days of creation". The latter correspond to the lower seven of the ten sefirot of which the Kabbalah speaks, corresponding to the "body" (as opposed to top three, which are the "head").
As long as man does not recognize his true mission in this world and spends his life trying to satisfy only his bodily needs and desires, he is locked within nature, like an animal. However, when he embraces his destiny, willfully configuring and using the material world as a means of drawing closer to G-d, building a Sanctuary and bringing the natural, the animal, as a KORBAN, a "sacrifice" (lit. "a drawing close"), man attains a level that transcends nature. This is the eighth level, that of BINAH (the eighth Sefirah counting up from Malchut, which is the bottom Sefirah). BINAH is the "gateway" to the "head", the brain and the soul (consisting of the top three Sefirot).
When we use our soul-powers -- our willpower, wisdom and understanding, to assert our control over the material and the animal, we can "pass through the gate" into the world of the spirit. This is governed by a law different from that which governs the natural order. The world of the spirit is governed by Torah law. When we pass through the gate, we can know and understand (with BINAH) that the natural order is nothing but an arena of challenge created by G-d in order for us to use it to connect back to the Source. As long as we are under the power of nature, this world stands as a barrier holding us back from G-d. But when we assert our spiritual power, this world turns into a gateway through which we can draw closer to Him.
* * *
THE PRICE OF CLOSENESS
So great is the significance of the day of the inauguration of the Sanctuary, the day of man's birth as a spiritual being, that the Torah returns to it in several portions in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. ("There is no 'before' and 'after' in the Torah"). In PEKUDEY at the end of Exodus, we had the account of how Moses erected the Sanctuary on 1st Nissan, drawing G-d's "cloud" to descend so that "His glory filled the Sanctuary". Our present parshah, SHEMINI, narrates how Aaron and his four sons inaugurated the Sanctuary with special sacrifices, and how G-d's fire descended onto the altar. SHEMINI continues with the dramatic story of the offering of "strange fire" in the Sanctuary by Nadav and Avihu, Aaron's first and second sons, leading to their death by fire from heaven. Finally, in NASO, second parshah of the book of Numbers, the Torah tells of the special offering of Nachshon, Prince of the tribe of Judah, on the first of Nissan, initiating the offerings of the princes of the twelve tribes, one by one on twelve consecutive days.
It is one of the profound paradoxes of the Torah that this auspicious day should have been so horribly marred by the death of the two older sons of the leading protagonist in the Sanctuary, Aaron. In the world in which we live, the world of nature and separation, there is no explanation of such a tragedy. As far as this world is concerned, death is the end: how can it be good? If any meaning is to be found in such an occurrence, it can only be through "the eighth day", the level of BINAH, understanding, which is the gateway to the transcendent realm of unity, where there is no separation and no death.
If closeness to G-d and entry into the realm of unity came cheap, we would not value them. They come at a price. In what currency can we pay G-d? He does not need our money, our oxen, sheep and other "sacrifices". The price is often paid in pain (LO ALENU -- not on us!!!). Pain robs man of his ability to feel comfortable in this world of separation to which he becomes so attached. Pain drives him to seek relief by trying to transcend the world. Pain is a teacher, a very harsh one.
An event as great as the erection of the Sanctuary and the drawing of G-d's presence into the world could not but come at a great price. The Sanctuary "will be sanctified by My glory" (Ex. 29:3) -- "by those who are my glorified ones" (Rabbinic drush, see Rashi on Lev. 10:3, "I will be sanctified by those who are close to Me"). The price was paid by Aaron precisely because his was the pivotal role in the Sanctuary project, which is to configure this refractory material world in such a way that it becomes a vessel holding and revealing G-dliness. Aaron had all the glory and splendor of this world (HOD), as represented in his gorgeous garments. He received the choicest share of the priestly gifts and portions. All this glory had to be elevated to G-d, it could not be allowed to stay in this world and turn into self-glorification.
When we use the wealth of this world for self-glorification, it turns into a golden calf. Aaron is on the very edge. He has all the glory, he wears the wealth of the world on his very person. In order to keep him from going out of his mind with pride, he is struck with a terrible blow, the loss of the flower of his children (their loss in this world, though not in the world of unity). The pain forces him to transcend the world of separation, the material world. Aaron must remain in the world of unity: he must not show mourning or rend his garments. He must stay in the Sanctuary, the Sanctuary of the soul, the world of unity: Keter-Chochmah-Binah. There, the language of our world, the world of separation and pain, does not apply. We can enter that exalted realm only through silent acceptance of G-d's decree. "And Aaron remained silent."
* * *
SEPARATION AND DISTINCTION
Aaron and his surviving sons could not show mourning, because their role was to remain in the world of unity in order to connect others to it. But the Children of Israel had to mourn, because they are the ones who live in the world of separation from which Nadav and Avihu had been torn. It is said that the sin of Nadav and Avihu is that they wanted to dissolve the separation completely and bring the entire world back into immediate unity with G-d. They wanted to redeem evil. They wanted to break through all the barriers. They were drunk with the unity of G-d -- and they went beyond bounds until they were totally burned up inside with G-d's fire.
But G-d does not want us to go altogether beyond the bounds. We may not embrace evil, for G-d created it precisely so that we should reject it despite the temptations. G-d established the world of separation and evil as an arena of challenge for man, in which he must steadily refine and elevate his earthly materialism until he turns himself into a vessel fit to receive G-d's unity. This cannot be done all at once: it must be done step by step, stage by stage.
As an arena of challenge to man, the world consists of good and evil, pure and impure, holy and unholy. Man's task is to use his powers of mind and soul to discriminate between them, to embrace the good and holy while rejecting the impure and unholy. The world is a very deceptive place. The pig displays its cloven hoof as if to say, "I am pure". But the truth is that it is impure, for it does not chew its food over. It does not want to confront its food again, since it always has its nose in the filth.
We cannot allow ourselves to go by appearances in this world: we have to penetrate beneath the surface. The only means we have of doing so is with G-d's Torah, the Tree of Life, which teaches the truth about good and evil in every area of life -- be it what we eat, how we do business, whom we marry and all other areas. Only with objective, outside guidance can we sort out the confusion that came from Adam's eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. When man in his arrogance thinks that he knows -- when he relies on his personal judgments about what is good and bad -- he can go terribly wrong, because there is a serpent within him, the YETZER RA, that is liable to deceive him. Making the correct distinctions in this world is at the very center of what we must accomplish here.
Thus the middle letter of the entire Torah, which is in our parshah (the letter VAV -- signifying "connection" -- in the word "belly" Lev. 11:42), is in a word that alludes to the humiliation of the serpent, who was cut down to size and made to go on his belly (Gen. 3:14). Only by humiliating the serpent and rejecting evil is it possible to connect with G-d. There is no middle word in the Torah, since the total number of words in the Torah is even. The center of the Torah in terms of words comes between the words DAROSH DARASH (Lev. 10:16): "and Moses SEARCHINGLY SEARCHED". Only by searching very hard can we penetrate to the real truth!
The priest is not allowed to drink when he serves in the Sanctuary. Intoxicants and instant religiosity do not bring genuine connection with G-d. Similarly, the rabbi may not drink before giving an halachic ruling. It takes sobriety to distinguish between truth and illusion.
The latter half of our parshah teaches us to discriminate between pure and impure foods, while most of the remainder of the book of Leviticus is taken up with the detailed Torah code through which we separate and distinguish between good and evil in all other areas of life.
Through our assiduous study of the Torah and its teachings, may we find the spiritual strength to take our destiny in our hands and rise to our true mission: "And you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy..." (Lev. 11:44).
Shabbat Shalom!
Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
* * * * *
UNIVERSAL TORAH: TAZRIA
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
Torah Reading: Parshas TAZRIA, Leviticus 12:1-13:59
In last week's parshah, SHEMINI, the Torah set forth TORAS HA-BEHEMAH VE-HA'OF, the laws relating to various kinds of purity and impurity in animals and birds. They came first in the order of creation. This week's parshah, TAZRIA, begins a series of parshahs that relate to TORAS HA-ADAM, the laws relating to purity and impurity in man, the very crown of creation. Our parshah takes its name from the greatest of all natural, everyday wonders: a woman's ability to conceive a living child.
THE MIRACLE OF BIRTH
The Midrash states: "We have learned: "What is the form of the embryo when first created? It is similar to a locust: its two eyes are like the two eyes of a fly; its nostrils are like two drops on a fly. Its two ears are like two drops on a fly, and its two arms like two scarlet threads. Its mouth is like a barley seed, its body the size of a lentil. And all its other limbs are contracted inside it like unformed substance (GOLEM). And of this it says, "Your eyes did see my unformed substance (GOLMI)" Psalms, 139:16; Midrash Rabbah Tazria, 14:8).
Says the Talmud (Niddah 30b): Rabbi Samlai taught: To what can the embryo in his mother's womb be compared? To a folded up writing-tablet placed with his hands on his two temples, his two elbows on his two knees, and his two heels on his two buttocks. His head rests between his knees and his mouth is closed and his belly open. He eats what his mother eats and drinks what his mother drinks. He does not excrete waste lest he kill his mother. And when he goes out into the air of the world, what was closed becomes open, and what had been open is closed. For if not so, he could not live for even an hour. And while in the womb, a light is kindled over his head. With it he gazes and sees from one end of the world to the other, as it says: "When his lamp shone above me" (Job 29:3).
The miraculous entry of the mature embryo into this world in the form of a living baby, embarking on a whole destiny of its own, is accompanied with much physical pain and blood for the mother. By G-d's decree, the baby, if a boy, must be circumcised with pain and blood on the eighth day, initiating him into the Covenant of Abraham. Peeling off the unclean material ORLAH foreskin (bound up with nature, which was created in seven days), gives him access to the eight level, BINAH, Understanding. This is the level that is beyond nature, as discussed in last week's parshah, SHEMINI.
A girl has access to that level in virtue of being female and especially through motherhood, with its pains and joys. Together with the boy's circumcision, motherhood is the first focus of our present parshah, TAZRIA. Immediately after the birth, the mother must adjust to a new level in life with her baby, boy or girl, in hand. She needs time to recuperate from the birth itself. The biblical laws at the beginning of TAZRIA relate to the ritual purification in Temple times for mothers after giving birth. Often questioned is the bird sin-offering which the new mother brings among her other purification offerings. One Midrash says this comes to atone for a sinful thought she may have had at the height of pain in childhood. Another Midrash says that it comes to atone for, "In the heat of sin my mother conceived me" (Psalms 51:7, alluding to Eve's lust).
The Midrash also states that those women who carefully observe the laws of NIDDAH, purifying themselves as prescribed by the law, will be worthy of giving birth to children who will enter the Covenant of Abraham.
* * *
THE COVENANT OF THE LIPS
The Covenant of Abraham must be inscribed not only on the flesh of the male organ, but in the hearts and on the lips of all of us, male and female. Parallel to the creative organs, which bring the physical person into the world, the lips have the most tremendous power to create realities in the spiritual, psychological and social realms.
If a person refuses to make a covenant with his lips, he may be visited with TZORA'AS, the "illness" in which his arrogance and malicious deceit in wrongful speech cause "leprous" marks on his "skin". The "skin" is the person's exterior, what can actually be seen, with all its flaws, as opposed to what he may want to present with arrogant deceit to the outside world.
The rabbinic sages unquestionably saw the complex typology of "leprous" marks as actual physical manifestations, discussing detailed grades of skin discoloration and minute differences in size, etc. At the same time, they emphasized that these came about not naturally, by random chance, but as a supernatural spiritual message from G-d contained in the physical symptom.
The entire portion of the Torah dealing with the various kinds of "leprous" marks on different parts of the body and the the "quarantine" period of impurity is full of allusions to physical illnesses, psychological, social and even national and international illnesses. The rabbis saw allusions in the names of the "leprous" marks to numerous sins, and to the nations that oppressed Israel.
In the entire process of "diagnosis" of leprous marks, no physician is involved. Indeed, it is not allowed to have a doctor cut out or treat the leprous mark. The diagnosis is in the hands of the COHEN, representing CHESSED, G-d's kindness, in shining the light of spiritual insight and truth into the sinner. The only remedy is for the sinner to isolate himself, separating himself from ordinary routine in order to enter a state of contrition and mourning over his sins. He must sit alone, recognizing his uncleanness, warning others, examining his deeds and truly cleansing his heart. Only in this way can he be healed. It is necessary for the Cohen-Priest, the Man of KINDNESS, to look with his loving eyes at the wound and shine his light into the sinner's soul.
The route to healing and redemption is by looking with the eyes of the priest -- with kindness -- overcoming the morbid illness by revealing the vital goodness concealed underneath.
Shabbat Shalom.
Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
* * * * *
UNIVERSAL TORAH: METZORA
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
LEARNING HOW TO SPEAK
It is appropriate that our parshah, METZORA, with its deep lessons about the purity of speech, is always read shortly before or after the festival of Pesach, whose name signifies, "The mouth speaks". Sefer Yetzirah teaches that the human faculty associated with the month of Nissan is speech. The Seder night, climax of so many arduous preparations, is an exercise in speech: HAGGADAH, "telling". The story we tell -- the story of our people and of our own inner self -- is at the furthest remove from self-aggrandizement. The story starts with shame, tracing our descent into the depths of degradation, pain and anguish before our miraculous delivery from Egypt. For this, we glory not in ourselves but only in the Holy One, turning our night of "telling" into one of song and praise to G-d.
During most of the recital of the Haggadah, the MATZAH -- the "Bread of Humility" -- lies exposed before our eyes. This is to impress upon us that we must take a humble view of ourselves and our place in G-d's great scheme, for this the key to using our faculty of speech, man's defining faculty -- in holiness and purity. "Not for our sake, O G-d, not for our sake but for Your Name's sake give glory.!"
Speech is truly a double-edged weapon, a "tree of good and evil" the "taste" of which is literally in our mouths. Words can do so much good -- to shine the truth, to encourage, build and strengthen those with whom we live and work... But words can also be used for so much evil -- to deceive, to confuse, to hurt, denigrate and destroy. It is when we are puffed up with CHAMETZ, the "leaven" of our own self-importance and rectitude that we are liable to use words aggressively, angrily, without sensitivity. But when we remove the CHAMETZ of self-importance from our hearts in the knowledge that we are G-d's creation -- no more and no less than everyone else -- we can learn to use our amazing faculty of speech with wisdom and love. Then we can join G-d as partners in the work of creation and the revelation of His truth. Words literally rule over our lives. Can we rule over the words that leave our mouths? Will we rule with arrogance or with humility?
The METZORA, literally the "leper", is symbolic of one who abuses his power of speech, being MOTZI-RA: "bringing out evil". The previous parshah, TAZRIA, presented an elaborate pathology of the diseases of the soul, such as the "leprous" mark of SE-EIS, inflated pride, or BAHERES, the shining white light in which some people constantly seek to present themselves. The first step in the cure for such illnesses of the soul is to receive an objective "diagnosis" from the Kohen-Priest, a clear statement that the mark is TA-ME, impure. Until we name our negative traits correctly, we cannot begin to heal them. Only when we acknowledge the impure for what it is can we take the first step towards purification. As we saw in last week's parshah, healing of the wounds of the soul requires heart-searching and contrition, which is why the METZORA was sent for a period of into isolation "outside the camp".
This week's parshah of METZORA begins with the highly picturesque ceremony with which the healed leper begins his process of purification so as to be able to return to normal life "in the camp" with other people. The ceremony required two sparrows together with a block of cedar wood, red-dyed wool thread and hyssop. One of the birds was slaughtered into an earthenware flask of living water. Then the other bird was taken with the cedar, the red wool and hyssop, and together they were dipped into the blood and water in the flask, which were sprinkled seven times on the leper, after which the living bird was sent free (Lev. 14:4-7.).
Can you imagine how hard it was to catch the sparrows in the first place in order to carry out the ceremony? As cats and anyone else who has ever tried to catch a sparrow all know, it is terribly easy for sparrows to fly away. This is why the Hebrew name of the sparrow is DROR, "freedom". The very difficulty of catching these birds, which are notorious chatterers, comes to impress upon the METZORA the great importance of catching our speech and chatter BEFORE they fly off. We must learn to take control over what we say, in order to use words intentionally, productively, lovingly, to good effect. Rashi in his commentary on our parshah explains that the wood of the lofty cedar tree was brought "because leprous plagues come on account of arrogance. What is the remedy? The person must lower himself down from his pride like a worm [from whose blood the red dye of the wool thread was derived] and a hyssop" (Rashi on Lev. 14:4).
The use of the two birds in the ceremony is bound up with the double-edged nature of speech, which can be used for either good or evil. The METZORA had to watch as one of the chattering birds was slaughtered in front of his very eyes, teaching him that he must simply kill his evil talk for all time. However, this does not mean that he may not speak at all in future. On the contrary, once he has learned the lesson of humility contained in the cedar, the hyssop and the scarlet thread, the second bird goes free! When we release ourselves from the bonds of pride and arrogance that enslave us, we are freer than ever to explore the great power of pure speech -- "over the face of the field".
Shabbat Shalom!!!
Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
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AZAMRA INSTITUTE
PO Box 50037 Jerusalem 91500 Israel
Website: www.azamra.org
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