Musar zu Jirmejahu 1:14

The Tziyoni writes in a gloss on פרשת בראשית that the reason we are to be so careful with observing the details of the legislation of צרעת, blemishes of the skin, the clothes, or the house, is that we are dealing here with inner blemishes, i.e. sins, which have become visible externally. G–d has been very kind in externalizing the effect of these sins so as to give the afflicted person an opportunity to repent and rid himself of the pollutant of the serpent which his sins are due to. The priest is the only one who can effect a cure because the priesthood originated in the "right" side of the diagram of emanations in the emanation חסד, whereas the pollutant of the serpent has its origin in the "left" of the diagram of emanations, the side from which Samael originates. Nowadays, when we do not have priests who can perform the steps leading to the rehabilitation of an afflicted person (including the sacrifices he has to bring at the end of the period of his isolation as outlined in Leviticus 14,2-32), repentance is the only instrument by which we can cleanse ourselves. The right hand of G–d is always stretched out to welcome penitent sinners.

Now, when the letters comprising the name Chavah are spelled out in full they read, ח"ת וא"ו ה"א. Then if one drops the initial letters so that one is left with only the “hidden” letters [i.e., those that are not pronounced when the name is spoken] one receives, tav, alef vav, alef [תאוא], the numerical value of which is 408. This is a hint that in the 408th year of the sixth millenium [1648, the year of the Chmielnicki massacres] the husk of Tzefo would wax in its strength. For that year was ripe for the redemption, as is alluded to in the verse, “With this [zos, the numerical value of which is 408] shall Aharon enter the holy place” (Vayikra 16:3). But instead, in that year many in the lands of Poland and Lithuania were martyred. For it is well known the terrible decrees and harsh judgments that befell the Jews of those lands in the year zos, in which tens of thousands of Jews were killed in sanctification of the name of Heaven. When the [three] letters of zos [זי"ן אל"ף ת"ו] are spelled out they read, zayin yud nun; alef lamed pei; tav vav. The numerical value of the “hidden” letters — yud nun, lamed pei, vav — is 176, which is equal to the value of the name Tzefo. This is an allusion to the name Ploni, as was mentioned earlier. This is what is meant by the verse, “From the north [tzafon] the evil will begin” (Yirmiyahu 1:14). For the value of the word tzafon [226] is equal to the value of the names Polin and Lita [Lithuania] combined. Therefore these decrees occurred specifically in these lands and in the year 408. The words of a wise man are pleasing.