Chasidut su Amos 4:78
Kedushat Levi
Lviticus 15,18. “when a man has had sexual intercourse with a woman, both of them have to ritually cleanse themselves in a ritual bath, after which they remain ritually impure until evening.” Rashi states that the decree that the woman too remains ritually impure until nightfall is a Divine decree for which no explanation has been offered.
At first glance Rashi’s comments are hard to understand as they appear to defy logic, as the whole idea of ritual defilement being a result of man performing the first commandment in the Torah, to be fruitful and multiply, when he engages in marital relations with his wife should not result in ritual contamination of either party.
We must therefore conclude that it is not the act of engaging in marital relations which causes the ritual defilement. The problem is that the urge to engage in sexual relations is aroused by the evil urge, and this being so, even when the act is performed in order to fulfill the commandment to have children, it is impossible not to derive some physical pleasure from performing this act, and this part of performing the commandment is what accounts for the need to purify oneself subsequently and thus atone for impure thoughts entertained during performance of the commandment, i.e. the act of impregnating one’s partner with one’s sperm.
The matter is comparable to a powerful king who had two servants, both of whom were members of the highest nobility in the kingdom. The King charged both of these noblemen with carrying out a specific task on his behalf. Both of these noblemen carried out their part of the task in accord with their instructions, the only difference between the two being their motivation when carrying out this task. One of the noblemen carried out the task in order to provide the king, his master, with a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, whereas the second one was motivated purely by the fact that it was a task the performance of which was very much to his liking, his having wished that he could have performed it even without having been given the opportunity to so by the king’s command. When the first nobleman carried out the king’s command the effect of his performance was that he “enthroned” the king, i.e. testified to the King’s legitimacy and power, whereas the second nobleman, although he had performed the identical act, had thereby merely indulged his personal desires.
The same distinction applies to husbands who perform the act of marital intercourse with their respective wives, knowing that they thereby fulfill their Creator’s command. A husband who uses the opportunity of marital intercourse with his wife in order to satisfy his sexual urges, cannot lay claim to have done so as a way of “enthroning,” i.e. confirming that he recognizes G’d as his Master. This is what Rashi meant by his comment on the words: וטמאו עד הערב, “they will remain ritually impure until the evening.” When Rashi referred to the fact that seminal emission causes ritual impurity as a “royal decree,” he referred to people fulfilling a royal decree not because they meant thereby to “enthrone” the king.
From all this we learn how careful a person has to be when carrying out Torah commandments that he does so for the correct reasons, primarily to “enthrone” the Creator by his willing observance.
The Talmud (Chagigah 5) relates that Rabbi Iylah once overheard a youngster in school reading aloud a verse from Amos 4,13, where the prophets says: מגיד לו מה שיחו, “(G’d)can quote back to a person every word he uttered, (even words spoken during the intimacy in the conversation with his wife while in bed);”
Rabbi Moses Isserles in his glossary on the Orach Chayim chapter 1,1 explains the importance of the verse in psalms 16,8 where David says that “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence,” שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד וגו'. The simple meaning of this line is that we must never consider ourselves as being “alone,” unobserved wherever we are, as G’d is aware of all our deeds everywhere and of all our thoughts. This must be one of the first thoughts that cross our minds when awakening in the morning. When we keep this verse in mind this will go a long way toward ensuring that both our actions and our thoughts and plans remain within the channels which the Torah encourages us to navigate. Both Jeremiah 23,24 who said, quoting G’d: “if a man enters a hiding place, do I not see him?”, and the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 which concludes with Rabbi Yehudah (the editor) telling us: “know what is above you; a seeing eye and a hearing ear, and that all your deeds are being recorded in The Book, and you will not easily fall into the grip of sin;” have made the same point using slightly different syntax.
Nonetheless Rabbi Yehudah’s words need further analysis, since “how can we know what is above us,” i.e. beyond our powers of perception with our senses? Seeing that Hashem resides not only in the celestial regions which are beyond access to us but even in higher regions than the highest ranking angels, the seraphim, what did Rabbi Yehudah hanassi mean when he used the world דע!? Why did Rabbi Yehudah add the word ממך, “beyond you?”
At first glance Rashi’s comments are hard to understand as they appear to defy logic, as the whole idea of ritual defilement being a result of man performing the first commandment in the Torah, to be fruitful and multiply, when he engages in marital relations with his wife should not result in ritual contamination of either party.
We must therefore conclude that it is not the act of engaging in marital relations which causes the ritual defilement. The problem is that the urge to engage in sexual relations is aroused by the evil urge, and this being so, even when the act is performed in order to fulfill the commandment to have children, it is impossible not to derive some physical pleasure from performing this act, and this part of performing the commandment is what accounts for the need to purify oneself subsequently and thus atone for impure thoughts entertained during performance of the commandment, i.e. the act of impregnating one’s partner with one’s sperm.
The matter is comparable to a powerful king who had two servants, both of whom were members of the highest nobility in the kingdom. The King charged both of these noblemen with carrying out a specific task on his behalf. Both of these noblemen carried out their part of the task in accord with their instructions, the only difference between the two being their motivation when carrying out this task. One of the noblemen carried out the task in order to provide the king, his master, with a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, whereas the second one was motivated purely by the fact that it was a task the performance of which was very much to his liking, his having wished that he could have performed it even without having been given the opportunity to so by the king’s command. When the first nobleman carried out the king’s command the effect of his performance was that he “enthroned” the king, i.e. testified to the King’s legitimacy and power, whereas the second nobleman, although he had performed the identical act, had thereby merely indulged his personal desires.
The same distinction applies to husbands who perform the act of marital intercourse with their respective wives, knowing that they thereby fulfill their Creator’s command. A husband who uses the opportunity of marital intercourse with his wife in order to satisfy his sexual urges, cannot lay claim to have done so as a way of “enthroning,” i.e. confirming that he recognizes G’d as his Master. This is what Rashi meant by his comment on the words: וטמאו עד הערב, “they will remain ritually impure until the evening.” When Rashi referred to the fact that seminal emission causes ritual impurity as a “royal decree,” he referred to people fulfilling a royal decree not because they meant thereby to “enthrone” the king.
From all this we learn how careful a person has to be when carrying out Torah commandments that he does so for the correct reasons, primarily to “enthrone” the Creator by his willing observance.
The Talmud (Chagigah 5) relates that Rabbi Iylah once overheard a youngster in school reading aloud a verse from Amos 4,13, where the prophets says: מגיד לו מה שיחו, “(G’d)can quote back to a person every word he uttered, (even words spoken during the intimacy in the conversation with his wife while in bed);”
Rabbi Moses Isserles in his glossary on the Orach Chayim chapter 1,1 explains the importance of the verse in psalms 16,8 where David says that “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence,” שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד וגו'. The simple meaning of this line is that we must never consider ourselves as being “alone,” unobserved wherever we are, as G’d is aware of all our deeds everywhere and of all our thoughts. This must be one of the first thoughts that cross our minds when awakening in the morning. When we keep this verse in mind this will go a long way toward ensuring that both our actions and our thoughts and plans remain within the channels which the Torah encourages us to navigate. Both Jeremiah 23,24 who said, quoting G’d: “if a man enters a hiding place, do I not see him?”, and the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 which concludes with Rabbi Yehudah (the editor) telling us: “know what is above you; a seeing eye and a hearing ear, and that all your deeds are being recorded in The Book, and you will not easily fall into the grip of sin;” have made the same point using slightly different syntax.
Nonetheless Rabbi Yehudah’s words need further analysis, since “how can we know what is above us,” i.e. beyond our powers of perception with our senses? Seeing that Hashem resides not only in the celestial regions which are beyond access to us but even in higher regions than the highest ranking angels, the seraphim, what did Rabbi Yehudah hanassi mean when he used the world דע!? Why did Rabbi Yehudah add the word ממך, “beyond you?”
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