Chasidut su Levitico 14:78
Me'or Einayim
This shall be the Torah concerning the one struck with skin blanch [metzora] on the day he becomes clean. He shall be brought to the priest (Lev. 14:2), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted metzora as one who speaks evil [motzi ra], for afflictions come through the sin of evil speech. But the matter is according to what is written, When God began to create etc. (Gen. 1:1), and our Sages of Blessed Memory interpreted: “For the sake of Torah and for the sake of Israel” (cf. Rashi, ad. loc.); so we find that Israel is something very important to Blessed God, since for their sake all of the Worlds and all the Creations were created. And Blessed God takes pleasure from each one of Israel, even from a greatly wicked person: “Your temples [rakatekh] are like a pomegranate (Song of Songs 6:7) – even the empty ones [reykanim] among you are as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate” (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a). And when a person speaks evil about one of Israel, even if he speaks truth, he nullifies the Blessed Creator’s pleasure (if it were possible) and causes Him sadness (if it were possible) as is stated, [And the Lord …] was saddened in to His heart (Gen. 6:6), and inverts the pleasure [oneg] into affliction [nega]; therefore his “wage” is measure for measure, affliction comes upon him. And our Sages of Blessed Memory said: “Evil speech is as great as idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder” (Babylonian Talmud, Arakhin 15b). But we must be precise: what connection does idolatry have to evil speech? But the matter is according to what is written, By the word of ADONAI were the heavens made (Psalm 33:6), that all of the Worlds and all of the Creations were created through speech comprised of the 22 letters of the Torah, which is called Heavenly Sovereignty. For when the Sovereign does not speak, no one knows how to do His Will; and when he speaks His Will is revealed, and that is Heavenly Sovereignty whose Sovereignty is in all jurisdictions. And we find in Sefer Yetzirah that [the letters] are established in the mouth, that Blessed God established the 22 letters: the World of Speech, Heavenly Sovereignty, the Attribute of ADONAI-ness, ADONAI, open my lips (Psalm 51:17), were established in the human mouth.
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Kedushat Levi
Leviticus 14,34. “I will give (inflict) an eruptive plague upon the house that has become your ancestral possession.” The reader is referred to Rashi who sees in this verse good tidings for the owner of such a house. This is because the plague of tzoraat which requires the owner to tear down the whole house will reveal treasures buried underneath by the previous owner, amounting to far more in value than the whole house is worth.
We must remember the rule that the true joy man experiences is when he elevates the “fallen” sparks from the Shechinah bringing them to the level of serving their Creator. When he succeeds in doing that, the spirituality contained within these “sparks” elevates not only the spirituality that is part of him, but even has a sublimating, spiritually elevating effect on the parts of him that are secularly oriented, known as his חצוניות, so that he is enabled to discard that part of himself.
Once he has succeeded in getting rid of this essentially physical part, his house is liable to develop a נגע, i.e. the evil smelling residue of what remains of the physicality that has been transported to spiritually higher regions.
When the Torah in our verse speaks of the house’s exterior suddenly displaying signs of a plague, this is nothing other than the evil smelling residue left behind in their house after the Israelites had fulfilled G’d’s commandment (Deuteronomy 20,16) not to allow any of the Canaanite residents to survive. When Rashi speaks of this verse containing glad tidings for the Jewish people, he refers to their joyful discovery that the sparks themselves had left (for spiritually higher regions)?
We must remember the rule that the true joy man experiences is when he elevates the “fallen” sparks from the Shechinah bringing them to the level of serving their Creator. When he succeeds in doing that, the spirituality contained within these “sparks” elevates not only the spirituality that is part of him, but even has a sublimating, spiritually elevating effect on the parts of him that are secularly oriented, known as his חצוניות, so that he is enabled to discard that part of himself.
Once he has succeeded in getting rid of this essentially physical part, his house is liable to develop a נגע, i.e. the evil smelling residue of what remains of the physicality that has been transported to spiritually higher regions.
When the Torah in our verse speaks of the house’s exterior suddenly displaying signs of a plague, this is nothing other than the evil smelling residue left behind in their house after the Israelites had fulfilled G’d’s commandment (Deuteronomy 20,16) not to allow any of the Canaanite residents to survive. When Rashi speaks of this verse containing glad tidings for the Jewish people, he refers to their joyful discovery that the sparks themselves had left (for spiritually higher regions)?
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Kedushat Levi
Levitcus 19,2. “Be holy, etc.!” Vayikra Rabbah 24,9, considering the words: כי קדוש אני, “for I am holy,” asks whether it is possible that the Torah demands that we, the Jewish people, are to be as holy as He is? The Midrash’s answer is that, on the contrary, the words כי קדוש אני, indicate that true sanctity is something reserved for the Creator alone. However holy we can become, His holiness will always be superior to ours.
Earlier commentators have already dealt with the meaning of this verse at length, i.e. the question of how serving the Lord can be performed by means of holiness, and they concluded that this refers to serving the Lord with one’s heart. As to precisely how this is to be done, we have learned in Taanit 2 that prayer is the best means of serving the Lord with one’s heart. The “prayer” meant by the Talmud there is not that we address our requests to the Lord, but that we express our awareness of His greatness and at the same time our inadequacy to express with words what we really feel about Him. By stating that compared to Him we are only dust and ashes, that we are sullied by our sins, and that we accept the yoke of serving Him as our Master, we can begin to gradually develop the level of holiness that it is possible for any of His creatures to attain.
When Solomon in Proverbs 1,5 speaks of ישמע חכם ויוסף לקח, a wise man will hear and (each time) increase his learning, he speaks of how continuous, and even more so, repetitive Torah study will increase our level of spirituality, holiness.
In this connection our author refers to the well known dispute about the proper procedure in lighting the Chanukah candles. (Shabbat 21) The school of Shammai held that we start with eight candles on the first night and progressively light one candle less each evening. The school of Hillel takes the opposite view, ruling that we light only one candle on the first night but increase this by an additional candle each night until on the last night we light eight candles. The school of Hillel explains that the reason why they want to increase the number of lights each night, is although the amount of miracle oil has steadily declined, the appreciation of the miracle increases with each night that we pronounce the blessing when lighting the candles as an act of gratitude for G’d’s miracle at the time. With increasing recognition of the miracle of Chanukah there comes an increased awareness of our relationship to the Creator, or expressed differently, מצוה גוררת מצוה, “the performance of one of G’d’s commandments brings in its wake the desire to fulfill more of His commandments.” Recognition of the greatness of G’d inevitably leads to an awareness of the puniness of man when compared to Him. It is this awareness of our own limitations that gradually brings us closer to understanding and emulating the virtue of the אין סוף, ultimate form of humility. The school of Hillel, disciples of Hillel who was world renowned for his personal modesty and humility, followed their mentor when they formulated the concept of מוסיף והולך, that a spark of holiness feeds upon itself and makes ripples like a pebble thrown on the surface of the water.
This idea is also reflected in the opening words of our portion קדושים תהיו, “commence the process to become holy, as it is continuous and feeds on itself.” An additional factor helping you to progress along this route is כי קדוש אני, “for I am holy,” i.e. when you contemplate My holiness this will inspire you to emulate My holiness to the extent that this is humanly possible. In fact, G’d says that His own holiness will increase proportionate to the amount of holiness to be found amongst His people on earth.
[This is not a surprising statement, as in matters of purity and impurity as well as in matters of holiness and secularity we do not apply objective yardsticks but subjective, relative ones. A good example is to be found in Leviticus 14,36 where despite the fact that according to reason the furnishings in the afflicted house would be ritually impure as the house is impure, the inhabitants are allowed to remove them before the arrival of the priest. Ed.]
One of the most welcome phenomena on earth that G’d looks upon with the greatest pleasure is the virtue of humility. This thought is reflected in Proverbs 22,4 עקב ענוה יראת ה', “the natural result of humility is fear of the Lord; the more people practice humility the greater the holiness of G’d.”
[The virtue of humility is not only great but is most difficult to acquire. First one must possess qualities that are the result of building one’s character; once one does possess these qualities which others boast about, one must go about one’s business as if unaware of possessing such qualities. If Moses had responded to the accusation of his sister Miriam (had he heard them), he would have done so at the expense of his humility. Ed.]
Earlier commentators have already dealt with the meaning of this verse at length, i.e. the question of how serving the Lord can be performed by means of holiness, and they concluded that this refers to serving the Lord with one’s heart. As to precisely how this is to be done, we have learned in Taanit 2 that prayer is the best means of serving the Lord with one’s heart. The “prayer” meant by the Talmud there is not that we address our requests to the Lord, but that we express our awareness of His greatness and at the same time our inadequacy to express with words what we really feel about Him. By stating that compared to Him we are only dust and ashes, that we are sullied by our sins, and that we accept the yoke of serving Him as our Master, we can begin to gradually develop the level of holiness that it is possible for any of His creatures to attain.
When Solomon in Proverbs 1,5 speaks of ישמע חכם ויוסף לקח, a wise man will hear and (each time) increase his learning, he speaks of how continuous, and even more so, repetitive Torah study will increase our level of spirituality, holiness.
In this connection our author refers to the well known dispute about the proper procedure in lighting the Chanukah candles. (Shabbat 21) The school of Shammai held that we start with eight candles on the first night and progressively light one candle less each evening. The school of Hillel takes the opposite view, ruling that we light only one candle on the first night but increase this by an additional candle each night until on the last night we light eight candles. The school of Hillel explains that the reason why they want to increase the number of lights each night, is although the amount of miracle oil has steadily declined, the appreciation of the miracle increases with each night that we pronounce the blessing when lighting the candles as an act of gratitude for G’d’s miracle at the time. With increasing recognition of the miracle of Chanukah there comes an increased awareness of our relationship to the Creator, or expressed differently, מצוה גוררת מצוה, “the performance of one of G’d’s commandments brings in its wake the desire to fulfill more of His commandments.” Recognition of the greatness of G’d inevitably leads to an awareness of the puniness of man when compared to Him. It is this awareness of our own limitations that gradually brings us closer to understanding and emulating the virtue of the אין סוף, ultimate form of humility. The school of Hillel, disciples of Hillel who was world renowned for his personal modesty and humility, followed their mentor when they formulated the concept of מוסיף והולך, that a spark of holiness feeds upon itself and makes ripples like a pebble thrown on the surface of the water.
This idea is also reflected in the opening words of our portion קדושים תהיו, “commence the process to become holy, as it is continuous and feeds on itself.” An additional factor helping you to progress along this route is כי קדוש אני, “for I am holy,” i.e. when you contemplate My holiness this will inspire you to emulate My holiness to the extent that this is humanly possible. In fact, G’d says that His own holiness will increase proportionate to the amount of holiness to be found amongst His people on earth.
[This is not a surprising statement, as in matters of purity and impurity as well as in matters of holiness and secularity we do not apply objective yardsticks but subjective, relative ones. A good example is to be found in Leviticus 14,36 where despite the fact that according to reason the furnishings in the afflicted house would be ritually impure as the house is impure, the inhabitants are allowed to remove them before the arrival of the priest. Ed.]
One of the most welcome phenomena on earth that G’d looks upon with the greatest pleasure is the virtue of humility. This thought is reflected in Proverbs 22,4 עקב ענוה יראת ה', “the natural result of humility is fear of the Lord; the more people practice humility the greater the holiness of G’d.”
[The virtue of humility is not only great but is most difficult to acquire. First one must possess qualities that are the result of building one’s character; once one does possess these qualities which others boast about, one must go about one’s business as if unaware of possessing such qualities. If Moses had responded to the accusation of his sister Miriam (had he heard them), he would have done so at the expense of his humility. Ed.]
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Mareh Yechezkel on Torah
And in the songs of Shabbat (zemirot), we find, “One who keeps the Shabbat – a boy and a girl (bat) – [will be accepted] like a meal offering on the griddle (machbat).” I was asked what is the connection of a boy and a girl to this; also why did it not mention the incense which is more beloved [than a meal offering]? And even though it worked as a rhyme scheme, there is nevertheless surely an explanation for this. And it appears to me that it is [explained] according to that which is written concerning a poor person [who is being purified from tzaraat] (Leviticus 14:32), “whose means are not sufficient in his purification.” And at first glance, this is a wonder – what can he do that about not being able to bring [the full sacrifice]? Why should he be called, someone who is not able to purify himself? (Editor’s note: The question is based on a homiletical reading of the verse. In fact, the verse is simply describing this person, as someone whose means did not suffice for the full sacrifice, but is nevertheless completely purified with what he brings.)
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