Musar su Geremia 1:20

נפש כי תחטא וגומר או הודע אליו חטאתו . Both in the Zohar and in the Tzror HaMor much has been written about these verses (4,22-23). The words או הודע אליו חטאתו are understood to refer to pre-natal knowledge, information given to the soul of the person in question prior to his being born. These commentators compare the situation to Jeremiah 1,5: "Before I created you in the womb I selected you, etc." This proves that communication with man commences before he is born. His soul is exhorted to behave in a certain way once he is on earth. The subject is explained by Rabbi Simlai in Nidah 30: "While the embryo is in the womb of its mother it may be compared to a writing book folded over, his two hands at his sides, etc.. A light is lit near his head enabling him to view every corner of the globe. He is taught the entire Torah as we know from ויורני ויאמר לי יתמך דברי לבך, "He also taught me and said to me: 'let your heart retain my words'" (Proverbs 4,4). Another verse from scripture along similar lines is Job 29,4: ואומר בסוד אלוקה עלי אהלי, "When the secrets of G–d were in my tent," i.e. I was privy to the mystical aspects of Torah while still in the womb. The baby is not born until it has been made to swear to be a צדיק not a רשע. He is told that even though the whole world may describe him as a צדיק, he must still consider himself a רשע. He should remain aware of the purity of G–d and his angels, as well as of the purity of the soul he has been equipped with. He is warned that as long as he preserves the purity of his soul all is well and good, but should he fail to so preserve its purity, his soul will be removed from him. This is the gist of Rabbi Simlai's statement.

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.

The fact that a pregnant woman did not experience a miscarriage due to the stench of the meat on the altar corresponds to the statement of Rabbi Akavyah that we must be aware of the smelly drop of semen our body originates from.. This subject is mentioned in Yuma 82 where we are told about a pregnant woman who experienced a terrible urge to eat on the Day of Atonement and whose predicament was presented to Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi. The latter instructed that one should whisper to this woman that the date was the Day of Atonement. When this advice was followed the woman's hunger pains subsided. Concerning this incident they applied the verse in Jeremiah 1,5: "I have known you before you were even formed in the womb." The baby that this woman gave birth to was the famous scholar Rabbi Yochanan. The Talmud next reports about another similar case involving Rabbi Chanina and a pregnant lady. The same procedure was followed, but it did not assuage the lady's terrible urge to eat. The bystanders applied to that lady Psalm 58,4: "The wicked are defiant from birth." The child born from that pregnancy was a certain Shabtai who hoarded produce during years of drought and sold it at exorbitant prices. We draw a parallel from the experience of pregnant ladies who passed the Temple and who did not abort an embryo due to the unpleasant smell of the sacrificial meat to women who did not feel revolted by the smell (or awareness) of their own flesh and blood. According to Rabbi Akavyah the mere thought of it should have been revolting.

The fact that a pregnant woman did not experience a miscarriage due to the stench of the meat on the altar corresponds to the statement of Rabbi Akavyah that we must be aware of the smelly drop of semen our body originates from.. This subject is mentioned in Yuma 82 where we are told about a pregnant woman who experienced a terrible urge to eat on the Day of Atonement and whose predicament was presented to Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi. The latter instructed that one should whisper to this woman that the date was the Day of Atonement. When this advice was followed the woman's hunger pains subsided. Concerning this incident they applied the verse in Jeremiah 1,5: "I have known you before you were even formed in the womb." The baby that this woman gave birth to was the famous scholar Rabbi Yochanan. The Talmud next reports about another similar case involving Rabbi Chanina and a pregnant lady. The same procedure was followed, but it did not assuage the lady's terrible urge to eat. The bystanders applied to that lady Psalm 58,4: "The wicked are defiant from birth." The child born from that pregnancy was a certain Shabtai who hoarded produce during years of drought and sold it at exorbitant prices. We draw a parallel from the experience of pregnant ladies who passed the Temple and who did not abort an embryo due to the unpleasant smell of the sacrificial meat to women who did not feel revolted by the smell (or awareness) of their own flesh and blood. According to Rabbi Akavyah the mere thought of it should have been revolting.

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.