예레미야애가 1:23의 Chasidut
Mevo HaShearim
The holy talmudic sages saw that the prophets had ceased and the world and nation ‘descended appallingly’. 267Lamentations 1:9. The Torah remained closed in Asiyah to the people, and they were as distant from the soul of the Torah as one can be from his own soul, though it indeed is in him, because his body encases it. Though the Torah and commandments descended with them, and in this world, they fulfill the commandments—of the festival booths [sukkah] and fringes [tzitzit] etc. —but the prophecy, that is the revelation that all is holy including Asiyah, was no longer. Thus, these holy ones worked mightily and held fast unto God, and drew the light of prophecy inhering in the Torah to the world and the nation which had descended. Though they were unable to reveal the divine light in the depths of Asiyah, so that this light would be apparent in even a bush and other physical entities, and so that one might even with his depths, his senses and eyes see an angel of God—‘behold the God of Israel sitting, sapphire beneath His feet’268See Exodus 24:9-11.—hearing the voice of God with his [very] ears—nonetheless, he would now be able to receive and grasp the light of God with the Yetzirah and Beriyah within him.
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Kedushat Levi
Exodus 35,1. “these are the things that the Lord commanded to be done. For six days work shall be performed, etc.” Our sages in Shabbat 70 see in the numerical value of the letters in the word: אלה i.e. 39, an allusion to the 39 categories of “work” prohibited to be performed by Israelites on the Sabbath. These categories of work are understood as especially mundane in nature, the Ari z’al pointing out that when the prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 1,16) says: על אלה אני בוכיה, “on account of these things I weep,” he meant that violation of these prohibited activities of the Sabbath require the Jewish people to collectively rehabilitate themselves by a special activity, מלאכה, and this is why the positive instruction לעשות, “to perform,” [and not as “to desist from” Ed.] has been added.
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Kedushat Levi
Numbers 25,11. Pinchas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest has turned back My wrath.”
Before elaborating on this verse we need to explain a verse in Lamentations 111,8: חטא חטא ירושלים על כן לנדה היתה, “Jerusalem has become guilty of a sin; this is why she has become a wanderer (homeless).”
We have a rule that if someone commits a transgression of G’d’s law due to his natural urges having proved too strong for him to resist them, he is not subject to the same penalty as someone who has committed the same transgression in order to anger G’d. Concerning this distinction between penalties for the same transgression the prophet Ezekiel 20,38 speaks when he says: וברותי מכם המורדים והפושעים בי מארץ מגוריהם....ואל אדמת ישראל לא יבוא וידעתם כי אני ה' “I will separate from you those who rebel and those who transgress against Me; but to the soil of Israel none shall come. Then shall you know that I am the Lord.” The prophet makes clear that sins committed deliberately in order to anger G’d are not subject to repentance, i.e. the penalty of exile, for example, will not be reversed not even for a single one of such sinners. Not so when the sin was committed merely due to the weakness of the flesh to resist temptation.
Jeremiah, in the above quoted verse from Lamentations, makes it plain that the sin of Jerusalemites which was punished by exile, i.e. נדה, was not due to the arrogance of defying G’d deliberately, but was only the result of weakness of the flesh; hence in due course repentance of the sinners or their descendants, will enable them to return to their ancestral homeland. The prophet chose the word נדה to describe the Jerusalemites’ punishment, as we all know that a woman who is temporarily out of bounds to her husband due to her menses, will in due course, after immersion in a mikveh, ritual cleansing bath, be reunited with her husband. The purification of such a woman is unique amongst cleansing from ritual pollutions, as in all other cases of ritual pollution, -for instance the contact with any of the eight שרצים, “teeming creatures (listed in Leviticus chapter11)- the source of the contamination is not rehabilitated by the ritual bath, only its victim.
In fact there exists blood of a menstruating woman or a woman that has just given birth which is not considered as contaminated at all.
It is axiomatic (in our faith) that when G’d dispenses of His largesse to us this is invariably for our benefit, though sometimes it is not immediately manifest.
[If I understand the author correctly, he means that both these categories of blood come forth from the same part of the woman’s body. When a woman gives birth this indicates that her ovulation resulted in something positive, a new life, this is proof that what turns into something polluted when not resulting in pregnancy, can become the opposite when resulting in pregnancy. Ed.]
The prophet hints at this when describing Israel’s state after the destruction of Jerusalem as that of a נדה, the message being that just as a woman having her menses may become pregnant during her next cycle, so this status of the Israelites is also capable of resulting in redemption in due course.
When we apply this concept to the deed of Pinchas who had spilled Jewish blood, (without legal action having preceded his act), enabled the Israelites to realize that the result of his act was the saving of an untold amount of more Jewish blood. What had at first glance appeared as an act of cruelty, turned out to be a vehicle for thousands of acts of loving kindness.
Before elaborating on this verse we need to explain a verse in Lamentations 111,8: חטא חטא ירושלים על כן לנדה היתה, “Jerusalem has become guilty of a sin; this is why she has become a wanderer (homeless).”
We have a rule that if someone commits a transgression of G’d’s law due to his natural urges having proved too strong for him to resist them, he is not subject to the same penalty as someone who has committed the same transgression in order to anger G’d. Concerning this distinction between penalties for the same transgression the prophet Ezekiel 20,38 speaks when he says: וברותי מכם המורדים והפושעים בי מארץ מגוריהם....ואל אדמת ישראל לא יבוא וידעתם כי אני ה' “I will separate from you those who rebel and those who transgress against Me; but to the soil of Israel none shall come. Then shall you know that I am the Lord.” The prophet makes clear that sins committed deliberately in order to anger G’d are not subject to repentance, i.e. the penalty of exile, for example, will not be reversed not even for a single one of such sinners. Not so when the sin was committed merely due to the weakness of the flesh to resist temptation.
Jeremiah, in the above quoted verse from Lamentations, makes it plain that the sin of Jerusalemites which was punished by exile, i.e. נדה, was not due to the arrogance of defying G’d deliberately, but was only the result of weakness of the flesh; hence in due course repentance of the sinners or their descendants, will enable them to return to their ancestral homeland. The prophet chose the word נדה to describe the Jerusalemites’ punishment, as we all know that a woman who is temporarily out of bounds to her husband due to her menses, will in due course, after immersion in a mikveh, ritual cleansing bath, be reunited with her husband. The purification of such a woman is unique amongst cleansing from ritual pollutions, as in all other cases of ritual pollution, -for instance the contact with any of the eight שרצים, “teeming creatures (listed in Leviticus chapter11)- the source of the contamination is not rehabilitated by the ritual bath, only its victim.
In fact there exists blood of a menstruating woman or a woman that has just given birth which is not considered as contaminated at all.
It is axiomatic (in our faith) that when G’d dispenses of His largesse to us this is invariably for our benefit, though sometimes it is not immediately manifest.
[If I understand the author correctly, he means that both these categories of blood come forth from the same part of the woman’s body. When a woman gives birth this indicates that her ovulation resulted in something positive, a new life, this is proof that what turns into something polluted when not resulting in pregnancy, can become the opposite when resulting in pregnancy. Ed.]
The prophet hints at this when describing Israel’s state after the destruction of Jerusalem as that of a נדה, the message being that just as a woman having her menses may become pregnant during her next cycle, so this status of the Israelites is also capable of resulting in redemption in due course.
When we apply this concept to the deed of Pinchas who had spilled Jewish blood, (without legal action having preceded his act), enabled the Israelites to realize that the result of his act was the saving of an untold amount of more Jewish blood. What had at first glance appeared as an act of cruelty, turned out to be a vehicle for thousands of acts of loving kindness.
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Likutei Halakhot
1. And now, our long, bitter, exile, is even more difficult than the exile in Egypt and all the other exiles, as brought in the Lesson - for about this exile it is written (Lamentations 1:9) "She has sunk appallingly". And thus in every place where the verses and Sages speak of this exile, all of them wonder at the nature of the length and bitterness of this exile, as is brought in the Midrashim. And because of the length and bitterness of the exile it was not possible to tolerate it had it not been for Hashem who was with us, who provided healing for the blow, in that we already merited to receive the Torah on Mt. Sinai. And nowadays, there is generation of orphans and Hashem Yisbarach sent us great and wonderous tzaddikim who brought success upon us in the aspect of seeing the Light of the Ein Sof, and who taught us to nullify ourselves within His Blessed Self in every time and instance of trouble, may G-d save us. And the essence is for us to continue with many new and wonderous Torah insights, that through them we enliven ourselves and strength is given to us to stand against them and to nullify them when they increase and are aroused afterwards greater and greater. Because at all times, we can nullify them through the holy Torah that we already merited to receive through Moshe Rabbeinu, A"H. And through the new and wonderous Torah insights that are brought by all the great tzaddikim that are in every generation, corresponding to (Psalms 119:50) "This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise has preserved me."
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Sippurei Maasiyot
[Notes Following the Story]
"Darkei Tziyon aveloth/ The paths of Tziyon are mournful" [Lam. 1:4; since the Temple has been destroyed, one is obligated to remember and mourn it, and unbridled joking and laughter are forbidden; v. S"A O"C 560. Also, there are no festivals or times when God can be "seen:" Ex. 23:15 etc.].
Tziyon is the aspect of the tziyunim [markers; placemarks] of all the countries, for they all gather there, as it is written, "wera'ah `etzem1The word `etzem was omitted here. adam uvanah etzlo tziyun/ and see the bone of1The word `etzem was omitted here. man, then shall he set up a sign by it." [Eze. 39:15].
This is [the meaning of], "Chazeih Tziyon Qiryath Mo`adeinu/ Look upon Tziyon, the city of our assemblies" [Isa. 33:20], the acronym of which is MeTzaCheiQ (jesting), for that is where all the tziyunim [signs] gathered, and whoever needed to know whether to do something or some business transaction would know it there. May it be His will that it be rebuilt speedily in our days, Amen.
"Darkei Tziyon aveloth/ The paths of Tziyon are mournful" [Lam. 1:4; since the Temple has been destroyed, one is obligated to remember and mourn it, and unbridled joking and laughter are forbidden; v. S"A O"C 560. Also, there are no festivals or times when God can be "seen:" Ex. 23:15 etc.].
Tziyon is the aspect of the tziyunim [markers; placemarks] of all the countries, for they all gather there, as it is written, "wera'ah `etzem1The word `etzem was omitted here. adam uvanah etzlo tziyun/ and see the bone of1The word `etzem was omitted here. man, then shall he set up a sign by it." [Eze. 39:15].
This is [the meaning of], "Chazeih Tziyon Qiryath Mo`adeinu/ Look upon Tziyon, the city of our assemblies" [Isa. 33:20], the acronym of which is MeTzaCheiQ (jesting), for that is where all the tziyunim [signs] gathered, and whoever needed to know whether to do something or some business transaction would know it there. May it be His will that it be rebuilt speedily in our days, Amen.
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