Tazria: Tzaraas, Galus HaShechinah, and the Spiritual Meaning of Tumah

Transcript

Working? 100%. This week's parsha, Parshas Tazria. The Torah begins with the woman that has a child and that she's tamei for a certain amount of days after she has a child. And the Torah continues with a parsha which seems not much connected, not much shayches. It's difficult to understand at first glance the connection between these two parshiyos, and that is the parsha of Metzora, ishah ki tazria. You know, usually a parsha has many halachos. So if it has many halachos, not always is it understandable, you know, the sequence of the halachos. Hagam, more or less, there could be a sequence, there could be a kesher. Mishpatim, it's all about dinei mamonos, so there's a sequence. But if it would be many halachos, all right, so then it's, you know, you have to say why this one is there, why this one is together. The truth is, the Torah is doresh semichus. Chazal, Chazal are doresh semichos, which means one parsha next to another, and there's a reason for it. But it's more difficult when it's many halachos. But when the whole parsha, including the next parsha... Mitzorah is also about Hilchos Tzaraas. So it's a little bit strange, and it's a little striking that the first small parsha, it begins with isha ki tazria, the yoldes zachar, that she has a child. L'choira, must. In the Hebrew it says, a doresh. It screams out to explain the connection. Normally, when you have many halachos, it's very hard to understand the connection. Hagam Chazal say there is: dorshin semuchos. We doresh why one parsha is next to another. But where everything is about metzora, so it has to begin with something that has nothing to do with metzora, the first few psukim about a woman who has a child, what does that have to do with metzora? We're going to talk in, im yirtzeh Hashem, but before we get into the depth of it, now the truth is, kipshutoi, the connection is tumah. The isha ki tazria is tameiah, and the metzora is tamei. But it's two different things. One is tameiah as an onesh; it's a bad thing to be a metzora. The other one is tameiah, but she's birth. So it's very difficult to put the two tumahs in one chapter and make them the same. There are other people who are tamei for other things. It's not in this parsha. There's zav and zavah, nidah. There's so many other tumas. So true, there's a connection between the isha ki tazria, that she has a child, she's tameiah, and the metzora. But it seems one is completely for the good, and one is completely for the bad. It's like two different tumas. One is a tumah you want to be. Isha ki tazria, you want it. And the other one is a bad thing. Tzaraas is a terrible, terrible thing. So why would you put it together? You know, why spoil the exciting moment of a child with the story of the metzora? That's just a mashal v'nimshal. I don't mean that as a kasha, but you hear, all of a sudden we're talking about isha ki tazria, she's tameiah, okay, and metzora. Wait a minute, metzora, what does metzora have to do with this? Why is this the introduction, the hakdamah to the parsha of Tazria-Metzora that talks about tzaraas? We're going to learn that the truth is, Vayom ha'shemini yimol besar orlaso is one of the pesukim that it says over here by Tazria, isha ki tazria, and by yom ha'shemini there's milah. And the Gemara tells us that milah is not docheh...

I'm sorry, milah is docheh tzaraas. Excuse me, milah is docheh tzaraas. It's a Gemara in Shabbos, kuf lamed beis amud beis, and the Rambam brings it lahalacha, Hilchos Milah, perek aleph, halacha tes. Milah, bein bizmanah, bein shelo bizmanah, docheh es hatzaraas. Keitzad? She'im hoysa baheres b'or hamilah, if there's baheres on the milah, choitchah im ha'orlah. He cuts off the baheres with the orlah. Why? She'tzitzis nega tzaraas is a lo sa'aseh, and milah is an aseh, so yavo aseh v'yidcheh lo sa'aseh. So maybe we could say that that's the reason that the Torah put the Hilchos Tzaraas right after Ishah ki tazria, because v'hayo mashmi'inim al basarah lasai, and then all of a sudden it's even b'tzaraas, even b'tzaraas. Now the truth is, the reason that the Rambam brings, the reason the Gemara, aseh is docheh lo sa'aseh. So that's a halachic reason. But the lashon of the Gemara is, yimol b'sar orlaso, amar mar, basar af al pi sheyesh bo baheres yimol, that it's part of the drash. See, pashut it has to do with aseh docheh lo sa'aseh. The aseh of milah pushes off the lo sa'aseh of tzaraas. But also the Gemara is mashma that it's a chelek of the drash, yimol b'sar orlaso even if it has a tzaraas. How do you know that? Maybe if it's yimol b'sar orlaso even if it doesn't have a tzaraas. So maybe that's the smichus, that the parshah of Metzora comes after yimol b'sar orlaso even... When I talk about Tzaraas the next parsha, again, I'm going to repeat this only because this is the trup pshat. So far we're learning pshat. Very simple. It's striking that this parsha begins with an introduction of a good thing, where an isha has a child, and all of a sudden you talk about Tzaraas. What is that? What is the two parshas? What happened? Ma kesher? What's the shaychus between the isha ki tazria, and it's not like there's many halachos. The whole parsha from beginning to the end is about a metzora. Again, so it has nothing to do with metzora. What's the connection to metzora? Well, what do you want from a metzora? Tzaraas is a lashon hara, other aveiros, and that causes tzaraas. What does that have to do with isha ki tazria? So of course, the most evident, the most clear connection is the tumah. That just like isha ki tazria is tameiah, so too the metzora is tamei. Yeah, but you're talking about two different tumas. I mean, one is a tumah which is based on aveiros. The other one is a tumah which is tumas leidah. It's aveirah, true she has to bring a korban because she curses her husband, but the tumah is not because she curses her husband. Don't think the tumah comes because she curses her husband. The korban comes because she curses her husband. The tumah is for a different reason, which we'll get to later on. So it's very hard to connect the two tumas. The only other thing we could say is maybe it's connected because Vayom ha-shmini yimol besar orlah. Lasai. And also Chazal tell us that yimol basar orlaso, even if there's a tzaraas, and that's how the Rambam brings the halacha, of course, that's how we pasken. So pashut has to do aseh docheh lo saaseh. But the mashma'us of the Gemara is that it's also a drash: yimol basar orlaso, basar, even if it has, even if it has a baheres, even if it has a tzaraas. How do you know? Maybe not. So maybe it has to do with the smichas haparshiyos, because this is the parsha of metzora, and there it says yimol basar orlaso. So the smichas tells me yimol basar orlaso even when there's a metzora. Tzarichi. I still have to explain the connection between ish ki tazria and the parsha of tzaraas. In the parsha of tzaraas, there's a perplexing medrash, a medrash mamash pele. The medrash says that when Moshe Rabbeinu told Klal Yisroel the sugya of adam ki yihyeh b'or besaro se'eis sapachas, they got terrified. Klal Yisroel got very, very scared. So the Ribono Shel Olam tells Moshe, tell them not to be so afraid of tzaraas. Why? It's not meant for you. It's meant for the—

Meant for the Goyim. Moshe says, the Medrash of Moshe, that there was a matronisa, queen, a prince that walks into the castle and he sees whips, and he goes, I gotta get out of here. It's a torture chamber. So the melech says, Nah, that's not for you. That's for the slaves, the avadim. They don't behave, they get a whip. For you, there's a whole seudah, a buffet ready for you. Royalty is ready for you. What are you afraid of the whips? Same thing here too. אמר לי הקדוש ברוך הוא, this is for the Goyim. לעתיד לבוא, when Moshiach comes, the Goyim will have the problem of tzaraas. For you, it's echol, you eat and drink, and one Medrash says, and you learn Torah. Don't worry, it's not for you. So there isn't a sefer—this is a Medrash, the Medrash Rabbah, Tes-vav daled—there isn't a sefer that doesn't ask this question. Our Goyim don't have tzaraas. There's no tumas tzaraas by Goyim. The Rambam, quoting the Mishnah in Negaim, it's in Perek Tes, Halacha Aleph of Tumas Tzaraas: Ein akum mitame b'negaim. The Goyim don't even have it. The Goyim do not have tzaraas. So how could HaKadosh Baruch Hu say, Ah, all this, don't worry, it's not for you, it's for the Goyim? What Goyim? Where Goyim? When Goyim? What kind of Goyim are having tzaraas? There's no tzaraas by them. We'll soon learn why not, but first let's learn the din. The din is: Goyim are not mitame; they don't become impure with tzaraas. How could the Medrash repeat over such a thing that Moshe Rabbeinu was told to tell Klal Yisroel, Don't worry, it's not for you. It's for the Goyim. Based lavai, you'll be okay. Don't worry about it. Now I want to teach you something more. There's a Gemara in Chullin, daf yud amud aleph. The Gemara says—now it's a complicated Gemara, so I'm not going to go through the whole Gemara. I'll just take out one piece of the Gemara. The Gemara says, chiddush, that this is only l'achar ha'dibur, but קודם הדיבור even tzaraas won't be metameh. What does that mean? If a person had tzaraas before the mitzvah, before the Torah was given, if a person had tzaraas, would you become tamei afterwards when the Torah gives it? So the Gemara says no. It's only after the Torah was given and you got the tzaraas. What does that mean? It means as follows: that in case a ger has tzaraas before, he gets this tzaraas, and then he's megayer himself, so now he's a Jew. Yet the halacha still is, he didn't get the tzaraas as a Jew; he got it as a goy, and the tzaraas is not metameh. So what do we see from here? We see from here that goyim have no shaychus to tumas tzaraas, and you can't say because they don't have halachos and mitzvos, because this person who's a ger does have halachos and mitzvos. Still, because he got it when he was a goy, so it's not called a tzaraas. So we see that the goyim have no connection, nothing to do with tzaraas. They could get diseases, but it's not tzaraas. Tifurshi Gemara. The Gemara says the same ger, the same, in English we call a proselyte, the same ger, he has the tzaraas already, and now he's a Jew. Don't say goyim don't have it because they don't have halachos. Now this guy has halachos. The Torah does apply to him. Nevertheless, what's the problem? He got it as a goy. Goyim don't have tzaraas. The question, of course, is — this year we don't ask questions, I'm sorry, afterwards — so the question becomes, the question becomes, how could Chazal tell us, Oh, Moshe, you tell them that the tzaraas is not for you, but rather for the goyim. Goyim don't have tzaraas. There isn't a sefer that doesn't deal with this question. Now you know me, I have to learn the pshat. First I want to know pshat, pashut. First let's understand the pshat, and then we can start giving nice pirushim, al pi drush, al pi halacha. I want to see a pashut pshat that the question is not a question. Why? It never says that the tzaraas will be metameh them. Where does it say in this medrash?

That they were afraid of the tzaraas, and then they were afraid of the tumah. They were afraid of the tzaraas itself. So the Rabbeinu said, don't be afraid of the tzaraas, because the tzaraas will be going to the goyim. But they don't get—they don't have diseases? Of course they have diseases. Hilchos tzaraas, tumas tzaraas they don't have. But that doesn't say, and that doesn't mean that they don't have tzaraas, period. I'll prove it to you. You look at the Torah, we find that many kings, goyishe kings, got tzaraas. Paro. Paro got tzaraas. Vayinaga Hashem, as beis Paro, he got tzaraas. As a matter of fact, I found in Rabbeinu Bechaye, in Parshas Miketz, b'sheim Pirkei HaYecholos, that l'asid, when Moshiach comes, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to give the goyim tzaraas. He'll plague them with tzaraas like Paro had in Mitzrayim, because just like Paro tortured the Jews, and just like their first Paro tortured Avraham Avinu with Sarah, and he got tzaraas, they made problems for Avraham Avinu, vayinaga Hashem as beis Paro. So the goyim who will torture the Jew will get tzaraas. What does the Rabbeinu Bechaye learn? Exactly what I'm telling you. It doesn't mean tzaraas, hilchos tumas tzaraas. What it means is physical tzaraas. Does anybody ask a question, but Paro can't be metameh tzaraas? There's no problem that parah can't be metamei tzaraas. Parah can get tzaraas. Never said anything about parah having tumah. Halachos, the halachos don't apply to parah. But the pain, the pain does apply to parah, right? Hurts that parah got, that hurt of tzaraas the goyim could have, and that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, so the question is, bichlal, not should be questioned. What are you asking, that they don't have tumas tzaraas? What are you asking, they don't have tumas tzaraas? True, but they can get tzaraas. What's your question, bichlal? Now I want to point out something. Today, we don't have tzaraas. We don't have. When we say tzaraas and they translate it leprosy, it's a very big mistake. Leprosy and tzaraas have nothing to do with each other. You know that. They use the word tzaraas to translate the disease of leprosy, but it's a borrowed term. It's not really tzaraas. And the reason why not is because, say the Rishonim, that we can't be metaher atzmeinu. We can't become tahor. So Hashem is not going to give us tzaraas if the point of the tzaraas is not to be tamei; it's to become tahor. It's to fix. It's to be metaken what we have done wrong. So today that we don't have taharah because we don't have the kohen, we don't have the Beis HaMikdash, Hashem doesn't send us tzaraas. So someone's going to deduce from this that tzaraas is only given where there's tumah and taharah. Maybe tzaraas is only given where there's tumah and taharah. And thus, a guy who doesn't have the tumah and taharah of tzaraas, maybe he won't get tzaraas. D'hainu, Paro got tzaraas, the Baro terminology of tzaraas. He got a leprosy. Doesn't mean he got literally tzaraas. The Medrash that says that you won't get the tzaraas, it's referring to the tzaraas of the pasuk. It's referring to the tzaraas of the pasuk. It's going back on this parsha, the tzaraas that I tell you about, don't worry, it's for the goyim. Ah, so maybe the goyim who don't have the inyan of tumah and taharah, maybe they don't have the tzaraas. Another shita is brought in the Rishonim why we don't have tzaraas today, because we're not on the level to see directly the hand of Hashem punishing us the minute we do an aveirah. You know, a person spoke lashon hara, he would just walk out, like that. It wasn't years later; it was on the spot. So you'd right away see the yad Hashem. So today we're not fit to see the yad Hashem, right? So maybe someone could come and say that a goy, he doesn't deserve this onesh; it's a deserving...

So maybe Goyim don't have tzaraas, period. In other words, the question is based not just, ah, they don't have tumas tzaraas. If they don't have tumas tzaraas, it doesn't make sense that they should have tzaraas, because it means they don't have the parsha. And beis, they wouldn't get the tzaraas that we call tzaraas, because that was Hashem's hand. That was unique. It was a special hashgacha pratit that there was tzaraas. The Goyim don't have that. Maybe the Goyim don't have that, right? So I'm trying to answer that they'll get the tzaraas, but they don't have to necessarily have the halachos. Maybe the opposite, meaning those that would argue with me would say, Wait a minute, wait a minute. If they're not getting the tumah and taharah, then they can't be getting the tzaraas, because the whole tzaraas is based on the tumah and the taharah. Like we see today, we don't have tumah and taharah, and there's no tzaraas. So that I would answer you: You know why? We are not going to get tzaraas, tumah and taharah, because we don't have tumah and taharah, because we have to become tahor from the tzaraas. But the Goyim that anyway don't become tahor, they can get it. Who cares? Let them get tzaraas and never become tahor. I'm trying to dispute the... You see, you know what? Let me explain to you how this shiur works. This shiur is the truth. A lot of shiurim is nice, it's interesting. I'm giving you, in my mind, what's going through my mind, the debate that goes through my mind to understand this parsha. I could come and say, You know what? It's not a question. This is what's going through my mind. It's not a question, and I'm right. Maybe they have what? Tzaraas. But they don't have the dinim. They don't have the tumah of the tzaraas. So what are you asking? When Hashem tells Moshe to tell Klal Yisroel that the goyim will get tzaraas, they weren't afraid of the tumah. What were they afraid of? The pain. Don't worry about the pain. The goyim will have the tzaraas. So then I say, but you know what they're going to answer? They're going to refute this, and they're going to say, You can't have tzaraas if you don't have the halachos. For two reasons. Reason number one, because if there's no taharah, there's no way you can get out of it. What would be the point of giving you tzaraas? Second of all, you have to deserve to have tzaraas. You have to be on a level to get tzaraas. It's hashgacha pratis. Today we're not on that level, so maybe the goyim are not on that level. So once you say that you have to be on the level, so the question becomes, you can't get tzaraas and just say, Oh, you don't have the tumah taharah. I refute both points. It's not muchach. Maybe Hashem will give tzaraas when Mashiach comes. Understand, we're not talking about now. We're talking l'asid lavo. L'asid lavo, it'll be clear to the whole world, Ve'eida kol pol ki atah paalta, vyavin kol yetzur ki atah yetzarto, so the hashgacha pratis will be there anyway. So therefore you can't ask, How could a goy in the future have tzaraas, hashgacha pratis, if we, Klal Yisroel, don't deserve that today? What, the goyim are going to have it? And the teretz is, when? When are we referring to? Mashiach comes. Hashem's hand will be clear then. So then the goyim will taka get punished right away. You can ask these questions. You see, I'm debating in my mind: yes, saras by goyim, not saras by goyim. Yes, no, yes, no. What do you mean? The Mishnah says there's no saras by goyim, and the Medrash says there is. Wait a minute, that's not what the Medrash says. The Medrash says that the actual saras the goyim will get. The Mishnah is referring to the tumah, the dinim of the saras. Oh. So I tell you, okay, so let's see: is it possible to separate the saras from the dinim? Yeah, Paro got saras. Paro got it. So you see, you could separate the halachos from the actual saras. Wait a minute, but Paro didn't get real saras. Rabbeinu Bechayeh learns that the saras that the goyim will get in the future is paros, paros punishment. But the Medrash is mashma that which saras will they be getting? The one that Klal Yisrael is afraid of in this parsha. So you're getting real saras. Hey, wait a minute, could you separate it? I could say maybe, yeah, maybe not. Today we don't have the halachos, and that's why we don't have the saras, many Rishonim say. Okay, so the goyim who don't have the halachos, maybe they won't get the saras. But wait a minute, maybe we, for us, saras can't come if we can't have the halachos, because what's the point? But by the goyim, who cares? They won't be—

Become tahor. Who needs them to become tahor? The second point, that maybe what? It's hashgacha pratis and we don't deserve it today, so the goyim are going to deserve it? Yeah, but l'asid lavo. We're not talking about now. We're talking about when Mashiach comes and everything will be hashgacha pratis. You'll see it clearly. So this is the debate: yes, tzaras by goyim, not tzaras by goyim, yes, no, yes, no. Rabosai, now let me introduce to you a whole new idea, a whole new concept to understand this medrash. You don't be afraid of the tzaras. The goyim have what to be afraid. It's going to be given to the goyim. Let's understand it in a whole different, more in depth. There's a lot of עומק in this Chazal, that tzaras, not you, but l'asid lavo, something about tzaras in the future. It's about time and place. I thought tzaras about an onesh, when you speak lashon hara, or whatever other aveiros the Gemara in Erchin tells us that you do, you get tzaras. All of a sudden we're starting to see tzaras as something about messianic times. It's something about zman haMashiach. It's very interesting. The medrash introduces to us tzaras, something about messianic time. And I wanted to say a pshat, rabosai. If you notice, Parshas Metzora begins, Zot tihyeh toras hametzora, b'yom tahoraso vehuva el hakohen. There's an extra word in the pasuk: zot tihyeh. It should say, Zot toras hametzora. Zot toras hachatas. Zot toras haasham. Why does it say zot tihyeh? Tihyeh. Future. Future. You like it. I say good. You should know I know what I'm talking about. Zot tihyeh. You know what tihyeh means? Will be. The future. There's a lot of future in Metzora. Now Rafi's thinking to himself, It's a drush, it's a drush, it's a pashut pshat. So I knew that that's going to be a problem, so I searched, and I found, I'm mechaven to a beautiful Medrash. I was mechaven to a beautiful Medrash. I'll read you the Medrash. The Medrash says—now the Medrash isn't medayek, but mistama that's what the Medrash means on the word tihyeh—says the Medrash, wow, Klapei mi romez pasuk zeh? What is this pasuk a remez to? Says the Medrash, Tanchuma Yashan, Metzora siman tes, zois tihyeh medaber b'Yisrael k'shehayu b'Yerushalayim. It's not talking about now. It's talking about later generations, when they're going to be in Yerushalayim. So right away you see what Chazal say, that the tihyeh is not referring to now, the halacha, but circumstance, events, events, events of the future. Tihyeh. Okay? Uhu vala kohen. Who's the kohen? Now I want to tell you the end of that Medrash. The end of that Medrash is that Hashem says, Don't worry about the Metzora in Messianic times. Because now you have to come to a kohen. Then, when Mashiach comes, yeah, you don't need the kohen. I'll be metaher you. I mean, I'll do it, so don't worry about it. So what's v'hu v'al hakohen? If we're talking about the times of Yerushalayim, who was the kohen? Who was the muser? Who was the one who was screaming, Become pure? No? Yirmiyah. Yirmiyah was a kohen. You know Yirmiyah was a kohen? Ani Yirmiyahu kohen, echa, no? Koheno hanasais, right? Eicha, aleph yud chaf. He was a kohen, Yirmiyah. Zois tihyeh, in the future. V'hu v'al hakohen, it'll be brought — which kohen? Yirmiyah. Now it sounds wild, yeah? But it's a medrash. It's not my fault that the medrash says this. Medrash. I'm not making a medrash tachuma. V'hu v'al hakohen, v'hayah Yirmiyahu imaleh ma'asu teshuvah. Yirmiyah's screaming, You're metzora! Go do teshuvah! V'lo asu. But they didn't do teshuvah. U'ma asa HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Hilka osam b'tzaraas. Hashem gave them tzaraas, shene'emar, V'shipach Hashem koid koid b'nos Tzion, v'ein v'shipach ela tzaraas, shene'emar, Se'es. Se'es. Shipach. Se'es.

V'roa kohen, say Yirmiyah. שנאמר, והכהן אשר באנות. והנה נרפא נגע הצרעת. It got cured. שהגלו אותן לבבל. Hashem sent them to Bavel, and then Bavel, they got healed. They left Bavel. They got the geulah from Bavel. אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל, בעולם הזה, מפני העוונות הייתם מתייסרים ומטהרים וחוזרים ומתייסרים. Now you become a metzora, you get the punishment, and then you do teshuvah. You clean yourself. It's a process. But when Mashiach comes, אבל לעתיד לבוא, אני הוא שמטהר אתכם. It's Me who will be metaher you. שנאמר, וזרקתי עליכם מים טהורים וטהרתם, מכל מקומות טומאותיכם, ולא שיחזרו. So therefore you don't have to worry about going back. Here you'll come to the kohen. He's not the biggest doctor in the world. He represents Hashem. So right afterwards you go back, maybe to the old ways. But when I cure you guys, ani Hashem, when I clean you, when Mashiach comes, you're not going to go back to any aveiros. You'll never become a metzora ever again. Okay? So what do we see? TM means future. So right away, my mind starts to say, wait a minute, metzoraas is not just something that Moshe was teaching them about now, but he was talking about future, future events of tzaraas and Messianic, Mashiach times. Let me show you another medrash. The Medrash Rabbah. Now, before I begin on a pith, down discussing tzaras about events in Klal Yisrael, times, messianic times, let me just tell you over a Rashbam as an introduction. The Rashbam introduces the parashah Metzora with the following words, and it's important to know this. Says the Rambam, Rashbam, Kol parshiyos nigei adam, v'nigei begadim, v'nigei batim, v'cheshbon hezgainim v'saaros, all the halachos, nigei batim, nigei adam, and when you're supposed to close them away and when they're supposed to lock them up and send them out of the camps, all the halachos, says the Rashbam, ein lanu acha pshuto shel mikra. We don't know more than what it says in the pasuk. When you're going to start poking and start giving understanding to tzaras and start interpreting tzaras in light of situations and taking from it lessons, we don't know tzaras. Tzaras is a foreign thing from us. Ein lanu acha pshuto shel mikra, klum. After pashut pshat, we have nothing. V'lo al bekius derech eretz shel bnei adam. And we can't even go on experience of people and say, let's look at the medical books and see where tzaras comes from. Forget it. We have no understanding. There's no clue in understanding what tzaras is all about, ela ha'midrash shel chachamim. Chachamim, v'chukoseihem, v'kabboloseihem, and what they accepted from Sinai, mipi hachachamim harishonim, from the original chacham before them, hu ha'ikar. So what is the Rambam saying? That the best thing in understanding mitzorah is following the words of the chachamim. So let's follow the words of the chachamim, taka. You're right. I'm not going to come and say anything on my own. What I'm going to do is quote you the chachamim. So I started with a Medrash Tanchuma that introduces to us the zman of Yirmiyah, that metzora has to do with Klal Yisrael in the times of Yirmiyah in Yerushalayim. Now let me show you that the Medrash says not only in the times of Yirmiyah, but all the galusim is in this parsha of metzora. Chazal. This is not, hey, it's Torah from somebody thought of when he was eating cholent, right? This is real. In Hebrew we have an expression, cholent Torah, an expression like that, cholent Torah, which means when a guy was sitting al seir shal cholent, shal basar, u'chidesh mashu, chveis pilpulim. You know, when I was in the hospital two years ago.

Baruch remember had an infection, was in the hospital. So Friday, the time Chishabbos, the chveis, the bikur cholim, whatever it was, came around and they were giving out food, very nice. But with the food they also gave out a pamphlet of chiddushei Torah. All of it was about food. All of it. That kugel is gematria Shabbos, and then potato kugel is gematria ... and a whole pamphlet like this. You think I'm kidding you? You remember I came back and told you about it? And why do we eat these kugels on these days? Because of this medrash and that medrash. Who sponsored it? Who sponsored it? The time Chishabbos. We thought of the bikur cholim, maybe it was the entertainment part. I know you can't watch TV, you know, on Shabbos, so they give you different entertainment. What's a choleh supposed to do? He reads this stuff, he gets entertainment. The scary part is they thought it was real. I understood it was entertainment. All right, that's neither here nor there. This is what we would call— Huh? The what? Entertainment is... yeah. Okay. What was the point? The point is this is not entertainment. This is real. Okay? Chazal tell us that it has to do with the four galuyos, and let me read you the medrash. Se'es zu Bavel. Se'es refers to Bavel. Sapachas zu Madai. Baheres zu Yavan. Nega tzaraas is Edom. You hear? Edom. The four galuyos is the four nigim, negaim that we have. Se'es, sapachas, and baheres, and nega tzaraas. Now. I'm sorry, three, four. Yeah. Se'es, sapachas. No, before. Oh, Bavel is se'es, sapachas is Madai, baheres is Yavan, and nega tzaraas is Edom. Now we can explain why and what the connection between the se'es and Bavel, but before we do, there's something which is very perplexing. Nega tzaraas is not a type of nega; it's all of them. How could the fourth one be nega tzaraas? It's not a type; it's all of it. It's sick. Nega tzaraas means a person is sick and he has a nega. Now, in nega there's se'es, sapachas, and baheres. So how could Edom be nega tzaraas if it isn't a type? It's a shem klali. It's what it is. It's a disease of nega, right? Yesh nega tzaraas v'yesh shemot. Se'es, sapachas. So there's only three, not four. The Shem Mishmuel asks this kasha. Beautiful. In page reish tes in the Shem Mishmuel, he says, I don't understand. How could Edom be nega tzaraas? Nega tzaraas is not one of them; nega tzaraas is all of them. Answers the Shem Mishmuel: Edom is all the galusim together. And he brings a beautiful medrash. The medrash says like this. One second. Oh, it says like this. Oh, the medrash says, Daniel—there's a pasuk—Daniel rah shloshtan balayla achas, and the fourth one he saw. In one night, okay? He saw three in one night, u'lazu, and the fourth one, balaila achas. Also, Moshe Rabbeinu divided, when he spoke about the galusin, the remez of the galus. Now, I'm not even sure what he's referring to because I didn't look up the Medrash. Maybe it's כדאי to bring the Medrash. We'll look it up quickly. It's in Sefer Parshas Shemini. He also separates the three and the one. You look in Chazal, it's the three and the one, the three and the one. Why? So he says one of two pshatim: either because the fourth one says Chazal is shekulah, and that is the shita of Rabbi Yochanan, that edoy mishkulah, so it's three and one is just as difficult, or it's yeseirah, could even be more. Point: kol. That all the galusin. You know, there's something called, it's very cute, you ever see, they have the crackers they sell, pizza flavor and garlic flavor, and then there's one of them called everything. You ever saw everything? Try that. What is everything? Whatever they found on the floor. I mean, what's everything? Anything they found on the kitchen table. All right, everything, okay? There's three flavors of galus, and edoy is everything. It's everything together, okay? So this is neged tzaras Edom, okay? Now we have—

I don't understand. What does it mean that they're negaim? What does it mean that Bavel is a nega? Ma kavod. So you could come and say because they cause pain, you know. You're talking about disease. Boy, that's some nega, right? There's something called the Black Plague. I'll let you figure out what I mean by that also. There's something called the Black Plague, remember? Okay. You know, when you want to refer to something which could cause you a lot of pain, you could call it a plague, you call it a tzaraas. But obviously it's much more than just, it's a nega, right? We're obviously defining each one of the galusin with a nega. You have it, you have the Chazal. Okay, read it, read it, read it. I know, but how does he explain Moshiach beno? Which pesukim does he bring on the bottom? Which pesukim is he referring to? But by what pesukim is Moshiach going on? It's going on all four, the behemah temeios. Ah, the behemah temeios, okay. In other words, the behemah temeios, okay, I wasn't sure which pesukim he's referring to. So it's three of them in one pasuk and one in— and Chazer is the last one, which is Edom, right? So Chazer is Edom, and the three other beheimos, which is last week's parsha, what we just read, right? The three beheimos temeios, and then the Chazer is separate. There's the gamal, the arneves; those are the three malchusin, and the fourth one is separate. So Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish say this pshat, because it's either equal to all of them or even worse than all of them. Says the Shem MiShmuel with this—it's beautiful. So it's really pashut pshat. With this we understand why Edom is called nega tzaraas, because it's all of it. It's the shem klali. It's kolel hakol, okay? Ma she'ein kein Bavel, Yavan, and Paras, they're specifics. Now, what are the specifics? What, they're just negaim? Obviously it's more than just that they're nega. So I want to explain this. What is the pshat that they are negaim? What does it mean? Rabosai, let me read you over another beautiful medrash. The medrash says like this: V'hisgiroi hakohen. The kohen will lock him up, right? It says like this: Ma darko shel nega? There's a Medrash, perek hei, os tes-vav. What is the way of a nega? Kohen ro'eh, the kohen sees it, u'mazgiroi, and he locks the person up. V'im yira bo simanei taharah, and once he has simanei taharah afterwards, he starts to see that the person is getting better, so to speak, he lets him go. Kach HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the same thing, HaKadosh Baruch Hu hisgir es Yisrael shiv'as yamim b'yad melech Bavel. Hashem locked us up in Bavel. Hesger. Beautiful medrash, you hear? The concept, the concept of the Bavel, the galus being metzora, is that we were metzoraim, and Hashem had to lock us. Under Bavel, bishlita, in the possession of Bavel. We were locked up in the, so to speak, in the home of Bavel. Bavel-bound. There's homebound and Bavel-bound. We were in Bavel, okay? Wait a minute, hizgir. Shivas yamim b'yad Melech Bavel. Lekeivan shehizgiram, once Hashem locked us up, hotziu simanei taharah. They started to do teshuvah. They started to do teshuvah, so they started to get healthy and better. Shekein amar lahem Nevuchadnetzar, and he brings a raya that they didn't want to bow down by Nevuchadnetzar's time to the avodah zarah. So what does HaKadosh Baruch Hu say? Shav Hashem Elokecha shvuscha, time to get you out of there, okay? So the idea of hezger is the concept of galus. We're locked away in galus. What does that mean? Does it mean in a physical sense, hizgir, locked, tortured, in the physical sense? I think there's more to it, and let me explain to you what I mean. What is tzaraas? What is it? Is it a disease? Is it physical? Is it spiritual? There's a lot of discussion about this. I want to read to you a Ramban. The Ramban in pasuk mem.

The Ramban says, by nigei batim, you know what it's all about? Hashem removes Himself from either the home or the person, and the removal of Hashem brings in its place disease. The ruach Hashem was aleihem; it was on Klal Yisrael, it was on their homes, says the Ramban. And the minute we sin, so Hashem has to remove Himself. The removal of Hashem's ruach, Hashem's spirit, Hashem's Shechinah from either us or our homes, that causes disease. Spiritual disease maybe, but disease. You hear? So we lose our immunity. Second, if you look at the Kuzri, you look also in the Kisvei Ari. Now, I cheated a little bit; the Shem Mishmuel quotes it a lot, this Kisvei Ari and the Kuzri, that it has to do with the ohr Hashem, the light of Hashem. The light of Hashem is nistalek; it gets removed from the person, and in its place, and in its place comes tzaraas. Now what does that mean? I want to explain to you what that means. We know that a person has life. Life, right? What creates life in a person? So the pasuk tells us, Vayipach b'apav nishmas ruach chayim. Hashem breathed life into us. The Zohar tells us, man d'nafach, midilei nafach. That when Hashem blew life, it means that He blew Himself, because He is the ultimate life. Hashem is the mekor hachayim, so He blew from Himself into the person life. In other words, mouth to... You know, I have a trick question for you. Who was the first person to do CPR? Hashem Yisbarach. Before Moshe. Before Moshe. Pelehze joke. I'm talking about when Hashem created man, He did CPR. Says, you know what? Ask this to somebody: who was the first CPR to get the—what do they call that, when they give you the reward? Not the reward, the certificate. Who deserved the first certificate for CPR? Hashem Yisbarach. He breathed life into human beings. Vayipach into his nostrils, into his nose, nishmas ruach chayim, man d'nafach, midilei nafach. So when HaKadosh Baruch Hu leaves, what stands in its place? Disease. Destruction. I want you to know that I found in the Kuzari, maamar sheini, tzaras has to do with tumas meis. Just like when the meis dies, meaning HaKadosh Baruch Hu leaves the meis, so what stands in its place? Tumah, right? The extraction of Hashem, the extraction of God from the man creates— Tumah. Tzaraas is a form of that. Hashem has to leave. Hashem can't be in him. He's a baal aveirah. In its place, you have tumah. Hashem leaves first. Hashem leaves, and in its place comes tzaraas, which is forms of tumah. Nu? I'm saying gevaldik, gevald, it's beautiful, a Kuzri. The Kuzri tells us that tumas tzaraas in Maamar Sheini, says the Kuzri, tumas tzaraas is in the same parsha, so to speak. It's the same type of tumas meis. And this is the pshat that the Shem Mishmuel is quoting from the Ari, and that I'm telling you all from the Ramban. It's actually the mekor of it is all in the Ramban. Hashem is sor mealeihem. Ruach Hashem was on them and He has to leave. The moment He has to leave, in its place comes tzaraas and tumah. With this, pasuk mem-zayin. You want, you can read it. Go ahead, go ahead. Look it up, look it up. Okay. Now I understand what Chazal are saying. You know what galus is? Hashem removes Himself.

That's what galus is. We sin, Hashem, hivdil, removes Himself. That's the pshat why when we say we're in galus, we can hardly see Hashem. We don't see His yad Hashem, we don't see His hashgacha pratis. Hashem removes Himself. So the galus in themselves create nega tzaraas, spiritual defects in the person. Did you hear what I just said? You agree with me? You say it as a national level and an individual level? Yes. Why don't you agree with me? I already said before the time caused tzaraas and the way to fix it is to go to galus. Now the galus itself is the— I didn't say it's the cause of the tzaraas. Right, I'm going one step further, but you want to know something? If you don't want to go that far, say it just simply. The connection between tzaraas and Bavel is that it's a type of siluk Shechinah. That's the idea. There's a siluk Shechinah that causes spiritual destruction. Now, you're right. On one hand I say that they have it and they go to galus. On the other, I understand that part of it. Either you could say mimeila it continues, that it gets worse, or you don't have to go there. Either way, the concept of Bavel being a tzaraas, because tzaraas is about Hashem sar mealeihem. Okay, I'm going to repeat this because I'm teaching you the truth. You're not going to hear this anywhere else. This is worked out step by step. I went from one Chazal to another Chazal equals A plus B equals C. It's a theory of economics, all right? A plus B equals C. What is the A? The A is, tzaras means Hashem is mesalek Himself. That's clear. B, galusin are called tzaras. Bavel is a tzaras. Yavan is a tzaras. What does that mean? C, that the galus is a form of Hashem's siluk. That's hisgiron b'yad Bavel. Hashem puts them into the hands of Bavel. You know, we're under the American government, and we feel that the government is taking care of us. The government's not taking care of us. We can have a candidate that could talk about how he hates Jews, and he could still win the presidency. One has nothing to do with the other. We are b'yad Hashem, but the siluk of it is that we don't see it. Hashem isn't out in the open, and therefore we believe that we're b'yad the malchus that we are under. Each galus brought in it, with it, siluk. Hashem removed Himself. Hisgiroi b'yad Bavel, says the Medrash Tanchuma. Remember the lashon? Hashem went and He locked us in the hand. That's hesger. It's a type of tumah when you're not out in the open with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You're in the hands of something else. In concept, al kol panim, you feel that way. It looks that way. This is called tumah. You see, you saw the Ramban? Okay. Now, with this, I think I can understand the end of that medrash. Chazal say Klal Yisrael was terrified. It says, the Ribbono Shel Olam, don't be terrified from tzaras, because I'm going to be the one to be metaher you. What does it mean? There is no siluk Shechinah, chas v'shalom. I'll be there, out in the open. So there's no tzaras. The whole idea of tzaras is when Klal Yisrael is detached from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The whole idea is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not connected with the person. I mean, the other way around, the person not connected with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But l'asid lavo, what does Hashem say? Ani hu, I'll be the one to be metaher you. How will I be metaher you? That you won't even get sick. That's what the lashon of the medrash is: you won't even get sick. You won't even get the tzaras. Because if I'm with you, there's no tzaras. Ani hu. You hear the lashon of the medrash now. The medrash says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, don't be afraid of tzaras, is that I'm not with you.

That causes the tzaras. So the moment I am with you, Moshiach comes, ani hu, I am with you, I'll be out in the open. So therefore, I'll be metaher you. What does that mean? That you won't even get the tzaras. So on one hand, tzaras comes because of galus, and understand that we're now in a galus that it's so bad that we can't even get the tzaras. Tzaras is a result of the fact that we're away from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that we're in galus, and this galus of Edom is so bad that we can't even get the tzaras. Edom is the worst. It's so bad that we can't even go there. Okay, now, the Or HaChaim HaKadosh tells us a moyridike thing. We've now established that tzaras has to do with the talich—how would I say talich? No, a better word: Klal Yisrael's journey. Klal Yisrael's journey. Galus, geulah, galus, geulah, mitzrayim, they're mitzrayim, they're not in Mitzrayim. It's about Klal Yisrael's geulah, yeah? And the galusim are what? All the galusim are tzaras. And when we leave it, it's taharah from tzaras. Who said this? Not me. I didn't say this. That's the Medrash. This is an open Medrash. It's not me. Now let's understand. Why each galus is specific. Se'es is Bavel. In general, I've explained to you the concept of tzaras, and tzaras is galus. But why each specific galus has its own, se'es, sapachas, baheres? Let's discuss it. There's a Gevaldiger Chaim HaKadosh in Parshas Tetzaveh. We have four galusin. The geulahs from the galus come b'schus Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and Moshe. He quotes a Zohar. It's a Parshas Tetzaveh, that we come out of galus because of Avraham, Yitzchak. So Avraham, we came out of Bavel. Yitzchak, we came out of Madai. Yaakov, we came out of Yavan, and Moshe will come out of Edom. This helps us to understand the connection, the connection between the galusin and what their nega was. What was their, if you know, if you want to use terminology that you're more acquainted with, what was their klipah? What was their sitra acher? What was it? What was that galus? So I think if we look in terms of Avraham fixing Bavel, Yitzchak fixing Madai, Yaakov fixing Yavan, we'll have an understanding in all this. And I won't use my words; I'll use a Maharal. But before we go anywhere, let me just introduce to you Moshe Rabbeinu, because usually we have Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and we've spoken in the past about Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. We spoke about it and each one and what their middos were. What is Moshe an edeim? Because normally it's Yaakov an edeim. I believe that Moshe was only Torah. Moshe was the shleimus of kol haTorah kulah. Bechol beisi ne'eman hu. Do you know that Moshe Rabbeinu wore many hats? You know that? Of course. And I don't mean he wore many hats like, what was the guy that wore those many hats over there in the kids' books? Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. Right, whatever it was, okay? I was referring to a different creep, but all right. I was referring to Sam I am, but all right, we won't—Sam I am also walks around with many hats, okay. Okay, what kind of hats? Moshe was the manhig. Moshe was the one of Mikol adam. Moshe was navi mikol adam, the biggest navi. Moshe was melech; he was a king, you know that? Moshe had a din melech. Moshe Rabbeinu—and the mefarshim say, what was his greatest thing, that he was Rabbeinu, he was a rebbe, that he taught. From all his jobs that he had, his ultimate title, his ultimate title was Rabbeinu. All right.

You know what a navi is? A navi is Yerushamayim, peh el peh, daber boi. Who was the most connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Moshe Rabbeinu. V'lo od bilvad, hu was closest, peh el peh adaber boi, because he was the most... the marveh lo b'chidos. All other neviim had connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu through, with a vision. Moshe was mamash like a friend to the Ribono Shel Olam, yeah? Moshe had everything. Moshe was kol hakol, okay? It's interesting. Yet, we don't worship Moshe Rabbeinu. Our religion is not about Moshe Rabbeinu. If you notice, not every child that's born is called Moshe, like certain religions that every child is called Muhammad. In certain religions, if Muhammad—Muhammad is like the yesod hakol, right? You gotta go through Muhammad. Every child is called Muhammad. It's interesting, k'mat every child is called Muhammad, huh? Muhammad. Whatever, please, what's the difference? Who cares? Okay. But the point is, Moshe Rabbeinu was everything, yeah? Moshe Rabbeinu was everything. Edom is the galus of everything, yeah? Moshe Rabbeinu is the galus of everything. So Moshe Rabbeinu takes us out from Edom. Moshe is kol hakol, and Edom is kol all the galusin and all the chisrones. So the anti-Edom, the thing that heals Edom, is going to be Moshe Rabbeinu. Kach nirah laniyas daati pshat. This is the way I understand pshat in the Or HaChaim HaKadosh. Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yankiv, Moshe takes care of everybody. Okay. Now let's discuss the other ones and how Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yankiv take care of them. So there is a... Meiri de'amaral. The Maharal says that there's three aveiros chamuros, the three carnal sins in Judaism are avodah zarah, gilui arayos, and shefichas damim. And they're yehareg v'al ya'avor. Therefore, you have to even let yourself get killed because these are the carnal, these are the main sins. Each one, says the Maharal, in their mitzvah attacks a different part of the person. Avodah zarah is in the mind. It's something that you think, you believe. It's in the mind. Gilui arayos is the body, it's the guf. And shefichas damim is an abuse against the nefesh, because you're— no, nefesh, you're killing the nefesh, you're taking someone else's soul. You're killing and abusing soul, nefesh. It's a chet b'nefesh. So again, says the Maharal, avodah zarah is a chet b'seichel, gilui arayos is a chet b'guf, and shefichas damim is a chet b'nefesh. Bavel, says the Maharal, no. Shvichas damim. The Gemara even says that there were many rotzchim in Bavel. It's a famous Gemara. The Gemara says, Shchichi — what? Gemara makis. Shchichi. Right, and he says, Shchichi b'Bavel, right. The Gemara says that Bavel was murder. Maharal doesn't bring this Gemara if I'm not mistaken, but I want to bring this as a proof to the Maharal. Bavel, it's sickness. It's weakness, was shvichas damim. Paras — what was Paras's weakness? Says the Maharal, arayos. If you take a look, the Tzudas HaChashverosh, what was the whole thing? Arayos, Vashti. And then the minute he got rid of Vashti, he needed b'kavod b'sulos rabos. Every night he had a different besulah. Today we would call it a sex maniac. They would send him for therapy. He was a real sick guy, you know. It's all the belly dancers. They come from Madai, you know, they come from that part of the world, okay. Shtufei zimah, shtufei zimah. Okay. Paras is gilui arayos. What was Yavan? Yavan was enlightened, intellectual seichel. So Bavel was the — this is all the Maharal — Bavel was nefesh.

Poras, hilarayis was the guf, and Yavan, which was the mind, chochmas Yavan, the mind, seichel, avodah zarah seichel. Okay. I would say differently. Not on my own, because I found the Rabbeinu Ephraim. Rabbeinu Ephraim is from the beautiful Rishonim on Chumash, and he says, se'es is the aveirah. It's the disease of gaiva, lashon se'es, litnasot, gaavah. Sapachas is kas. Now, I'm not really sure why. Maybe the word sapachas is fiery. It's like a fire, sapachas. I'm not sure. You have to figure that out. Sapachas is kas. Baheres, which is, to me I understand as clarity, is sheker. Again, Rabbeinu Ephraim says, see, the Maharal is learning that the three of them is about seichel, guf, nefesh, which is shfichas damim, giluy arayos, and avodah zarah, right? Shfichas damim, giluy arayos, and avodah zarah. I see Rabbeinu Ephraim learns, I guess, more middot. I mean, maybe he's talking about an aveirah, and Rabbeinu Ephraim is talking about middah. What's the middah? Se'es is about gaiva, sapachas is about kas, and baheres is about sheker. Now I want to explain that. I want to explain like this. Bavel, I believe... is about gaiva. You know, Bavel was Nevuchadnetzar. It was a whole royalty. Bavel was an empire. Huh? What? Gold. Nevuchadnetzar. It was misnaseh. It was all about the haughtiness of the kingdom of Bavel. Paras, I want to say, was anger. You notice Achashverosh is an angry old man, you know, he's, vechamaso bo'ara bo. The whole thing about the Megillah is, vechamas hamelech shachachah, and he calmed down, and he got angry, and then he gets angry again, and Haman gets angry, and then Achashverosh is getting angry. The whole Megillah is about people getting angry. You ever notice that? It's unbelievable. Mi hu zeh? Mi hu? Haman, right? And then all of a sudden Achashverosh runs out again by the party and he's angry again. Reminds me of the jealous boyfriend. He's always angry. That's what he was, right? Someone's stealing his wife, they're taking his wife, he's angry and he's killing people. First of all, who kills his wife with such anger? I'm seeing murder here. Bavel is se'et. Chazal say, you know, so I'm saying according to Rabbeinu Ephraim, it's gishmak. Why? Misnaseh. The Medrash also uses such a lashon, that Bavel is misnaseh. Se'es, v'nasasa hamashal hazeh al melech Bavel. Okay, no, maybe not, maybe not, maybe not. Okay. Se'es. Okay. Sapachas, kas. Yavan is sheker. They have chochmah. They're into chochmah. But which chochmah? Sheker. And it's baheres. It's about clarity. It's a confusion of the truth. Enlightenment is a confusion of the truth. You know that? Twisted. Twisted. It's twisted logic. Sheker and baheres. Yavan. Okay? So I'm using Rabbeinu Ephraim to interpret the three galuyos. Good? Now, how does that have to do with Avram, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? Now I now acquaint the Maharal, one mahalach, of what the three galuyos are. So now I have to understand how the Avos, the Arachayim, that the Avos are metaken those galuyos. So the Maharal says like this: Avraham Avinu was keneged giluy arayos. He was metaken giluy arayos. Yitzchak was metaken avodah zarah. Yaakov was metaken shefichas damim. That's what Maharal says.

Right, Bavel is, is shefichas damim. No, shefichas damim. Bavel, it doesn't match up though, right? Right, chronology doesn't match up. So let's see what he does with this. One minute. Wait a minute. Bavel was shefichas damim, so I guess he's going to learn that it doesn't match up. So I guess it should, but that's the Aruch Hayim. See, what I did was I used the Aruch Hayim that they fixed the galusin, and I explained, so maybe he's learning a little differently. Okay, he's learning that Bavel was shefichas damim, and that was fixed through Yaakov. Again, what I did was I used the Aruch Hayim, and I said it was chronologically. So obviously the Maharal is learning it's not chronologically, that Yaakov fixed Bavel. Yitzchak would have fixed—Yitzchak, that's avodah zarah, fixes Yavan, and Avraham, which is gilui arayos, is going to fix Paras. That's how he learns. But what's the connection? You have to explain, what does Avraham Avinu have to do with gilui arayos? So I was thinking about it. The truth is, by the parsha of gilui arayos it says, If you live with your sister, chesed hu. Loshon chesed, chesed hu. To live with your sister, it's only down south. If you're missing teeth and you drive one of these, and you drive with a shotgun, you know, and you curse out all the blacks, then that to them is chesed, to live with their sister. But what does chesed mean? So the Baal HaMusar, ... I told you over many times, explains that the middah of love. If it's not harnessed properly, it could go very far that a person could have such love for his sister that he could live with her. The shoresh of chet sometimes, be'arayos, comes from chesed. You're good natured, but too good-natured, you know. You're supposed to have gedarim, you know. In the '60s they had a lot of chesed, you know, there was a lot of chesed. Yeah, let's do for one another. Yeah, we're all one. And what was it? It was all about arayos. Woodstock, it was all about arayos. Chesed. Sometimes when everybody's lovey-dovey and everybody's doing everybody, we're all the same people, we're all one, yeah, chesed. Okay, so what happens? You do arayos. You see it mamash clearly in the '60s. Unbelievable, unbelievable, the chesed of this. It's not for you, Eretz Yisrael, let me... Yitzchak. Yitzchak was yirah, harashem yera. Fear of Hashem, korban, Mikdash, right? That's avodah zarah. That's keneged avodah zarah, right? V'harashem yera. Yaakov is Torah. Torah is the anecdote for shfichas damim. Brisker Rav used to say over, Yehudi shelo shomea Torah u'mitzvos, chash al shfichas damim. Yehudi shelo shomea Torah u'mitzvos, chashud al shfichas damim. He would say the Tzionim... That's low. He's afraid to cross the street. You never know. If he's mechalel Shabbos, who says he's not going to run him over when he gets angry? What stops him? You know, we think a Jew doesn't kill another Jew. There's some shaychus to Torah, to mitzvahs. Even the worst Jew has something. He comes Rosh Hashanah, something. But if he has nothing, let me tell you, they blew up plenty of boats with Jewish people in the Haganah and all that. Yeah, believe me, with all the love of Israel, they did plenty, plenty murder of Jews. You know that, right? They murdered plenty of Jews. Edom is originally a Jew. Okay, right. You don't think that the taiman, what the destruction that they did to the Yemenite Jews? You want to tell me that a person who—it's retzichah, it was murder. The kibbutzim was all about murder. It was all about killing. It's murder. You can't—without Torah, the next thing is shfichas dam. So Yaakov could be is a tikun for shfichas dam. That's how I want to explain the Maharal, okay? So let me say it over again. Maharal explains Avraham is giluy arayos, Yitzchak is keneged avodah zarah, and Yaakov fixes shfichas dam. And respectively they—

Fix the galus in that argil arayos, shfichas damim, and avodah zarah. So I'm explaining, Avraham Avinu is this gilui arayos. Where does Avraham Avinu... How is Avram's middah of chesed? And the answer is yes, chesed. We see that by gilui arayos, if the chesed is not properly placed, if the chesed is not healthy chesed, real chesed, leads to gilui arayos. I understand, but it was his sister. Then there was no issur. The next is Yitzchak, v'har Hashem yera'eh. It has to do with korban and fear. Yaakov was Torah. Torah, I see from the Brisker Rav, without Torah, the main ingredient is Torah. That protects a person from shfichas damim. If not, ish es re'eihu chayim b'lo, one guy could kill another guy. Okay. The way we're learning from Rabbeinu Ephraim, so it has to do with gaivah, it has to do with kaas, and it has to do with sheker. Rabosai, let's understand: what was Avraham Avinu? What was Avraham Avinu's famous statement? V'anochi... afar v'efer. The biggest anav was Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu was se'et. Se'et was Bavel, and it goes takin order. I want to say it goes in order. Avram, se'et. Se'et took care of Bavel. Bavel is gaivah. According to the way I'm learning, they match up with Aruch HaChaim. Avram is v'anochi afar v'efer, anav. V'anochi afar v'efer. Chesed, rabosai, to be mischased with everybody is a type of anavah. He had an open house. Whoever wanted could come. It's a humble. Avraham Avinu was humble. Vanochi afar va'efer, that's se'et, and that's also the tikkun to Bavel, Darachayim. Fits. It is in order. What about Yitzchak? I found that Yitzchak is kaas. You know, Yitzchak gets angry a lot in the Torah. He got angry at Avimelech. Avimelech came to make him a party. What happens? He got angry. You hate me? What are you coming to me for? That Avraham Avinu do that. And that's what they tell him: We came to your father and he didn't get angry. It's interesting. Chazal say that they mention this nekudah. Why? Because Yitzchak is din. Yitzchak is gevurah. Pachad Yitzchak, kaas. The tikkun of kaas is to take the kaas, to use it properly. Din, gevurah, pachad, the midah of Yitzchak. And therefore it goes keneged which? Se'is apachas, and that is the second one. Sapachas is the second, the poras, right? Poras. Chamas hamelech, anger. Poras, anger. It's in order. Okay. Anger, right? Yitzchak was din. Anger. Pachad Yitzchak. He got angry at Avimelech. You couldn't play around with Yitzchak. You see that the kids, even Chazal tell us, Rivka never spoke to him. You know, Rivka was afraid to talk to him. Huh? It's not good. It's good if it's understood. It's good if, you know what, we'll discuss this a different time, because it's a class for itself. Absolutely. It's a class for itself, you know. The connection between avos and imahos, you have to know them, and it's a klal for itself. Whatever it is, Yitzchok was din. Yitzchok was pachad. You know for sure, you see it. It's not the Rishonim tell us. Pachad Yitzchok hoyah li. Yaakov says the fear of Yitzchok was a... okay. Yaakov. Titein emes l'Yaakov. What was the third one? Baheiret sheker. Titein emes, the truth of Yaakov. Gevaldik, ah? Each galus was a weakness in these middos. In the middah of Gevurah, in the middah of Chesed, in the middah of Sheker. And what happens? Each one of the avos, their strong points help Klal Yisroel to redeem them from those galus, those spiritual galus. With this, rabosai, I want to explain something very interesting. Chazal tell us that the imahos—I'm sorry, not the Chazal, the Arizal. I'm sorry, the Arizal. The Arizal says...

That we have four imoyos in Klal Yisrael. Yeah? You know where I'm going with this, huh? Says the Arizal, there's four imoyos keneged that, and those are the eim ha-tumos of Se'es, sapachas, baheres, and nega tzaraas. Unbelievable. Know which one Rachel is? Huh? So first of all, let me just tell you over two things. You know, I tricked you a little bit. I said there's four imoyos, right? You know what the four imoyos are. What are they? Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, Leah. Says the Arizal, not here. Here the four are the four of Yaakov's wives. It's Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. And keneged that, we have the four tumos. Now you're looking at me, where does he know all these Arizals from? I cheated. The Shem Mishmuel brings it down. Shem Mishmuel brings down from the Kisvei Arizal that there's four imoyos. Later on, there's a few. I went through all of them. I went through all the Shem Mishmuel on the parsha. So later on he brings that there's four imoyos, and with the Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, which one do you think would be Rachel? Let's see. The way we learned, it's beautiful, huh? No? Who is that keres habayis of Yaakov? Which Rachel. Rachel is baheres. Rachel was baheres. The keres habayis, the yesod of Yaakov was actually Rachel, and Rachel is baheres. Yaakov, I told you, was what? Baheret. Okay. With this, rabosai, getting away from all the Kabbalah, let me tell you over another piece of Kabbalah. Well, not Kabbalah, but Kisvei Ari. Shem Mishmuel brings down in another shmues, another sicha, that there's three types in the goyim. There's nigei gufoi, there's nigei begadim, and there's nigei batim. Tefillin, tzitzis, and mezuzah. The tefillin is keneged nigei gufoi. Tzitzis is keneged nigei begadim. Mezuzah is keneged nigei habayit. Let's discuss it. Ready? Tefillin is moach. Beautiful. Tefillin is the inside, right? Tzitzis is the guf, because it's clothing, it's on the outside, it's the guf. And mezuzah is what? Is the bayis. He says, ... it's a shmirah keneged, mazikim, shemiras chadamim, danger, murder, says the Shem Mishmuel. What do I have from here? Gevaldig, gevaldig, gevaldig, you hear? There's one which is about the seichel. There is one which is about the guf. And there's one which is about the nefesh. Those are the three, says Hashem Yishmuel. Huh? Shmichas dam mezuz, it's a shmir for the mazikim, the nefesh. It's later, it's the last shmuz on... You going? You going? We're almost finished, we're almost finished, you hear? Okay. With this, rabosai, I want to point out a few things. The first thing I want to point out, zois tihyeh toras hametzora, v'huva el hakohen b'yom tahoraso. You see, it's about Klal Yisrael, and this is the pshat in the Medrash. Don't worry about metzora. Don't worry about the galusin, because when Moshiach comes, it's all over. So who's going to have the tzaras? Who's going to have the tziluk Shechinah? The goyim are going to have the tziluk Shechinah. Everything that we talked about, tzaras—we ask the goyim, the goyim don't have tzaras. They don't have tumas tzaras. But the idea that the Ribono Shel Olam is masalik Himself, and that they have these aveiros and these chesronos, that's the goyim. You, ani metaher. I'm with you. Lo asid lavo, you won't need the taharah of the kohen. You won't need it. Okay. Rabosai, let's just end with the following concept. What is the worst tumah that we have?

There's zov, tumas mes, and tumas metzora. It's nishlach misholesh machanos. Is a zov sent out of three machanos? No. Most tumas is not sent out of sholesh machanos. Meis is sent out of sholesh machanos, and metzora is sent out of sholesh machanos. Now, rabosai, says the Chofetz Chaim, gevaldik. We know that it comes because of lashon hara, and because of lashon hara, it's the worst of the worst. Avaiza tumah that you're sent out of the three machanos as if you're a tamei meis. So I'm going to give a piece of Chofetz Chaim here. Metzora is about the chet of lashon hara, and yet we see that it's sent out of the three machanos, so we see how strict is lashon hara. And the way we're learning, we can add to this. What causes the tumah? The fact that Hashem leaves the person for the chet that he did. So we see that the chet of lashon hara makes HaKadosh Baruch Hu leave you. Speak bad about Jews, and Hashem says, Have a nice day. I don't want to have anything to do with you. Talk against another Jew, and I don't want to have anything to do with you. Do you hear what we're learning? תשמע מה שאנחנו לומדים פה. I'm telling you like this: the Chofetz Chaim explains that metzora is the worst of the worst tumah. You see, he's sent out of three machanos, while other zav, zavah, you're not sent out of three machanos. Says the Chofetz Chaim, because you see how bad lashon hara is. Now I explained to you that how does the tumah work by tzaraas? That Hashem leaves the person. So we have an A plus B equals C. We could deduce from this that what? That when a person speaks lashon hara, Hashem leaves the person worse than what He leaves by other aveiros. You talk against another Jew, Hashem is not there with you. He's out. He leaves you. You hear? ... It's a peleh peleim, peleh peleim. I'm putting two things together. Chofetz Chaim says you see tzaraas the worst, and at the same time I explained to you how does it work? Because Hashem left. So you see that by speaking lashon hara, worse than other aveiros, Hashem wants nothing to do with you, as if you would be a meis, that Hashem completely leaves you. A meis, Hashem left the person completely. Now I just want to patch up one last thing. I explained to you tazria metzora, the connection. What's the connection? What's the connection? And let's also understand deeper that if you have a bris milah, you could cut off the tzaraas. If you have a bris milah, you cut off the tzaraas. Let's explain it. What's the tumah by tumas nidah? So the emes is the Shem Mishmuel, in a different shmooze, says something very interesting. He says, tumas leidah. He said, what could be bad about leidah? It's beautiful. Hashem is involved in the birth of a child. It's Hashem. Hu, there's shlosha shutfin ba'adam. So how could it make tumah? It's a very nice question. How yitachen sheyismashech bazeh tumah? It's mavteach shel chayah. It's Hashem who causes a child to be born. The Gemara says it's Hashem's key. It's one of the keys Hashem doesn't give over to anybody. So he brings down, you know, from who? From the Kotzker Rebbe, the Shem Mishmuel's grandfather. He says, My grandfather asked, I don't understand how there can be tumah from it. And he says, V'tiretz, sheha-tumah ba'ah achar kach. Kotzker. Very nice, very short and to the point. You're right. Hashem was involved, and He's not involved anymore. So the leaving, the fact that Hashem is not involved, He was involved. The was is the problem. It's was and not is. Once the baby's born, you know who it is? It's you. You get stuck with the late nights and the crying and the bottles and the diapers. Of course Hashem was involved. But then he says, you know what? Like grandparents, they come to them, they give you a present, they rock you, and then they... Okay, now you go home. Let your parents take care of you, yeah? Says the Kotzker, you hear? Beautiful, huh? V'tiretz, two words, Kotzker. That's the derech of Kotz. Sheha-tumah ba'ah achar kach. Okay. So he brings from his father, which is the son of the Kotzker, that he explains that the whole idea of tumah is the fact that Hashem leaves, like we spoke by tumas meis. Hashem left. Hashem is not with the person, and that's tumas meis, and therefore... I'm sorry, therefore...

Tazria, the woman who's now not directly a shutaf for HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem is now not involved anymore, so to speak, as much as He was before, so therefore it causes like tumas meis. What is metzora, rabosai? It's also, Hashem leaves. Now I understand the connection. I was trying to understand, you're putting together the tumah of a woman who had a child together with the tumah of tzaraas. It's all the same concept of tumah. It's the disconnect from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and we have to learn this. We live our lives, we could be constantly connected with HaKadosh Baruch Hu every moment. We disconnect. The moment we disconnect, you see the child born, and then Hashem is not in the process of creating the child, that already causes a tumah. That's already a pause, a pause in the connection, a pause in the connection, a pause in the connection. Once you pause in the connection, tumah sets in. You want to stay away from all the dirt of the world. A minute, a minute. You want to stay away from all the dirt of the world. You want to stay away from— no pause. Constantly connected to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The minute you put it on pause, the tumah sets in right away. It grabs you. That's it. That's what happens. It catches you and it grabs you. Tumas leidah, tumas tzaraas. Oh, oh, one second, one second, one second. With this, I want to explain a meiridike thing. We see that if a person comes and he makes a bris milah, so the bris milah, you can well cut off the baheres. What is the bris? The bris is that he's machnis HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and he brings HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he makes a treaty with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, right? Neilah the baheres, he's allowed to cut away, even with a tumas tzaraas. The aseh of fixing—how do you fix the tzaraas? And how do you fix tzaraas? By making a treaty with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, by bringing HaKadosh Baruch Hu into your life. That's the yesod of parshas Tazria, rabosai, have a gevaldige.