Rav Moshe Weinberger Shalosh Seudos Drasha Parashas Tazriah-Metzora 5752

Below is a write-up of Rav Weinberger's Shalosh Seudos drasha from this Shabbos, Parshas Tazriah-Metzora. This version reflects his review of the write-up. You can see past write-ups of Rav Weinberger's Shalosh Sheudos Torahs here and get thousands of his shiurim in mp3 format at ravmosheweinberger.com.

Rav Moshe Weinberger

Shalosh Seudos Drasha Parashas Tazriah-Metzora 5752

The Kedushas Levy: Giving Nachas to Hashem

(Original text of the Kedushas Levy (Parashas Tazriah) is in regular font. Rav Weinberger’s comments are in italics)

Let us explain the passuk "אשה כי תזריע" (When a woman shall conceive). It's written in the Holy Zohar (Chelek 3 42b) regarding this passuk  "it should have stated "כי תהר" (conceived). Rabbi Yossi explained that from the moment a woman becomes pregnant until the time of birth, she constantly has on her lips that it should be a boy" .

Obviously this is referring to something in Pnimius. We know that there plenty of ladies and even many men that are davening to have a girl! 

I heard from my master our teacher Reb Dov Ber (the Mezritcher Maggid) זי״ע regarding the statement of Chazal (Zohar Chelek 3 7b) "Yisroel gives Parnassah to their Father in Heaven". As it's written in Mishley (10:1) "בן חכם ישמח אב" (a smart son makes his father happy). This means that our performance of Mitzvos and Good Deeds brings pleasure to the Creator B"H. Through this Yisroel gives "Parnassah" to their Father in Heaven, as pleasure is a form of "Parnassah".

Parnasah is more then just money. It refers to a form of support and nourishment. 

But according to this, how are Jews worthy of performing Mitzvos and Good Deeds in order to give pleasure to the Creator B"H? Doesn't He have thousands of angels saying "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh" (Holy) in awe and in fear? What are we that we should even be considered? Let's explain this through a parable. The aristocrats among the nations have a certain bird that they train to speak like a person, and the listener is amazed and tells his friends to come and hear such a novel thing. The meaning of this should be clear, and you should open your eyes and see the greatness of Mitzvos and Good Deeds. That all the Avodah of the Malachim above is but a shade when compared to that of men.

The fact that an angel can praise G'd is not a חידוש (novel). An angel is swimming in Elokus (Godliness). The greatest חידוש is that a being of flesh and blood living in the miserable, dark, physical world can serve Hashem and sing his praises. This is truly wondrous.

According to this we can explain the Mishna in Pirke Avos (2:1) "Rebbi said: Which is the proper path that a man should choose for himself? Whatever glorifies it's maker, and gives him glory through men". Rebbi is coming to teach us the correct way to serve Hashem. To hold on to the Middah of Tiferes (glory, splendor) and to elevate it. The essence of the intention of ones service should only be to glorify Hashem Yisborach. He is glorified through the Avodah of His children. We, so to speak, bring him praise and Nachas.  Even though  "dressed" in the thick physical body, we still exert ourselves to overcome our physical temptation and to cover ourselves with spirituality and the holiness of our Creator. Thus He is glorified with us, so to speak. This is the meaning of "Whatever glorifies its maker", that Hashem our maker is glorified through us. Rebbi revealed to us what this glory comes from saying "and gives Him glory through men". Through this the Creator b"h "receives" tremendous pleasure, and it can be said He is in the aspect of a "receiver".

Normally the father is the one giving to his children. In Pnimius HaTorah the concept of Zachar (male) refers to the role of "giver", while Nekevah (female) refers to the role of "receiver".  In this sense the father is in the "male" role, while the children are in the "female" role. But there are times when these roles can be reversed, as when the children "give" Nachas (satisfaction) to the father. In the same way, normally Hashem is THE giver, and we receive from him. But it's also possible for the Jewish People to "give" to Hashem, so to speak.

As I heard from my Master and teacher Reb Dov Ber of Mezritch זי״ע regarding the passuk (Tehillim 118:23) "מאת ה׳ היתה ׳זאת׳ היא נפלאת בעינינו" ("this" is from Hashem, it's a wonder in our eyes). The word "זאת" (this) refers to the feminine aspect, as is known (Zohar Chelek 2 37b). We stated above that since the essence of the Avodah should be the pleasure that the Creator b"h receives form it, we can say that Hashem can be considered to be in a "receiving" role, so to speak. This is the meaning of "מאת ה׳ היתה ׳זאת׳" ("this" is from Hashem), that He is in the "female" aspect, that of "זאת" (this). And this is truly "a wonder in our eyes".

This is the meaning of the Zohar when is says that "from the moment a woman becomes pregnant until the time of birth, she constantly has on her lips that it should be a boy". The "woman" refers to Kneses Yisroel. The "pregnancy" refers to the time a person starts his Avodah of the Creator. "The time of birth" is when a person completes a Mitzvah. "It's constantly in her lips that it should be a boy" means that the Avodah should be in the aspect of "masculine". Only then it brings forth Divine Flow to all the worlds. May we merit to serve Hashem Yisborach in such a way, Amen.

At this time, at the end of days, any Jew that can "squeeze in" a little Avodas Hashem, and all the more so if he does so with Kavanah (the right intention) it's an amazing thing that gives Hashem tremendous Nachas.

Chazal refers to the Galus as "pregnancy without a Leida (birth)". The Ribono shel Olam should help us that we should be zoche to see the Leida soon with the Geulah HaSheleima VeHaamitis בב״א.

Did You do the Aveira You Heard about?

It is known that the Baal Shem Tov taught, based on the fact of hashgacha pratis over every detail of creation, that when ones witnesses another person committing an aveira, he must not view it as an unfortunate coincidence that he just "happened" to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that's why he witnessed the sin. Rather, Hashem caused him to see the aveira in order to do him a favor by communicating to him that he has also done that aveira, or some lesser form of the aveira. He must therefore examine his deeds and heart in order to determine what his sin was so that he may do teshuva for it.

A couple of years ago, on the Shabbos when we read this week's parsha, Tazria-Metzora, Rav Weinberger took this concept to another level. He quoted, also in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, an amazing extension of the aforementioned concept. He taught based on one of the psukim in that parsha (something along the lines of "v'shav hakohein el beiso") that after the kohein examines the Metzora or helps him with his purification process, the kohein must then look within himself for his spiritual faults. Why? Tzara'as, we know, is the result of various sins. When the kohein meets someone with Tzara'as, he either hears about or sees the effects of sin (even though he did not witness the sin itself). He therefore must examine himself to see how he has commited a sin simmilar to the one committed by the Metzora.

As I was thinking about this extension of the more well known principle of the Baal Shem Tov to situations where one did not see an aveira, but "merely" hears about it or sees its effects, I thought that I can understand this as applied to someone like me, whose job (bankruptcy attorney) does not inherently involve hearing about aveiros. But some people have jobs that inherently involve listening to people reveal their and others' aveiros all day, every day! Do people like my Rebbe or therapists have to sit down at the end of the day, every day, and ask themselves how they have committed something like the sixteen aveiros they heard about that day at work?

Can it be that the Baal Shem Tov's principle is mechayev such a vast introspection so frequently for such people? Or was this only meant for people who irregularly see or hear about aveiros, like me, such that each one is more of a chidush? This is my question on this issue, so I decided to ask three people who study chassidus/penimius haTorah, who are also mental health professionals, this question (a psychologist, a social worker, and a psychiatrist). They all work with adults and very frequently hear about and see the effects of very serious aveiros.

I asked them whether they think the Baal Shem Tov's teaching was meant to apply to people like them who work in fields which inherently come across many more aveiros than other types of baalabatim. I thought that the general response I would get would be that it was unimaginable that the principle applied equally to people in their situation because if it did, how could such an approach be sustainable? "Derache'ha darchei noam." But I was surprised by the reactions.

The heilige Yidden who work as a psychiatrist and a social worker, respectively, both responded that they thought it did apply to them, and that they needed to work more on self-introspection to see how their clients' sins applied to them as well so that they could repair more of their internal faults.

The third person I spoke to. Rabbi Dr. Binyomin Tepfer, a psychologist, took issue with the assumption my question was based on.

He shared a teaching from Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap, from Mei Marom, the talmid muvhak of Rav Kook, on the fact that Rivka was able to see Eisav's evil, but Yitzchak was not able to. He said that even though Rivka was a tzadekes, because she grew up in the house of a rasha, she had more of a shaychus to what evil was, and was therefore able to identify it in Eisav. Yitzchak, on the other hand, grew up in the house of a tzadik, Avraham Avinu, and in Eretz Hakodesh, the holy land, so he had no shaychus to evil. He may have heard about or witnessed evil acts, but he did not have the keilim, the tools, to process them, and probably attributed them to some factors external to Eisav, but not as a reflection of his true nature.

R. Dr. Tepfer said that he understood the Baal Shem Tov's teaching in a similar way. The issue is not whether light waves carrying an image of a person sinning reach a person's optic nerves, or whether sound waves carrying the sound of a person admitting a sin reach his ears. The issue is whether he really *sees* or really *hears* the aveira. If a kohein is a tzadik, he will not truly see the nega, the blemish, in the person who comes to him. He will just see a tzadik in front of him who, nebach, has some flaws covering his true self, which are completely external to his true nature.

Similarly, even for someone who regularly sees or hears about aveiros, the question is whether he sees the people in front of him as being truly deficient, as having nega'i'm, blemishes, as part of their identities. If a therapist or Rav has done teshuva for everything which is even similar to his client's sin, however, he looks at the clients or the people who come to him as really good, but who, unfortunately, have been damaged, and just need some (or a lot) of help to shed that external shell from themselves in order to reveal their true nature as holy Jews.

I have not yet been able to ask Rav Weinberger this question yet, but I did want to share my friends' insights into this very practical question.

IY"H, may we all be zoche to do teshuva so that no matter what happens outside of ourselves, we will only see the good in others.