Tazria-Metzora - Beyond Process

you're listening to the weekly paraa podcast recorded with the's never ending assistance in R Israel 2015 this week's para is par tazria and mits we have two Paras together the paraa starts off this is 12 vers one God spoke to Moses and said speak to the children of Israel and say as follows is when a woman shall conceive the oldest and then shall give birth to a child to a male so she becomes impure for seven days just like when she has her menstrual period she's impure so she's impure here as well for seven days even though she hasn't had her period verse three on the eighth day there is an obligation to give this child this boy a circumcision now the the verses continue but I want to focus in over here on the concept of seven seven days she's meant to count she has to count those seven days whether it's for her menstrual cycle or whether it's because she's just given birth she has to count those seven days before she becomes pure again before she's permitted to be with her husband again and then on the Eighth Day the concept of eight you have the seven you have the eight we've spoken in the past about the concept of seven and eight but there's an Insight that I saw on the medish from the medish that I wanted to share which really deepens the ideas here deepens the concepts of s and8 and deepens what the Torah is trying to tell us here in this description of a woman who conceives and gives birth a few questions before we get into the measur a few questions we can look at it's really interesting that the the way that the Torah describes the conception and birth usually we think about conception and birth those are two separate stages conception happens at a certain point 9 months later you have the birth the Tor doesn't really give us anything about those 9 months it's just she conceives she gives birth it's just interesting that the time factor is left out also interesting I mean what do I need to really know about the fact that she conceived she gave birth she okay A woman has given birth she counts seven days she's impure and then on the eth day which it seems has nothing to do with the seven days that she's counted of impurity but on the eighth day I mean it's it's really incidental that she's conceived given birth you could just talk about the fact that she's given birth why why is the Torah describing it in this way what what's the understanding of it also the number seven and eight seven has to do with her her the fact that she's bleeding and she's not permitted to be with her husband doesn't seem to be connected so much to the concept of eight which has to do with the bris it's really also incidental she has to count eight days in regards to her in regards to her son she has to count seven days in regards to herself but they don't seem to be connected is there a connection and if there is is what is the connection now I'd like to share with you a mish and as we've spoken about in the past the way of the Mish is that the Mish brings a verse brings some some PUK which at the end of the Mish the verse is going to be used to explain theim the verses that we're speaking about but in the meantime once once the Maes has brought this P this verse so it uses the verse to expound and expand and speak about Concepts that at first do not seem to be related to the con concept of the PK the verse at hand however in looking in a deeper way when we try to understand and we recognize that theal when our sages spoke they never randomly Place Concepts next to each other but rather somehow these concepts are connected and one concept explains the other in such a way that we can get a greater depth in the teaching that we're trying to understand here on this very verse so if we come into it with that understanding so the medish always teaches us something very very profound and deep so the firstes on the par it says like this so this is what it means in the verse in in Psalms 139:5 this verse is actually a pretty opaque verse but the literal translation of the verse is that God formed me before and after or actually after and before now the Mish goes to Great Lengths to try to explain what does it mean that Hashem created me God created the human being before and after or after and before what is this idea so before we get into the whole Mish I want to fast forward to the end of the Mish because it's instructive to look at that first and see what is why is this verse being being brought over here what is the connection to after and before and the creation over here obviously there's something to do specifically with our verse the verse is speaking about is when a woman conceives and she gives birth right so we're speaking about the conception and creation of a human being of a person now the medish says that at at the end of the medish it says that the previous verses the previous Pim we're speaking about the Torah the concept of animals which animals are permitted to eat which animals are forbidden to eat and the mes tells us that there's an aspect of after when it comes to the human being the Torah Waits first speaks about the animals first speaks about the Torah the concepts of the Torah which are connected to animals and then only then does the Torah speak about the aspects that are related to the human being the aspects of the human being's birth the aspects of the circumcision that need to take place if it's a boy what happens if it's a girl Etc but the the Torah specifically puts it in this order we find another place in the Torah where it's in this order and that's in the creation of of the world Hashem when he created the world when God created the world so the animals were created first the birds were created first all of the plant life when Man was created was on the sixth day the human being came into the world on the sixth day so really in a certain sense the man the human being is last now of course in another sense and perhaps this is the depth of the verse the depth of the Mish here the beginning of the depth the human being is created first meaning Hashem is creating all these things along the way days one through through five 1 2 3 4 5 6 all the animals all these things are being created for the human being so that means that has in mind the human being before but on another in another way the soul of the human being is actually created on the first day so before all even though yes the the body of the human being was created on the sixth day and the Soul was joined with the body on the sixth day so his first conscious experience is after everything but at the same time his Creation The Soul his Nish was created on the first day so the Met says that there's a sobering fact that we can deduce from this the the that theim have ordered the the concepts of the animals versus the human being from the fact that the human being was created last if a person merits so then they say to the person if if a person does what's right if a person purifies himself a person is involved in Torah and spirituality Etc so they say to him you are you were there you came before all of creation but if not they say to that person a mosquito was created before you meaning if a person is egotistical if a person doesn't seek spirituality if a person is all involved in himself so then they say you think you're so great there was there was mosquitoes that were created before you so so that's the aspect of the physical part of the human being but if a person does what's right if it connects to spirituality if it connects to his higher self to his soul so then they say to him you were created first the whole world was created for you now let's back up for a moment and look back at the beginning of the Mish because the Mish speaks about stuff that doesn't at first seem to be connected but clearly is connected let's see it says like this brings this ver Man was created after and before when God created man he was created in such a way that he encompassed the entire world he was able to see from one end of the world to the other he was Transcendent it says he was from the East to the West it brings a verse from north to south it brings another verse of course we need to understand what does it mean that adishian he was so big he was so large he encompassed the entire world he was like he was a spaceship he was what was what does this mean what does the magish mean when it says that he was so encompassing now before we continue and read another aspect of this magish it's important to come back to the question of what is the meish you're trying to do why are we connecting to ad harishon to the way that he was created why are we speaking about this so I we we get the beginnings of it because we already explained that we have here this this m is trying to tell us how in a certain sense the human being is not as as not as significant as when a person doesn't do what they're supposed to do when they don't value spirituality they're less significant than an animal but and and and we see that as well in the in the way that Hashem created the human being so we have that connection already but there's more there's deeper connections here and one of the connections is that we find that when a child is developing its a fetus inside of its mother so kazal tell us our sages say that Hashem gives it a light it's actually a reference to this in the Mish also over here it doesn't say the whole thing that the gamar says but but there's a light that's over its head Hashem shines a light over its head with with which it can see from one end of the world until the other so clearly a baby inside the the baby you know also thinking about like why don't I remember when I was a baby inside of my mother why does a child not remember something that happened so recently right but part of it has to do with the fact that it's in a space a transcendent space just like ad Harish was all encompassing a child when it's inside of its mother's womb its experience its Consciousness is such that it is all encompassing our sages tell us the the child is being taught all of the Torah which is also a way of our kazal our sages referencing the fact that it's in a space consciously which is beyond it's in a Transcendent place so we already see that there's these parallels between a child and the way Adam Harish was created between the the child and in that space of in between the time when the child is conceived until the woman gives birth that baby is in a space which is beyond time so that could be the beginnings of an explanation why the Torah refers to these with with that kind of like skipping the time skipping the process skipping the nine months because that child when it's experiencing that nine months so the the child experience is transcendent it's beyond time so there's another reference to this idea in the H in the continuation of the the says the quotes an opinion which is but according to his opinion it says that which it says in Genesis the very beginning very beginning of Genesis it speaks about the fact that God's spirit as it were was hovering above the water Hashem had just created the heavens and the Earth and there's water and God's spirit is hovering above what's this God's spirit what's it a reference to mashia the spirit is a reference to the spirit the Nish the soul of the Messiah now what's very interesting the the 8 brings down the Z says it's something that we quoted in the past that Adam Harish the soul of Adam his soul is Adam is three letters is Al and me and it represents the fact that the soul of Adam would reincarnate Twice first time the first Incarnation was the first man himself the second Incarnation The Reincarnation was in David the second letter ofam isid which stands for David and then the final Incarnation the second reincarnation is in me is mhia the mhia the Messiah who's going to come and and Usher in that age of the Messiah so that soul the soul of ad marish that all-encompassing Soul which one day will come into the world again and bring the world back back to its state of perfection that adish experienced when he was in the Garden of Eden that Soul already existed on the first day of creation the very beginning now hold on to that thought hold on to this idea that the soul of the Messiah is already there before there's something here that's beyond time that's beyond space hold on to that concept and the way that the magish works is that the Mish will take a verse and will go through sections peace after peace after peace explaining that verse then we'll come to an end and then move on to a different verse now at the very end of this whole section explaining this verse of is when a woman conceives and then gives birth the very end it says something which is remarkable and I think gives a tremendous depth to what's going on here says the in this world woman when she gives birth she experiences pain but in the future what does the verse says this is a verse in Isaiah 66:7 the verse speaks about the fact and it's a mush over there and the verse if you see the verse itself it's speaking in an analogy speaking really about the keus Gus the in gathering of the Exiles but the analogy that it uses is that in the future the experience of a woman when she gives birth will be that before she even has any pain before she has any child birth trauma she will have given birth already meaning the the pain the challenge the process that we have today won't be there in the future time and it's something that we find that the first man before the sin when when they in the Garden of Eden the the the tal tells us the gar says that man and his wife got up on the bed there were two of them they came down from the bed there were four of them it was immediate there was no process the the the there's a hint here in the verse of that that there's no time the ideal is that there's no time between the conception and the birth that's how it was when when adish was in the garden with his wife immediately they conceived they gave birth there was no time there was no process and that's how it's going to be in the future when the Messiah comes after when we get into that space of the world to come so the concept and the birth will occur immediately one after the other without that 9mon period now in thinking about this I was just struck by the fact that the the process here the way that it works is that there's a first stage there's a there's an initial state which is that the way it was at the beginning no process there's a fall from grace there's a fall from that Perfection that perfected State and now there's a necessity for there to be processed But ultimately we we return to that place where there is no process now if we look at the mes that we quoted earlier we we think about the fact that Adam Harish the first man his soul was created first before everything so there was a state of perfection there was a state of a lack of process in a certain sense the soul was there all inclusive Beyond transcendant and in fact the soul of the Messiah which is the end of the story was already there at the beginning and everything was in a state of perfection without process now there's a six- day process there's 6 days adish his physical body is created on the sixth day he comes into the world and the Consciousness ofish the way that he perceives reality is not that he was there before he perceives himself as a physical being or as a physical and spiritual being combined but it's after a whole process of creation now when he comes in what does he experience what does he see everything is done already in other words his first experience is kind of the original thought of God God on the first day when says in the beginning God creates the heavens and the Earth he's already has the whole idea as it were so to speak in his head right hasem has a whole creation already and he's doing it for man otherwi comes into the world on the sixth day after the whole process and his experience is the final product so you have you have this like Perfection this state of nonprocess which is the soul is created in that in that space then you have a process of Six Days on the sixth day again you return in a certain sense to that to that everything is already done there is no process his experience is of no process and then we continue to see this kind of back and forth stuff starts in a perfected State no process when when when before they sin there's no process in in the in the creation of a child conception birth that's it nothing more no process No 9 months fall through that sin and now there's process and then eventually the process is no longer necessary now now in thinking about this and thinking about it so when we look at what happens the concept of seven the concept of seven represents the process it's the seven days of the week it's a six days it's a six days of work it's a six days of efforts that we put in yes shabas is a day of rest it's a day that we sit back and we enjoy the the efforts that we put in all those six days but the seven represents the physical world as we experience it which is that there's process and there's continuing process the number eight what's interesting about the number eight is that it's not a number that actually comes after seven the number eight represents the composite the the Oneness of those seven so the number eight is transcendent it's the picture it's the face that includes all the different parts the eyes the nose the mouth but it's the face it's the it's the coming together of all those pieces and creating a Oneness which is beyond the pieces themselves the parts themselves but here's the here's the novelty the the the new idea the deeper depth which is that the eight is not a number that's after seven the eight is a number that's before and after seven really encompassing seven it's the number that represents all of the pieces in thought before it's actually come into real reality and it's the number that represents the return back to that place where there's a completion and there's no process necessary so now look at the look at the verse again the verse that we read at the very beginning and see something amazing verse says 12 vers one God spoke to Moses and said B second verse L speak to the people of Israel when a woman shall conceive the and and immediately she will give birth right that's the initial stage of reality when there's no process but when there's a fall so there's a necessity for there to be a process a counting of seven days when you count those seven days the just like when she menstruates there's a separation there's a counting there's a process but in the respecting of the process what happens on the eighth day it's not disassociated it's not disconnected after there's a counting of those seven days there's a return to the eighth aspect there's a removal of the foreskin and that concept of the eighth that concept of the Eighth Day the concept of the removal of the foreskin is a is representative of the fact when a person has a Ty when a person has a desire and the foreskin represents sexual desire when a person has desire so why why does it why is it necessary it says that when when and when they were in the gun before the sin so there was no TAA there was no desire it was just like a person who needs to drink a cup of water you know you're thirsty you drink the water and that's it you're done and so too that's the way it was when it came to their intercourse when it came to their relations you know if we think about it it's like if you know that when I in involve myself in this particular act it's going to create a child you see the results immediately so that itself would be motivation enough in order to create to to for them to have relations they would have this child but today because we live in a time where it takes this whole process there's this whole long uh and arduous process the 9mon process for the child to come into reality soem instills it into us that we have to have a TAA we have to have this lust this need to come into this relations otherwise the world wouldn't continue to exist the the human beings and animals wouldn't propagate themselves so but the TAA is only there it's only necessary because we live in a world where there is process if there wouldn't be that need for the process there wouldn't be a need for the TAA but by removing the forkin it's a a recognition that it's possible to be in a space to return to the space of eight to the Transcendent space to that place before TAA before process or more accurately Beyond process and the way that that occurs in our world is by respecting process when a person goes through that time when it's forbidden to be with their spouse there's a respect for the process there's a respect for time there's that counting and respects the time and the process now a person can return back to the state of eth to the state of Oneness to the state of unity I want to bless you please bless me back hasm should help us to be able to recognize that we live in a world of process but it's possible to access that space which is beyond process and that occurs through the respecting of process Z if a person merits so then they say to him you were created before at the very beginning you have returned to the space which is beyond process but if a person doesn't respect process doesn't fulfill the words of the Torah that help us to start respecting the process then they say to that person the mosquito was created before you may we Merit to indeed be among those who are able to be told that you have merited to be created before and return to that space thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]