Tazria Metzorah: Spiritual Conductivity | Rabbi Ari Kahn |April 16th 2026

So, there sheer today and every week even when we didn't have sheer. Especially we didn't have sheer. It is a sponsored by Rabbi Michael and Jerry Laxmeter for the fushlum of the granddaughter Avigail Sore about Shayna Aharona. How she doing? She said that she's walking. Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem. Okay. May she continue to improve. Amen. Okay. So, here's the question. Where exactly do we begin in in a parsha or two parshiot? You know, what's wrong what's worse than parsha Tazria? Right? Tazria and Metzora and I'm saying what's But but I guess it's a certain amount of said it to well combine them together and let's get them out of the way. And and I and honestly early in the week, I did say to my wife maybe I just won't come on Thursday and say I don't feel well and and and move on. So, nonetheless, let's let's try to get somewhere. And I'm actually very disappointed because I prepared a couple extra sources and they seem to have disappeared. I don't know what I did with them. I thought I printed them, but I don't see them. So, I mean I know you have paid one to four, but I had five and six and uh something something quite mysterious happened. So, let us let us start and I'm going to say a couple of things which are quite familiar to you. So, the familiarity will make this I think a little bit easier and then I'm going to try to get some place which is probably not as easy, but but I think does emerge from the text. So, I I will explain so that this some of this will make sense. There is a perception that there is a correlation between whatever tsaraat is and somehow misspeaking. If you want, we can start with something which is already in the Gemara, which is articulated by Resh Lakish. And he And he notices something which Now, you could decide what it is. You could decide it's philological, or you could decide that it's some kind of a remez, or it's associative. Again, that I don't care. And he says that metzora has the similarity, or is the same, depending on how you want to read it, as motzi shem ra. Right? That there is mo- metzora motzi shem ra maybe reminds you, or maybe it's similar. And motzi shem ra is a particularly evil betrayal. And I'm I'm I'm using motzi shem ra in its most technical sense, because this there is something called lashon hara. Lashon hara is to report things about other people. La- lashon hara technically could be true. Lashon hara, for that matter, could actually be something which is positive. You say, "Why is it lashon hara?" But still something which you perhaps had no right to be speaking about, and somehow it is an affront on the other individual by by saying it. And even if there's not an affront, sometimes that's an issue as well. The Gemara in Arachin on uh on round 10 12 10 19 goes into a whole discussion about lashon hara motzi shem ra. And one of the things it says there to start off is Resh Lakish is a sometimes havruta and a mentor of Yochanan. He says, "Oh, take a look at the spies. The spies were ultimately punished because they were motzi shem ra on Eretz Yisrael." Okay, so there that's a really in use of this, but it's saying, "Okay, that that's what they did. They they they misspoke." But that also would then indicate that on some level there is a marriage relationship between Eretz Yisrael and between the Jewish people and us saying certain things about Eretz Yisrael is itself a betrayal. And and I think again that that word is the right is the right word. There's a begidah. There's something which is wrong about that. And the classical sense of the Motzi Shem Ra is where a couple get married and there's intimacy and then the husband besmirches the reputation of the woman falsely. And that's Motzi Shem Ra. And and you we realize that there is a profound betrayal involved in that. In again, where there should be intimacy and maybe that's exactly a part of it. The greater the intimacy and the relationship, the stronger the relationship, the greater the betrayal that then that then takes place. And I think I think that that is an element of this. So if I were to think completely biblically, and now is the question is do you want me to go in terms of best example or go chronological through the through the Torah, so we'll we'll we'll maybe go through this more chronologically why I would create some kind of correlation. First of all, it would become as no surprise to any of you that I would choose to start in Bereshit and therefore go back to the first miss- speaking which takes place. And that of course will be the speaking of the Nachash. And the Nachash is guilty of Motzi Shem Ra as well, or if you want Lashon Hara, or certainly using its ability to speak. Now, what is particularly interesting, and I'll call this midrashically or it's a visual midrash, and that is the skin of the serpent is very leprous type. And therefore and part of what happens is it sheds its skin afterwards, which means that there is something which is a little bit stronger in terms of the tsaraat connected to this reptile. And and part of what we don't know is, you know, I said the stronger the relationship, the greater the betrayal. I don't know what the relationship was supposed to be. I mean, we we never have that introduction. Oh, and, you know, Adam had a best friend and his name was Nachash. So, meaning we we don't know what the relationship is, so we don't know exactly what the level of betrayal was. There are various expressions of the Midrash, but that would take us a little bit far away. But all that I wanted to point out is that you do have in this case misspeak. You do have a couple of other things that take place. One is exile and being sent, if you want, I'll use a different terminology now, being kicked out of Machaneh. If you were to read the chapter or chapters that deal with tsaraat, first of all, there's something which is I'll use the word wonderful, but it's but it's maybe completely inappropriate. There's something which is wonderfully pastoral about the descriptions which are utilized in terms of the healing process of tsaraat. It is the wood and is the water, the water the the the living water. And it is, you know, taking the shani and it it's taking all kinds of things of nature, which to me is really a very edonic description of it and therefore it's almost like I can't read through that first two chapters of Bereishit without seeing some of those elements over here in terms of the the fixing of the situation of tsaraat. And again, just for clarity's sake, tsaraat I could have gone through for the beginning of of Tazria and Metzora and say, okay, all that we're really dealing with over here are some type of bodily functions, which is all true until we move over to clothing. And by the way, clothing is very important here. And then you move over to the to the to the homes, which means it's not just bodily functions. I mean, that worked until it didn't work. So, maybe we felt comfortable with what we were understanding, but at some point we're dealing with a completely different phenomena. But when you go to clothing specifically, I'm going to say it again now. I go back then to that same chapter having to do with the nachash. And Adam and Eve seem to be particularly content and naked until they eat from the tree. And then they suddenly get to this realization that they are in fact this sense of humiliation and this sense of nakedness and this sense of that they actually need clothing. But the clothing itself becomes representative of the bigid of this bigida of this betrayal which has taken place. So, now again, it's almost like you can't move from the beginning of of reshit and to to appreciate part of what's going on over here. But I'm going to say it again, just reading the descriptions of how nature's used, but there's this other element which I kind of danced around which is the most obvious one. And that is that part of the severity of sarat of the metzora is that he's kicked out of all three machanot. I mean, I I gave you a hint about that before. He's kicked out michutz lamachaneh, eiza machaneh, kol shlosh machanot, which means you have certain cert it becomes this really interesting mental test and religious test to ask, "So, what is the most severe type of tumah?" Because the knee-jerk reaction is that tumat met, but tumat met as we just had not long ago with Nadav and Avihu, they have to be removed to a makom kadosh. On the other hand, we know there's this machaneh kedushah, there's this machaneh leviyah, there's this machaneh Yisrael. So, the these these bodies are removed from the machaneh kedushah, but they're taken to machaneh leviyah. On the other hand, this uh situation of uh of sarat, he is kicked out of all three machanot and therefore the separation is the most severe. Obviously, that's going to bring the commentators to say that what he has is again going back to lashon hara, he has something which is more dangerous. He has something which has metastasized and something worse than anything else that you need to wear a mask because it's something which is contagious. So, being that he has a contagion, is that how you say this? Therefore, he has to be outside of all of the machanot as opposed to somebody who I know this sounds terrible, who only died. But so only died, that that that's not contagious. That's just tragic. So, it's interesting that then I go back to Adam and Eve and the result of this misuse of speech and therefore partaking of this particular fruit, so what ended up happening is that they get exiled, they get kicked out, they there's a there's a geresh there which is the term which is used by you garish Adam, which goes back to this language of of relationship, of intimacy, and then of betrayal, and then ultimately one of of separation. And Adam and Eve are are kicked out of the of of eating completely again, it's not just they're out of sight, they're they're the machaneh Leviya, they're completely exiled. So, I'm going to say it again, when I start thinking about sarat and I go back to the serpent and I go back to the various things in the and and the and the wood and the water and so on and just think about all these various descriptions. And then on top of everything else, there is the the famous comment of Unkelos who says that man was endowed with a special spiritual ability and that's this ability to speak, which means speaking is a divine gift. And essentially, what we're dealing with is a betrayal on our part by using a divine gift inappropriately. So, therefore instead of using our ability to speak in a positive way, which could have been, let's say, words of Torah, words of comfort, or again, all kinds of ways that we could have used our speech and our language, instead, what we're finding is that we are guilty of a betrayal simply by misusing our God-given, literally God-given ability, and that is this ability to speak. So again, I I hope that all that becomes clear. If you then want to tighten this a little bit more, we can probably skip through the rest of Bereshit, and we can go to Moshe at the Sneh, where Moshe says something inappropriate about Am Yisrael, "They're not going to believe." And God says, "Okay, take your hand, put it in, take it out." And look at that, suddenly he has tzaraat. And that then for us creates some kind of a correlation between misspeaking and the or motzi shem ra for that matter, and between tzaraat. I mean, if you want, I'll translate it as leprosy, as long as you don't make me translate it as Hansen's disease, but it it is tzaraat. And then later on, maybe the best correlation would be when we find the story of Miriam, where Miriam misspoke, and there it's even There it's even emphasized that Moshe is the most modest person. So Moshe does isn't even impacted by this, but nonetheless, that was misusing a divine gift, and therefore, she is outside of the camp. Very, very clearly outside of the camp. And we even told later on, "Remember what happened to Miriam." There's a little bit of a debate what it is we need to remember, but there are many who understand that is tzaraat. That's a warning against lashon hara. So therefore, if I have, you know, some kind of a biblical sensitivity to try to understand what tzaraat is, I don't have a hard time by just tracking this way from the nachash nachash, the serpent, to Moshe's hand, going over to Miriam, and we find this correlation between misspeaking and and tzaraat together, of course, with our serpent losing its skin, and so on, or the scaly skin of the of the reptile. So again, I think that all this will be obvious. There's There's one more thing that I just want to observe along the way that in Eden, in Paracamel, after they partake from the tree and they get to this realization that they are in fact naked, so then the way the Torah describes it, I think is uh is meaningful because it says that they they hide. But when it says that they hide, I just want to go to source 20. We'll go to Pesuk Zion. Elohim. They hear the voice of God. But remember the subtext over here is voice and misuse of voice. So here they hear the voice of God. Mitalech Began Adonai Elohim VeYitchabe. So not only have they, you know, is there a misuse of voice over here, they actually listen to the wrong voice and then hid from the as it were from the wrong voice. Can you imagine how different the story would have been if the Nachash speaks and they hide from the Kol HaNachash? Oh my God, the Nachash is speaking over here. This is completely inappropriate. And listen to the words that he's saying over here. He's saying, "We can just eat from this tree and we'll be like God or gods, however you want to translate this." And uh and maybe the religious response would have been, "We need to hide from such things, from such sounds, from such voices, from such articulations, from such bad press." That uh these are things that should not be listened to, these things that should uh not be uh taken in at all. But then the reverse takes place. After having already taken in that poison, now what they do is then they hide from the proper source of information. Now they hide from the word of God. So instead of giving you a joke to say, I'm giving you some content that you can use. So, uh so I pay you back. So, so it interesting and they actually say, "Are you crushed? I'm looking at Adam Jacob It's right. We heard your voice." So, so you realize now and again and we're naked and now it goes back to the clothing and the big and the big and so on and so forth. So, I hope that you didn't think that I was working, you know, overly hard to do all of that because I wasn't. Okay? Cuz all all of this kind of presents itself. But, everything I said today is not what I came to say. It it it was just in order to really to focus us a little bit and to try to understand something else and that is perhaps what I would call the the healing involved in this situation, what the Torah prescribes as the way of creating the cone, the way that this gets fixed. But, before I do that, I just want to read one more thing and this will be from our favorite rationalist and that is of course the Rambam. And maybe we would suspect that the Rambam when he's talking about these things, of course obviously, I think, well, maybe there's a temptation as a doctor to try to rationalize and try to understand what this is. Are we dealing with something which is miraculous or we dealing something which is biological? So, maybe we're maybe there's a question our minds what he's going to do. But, those of you who don't know what I'm about to say, it's actually really interesting. Not because I'm going to say it and it's not even what I'm going to say is interesting. It's what the Rambam did is interesting. The Rambam again goes through chapter after chapter after chapter, book after book after book where he essentially is telling us law and for many of us law can be a little bit dry and he doesn't give us He he give us rationale, he doesn't give us philosophy in the in the Mishneh Torah. Again, you can debate that if you will. I'm sure if Rabbi Soloveitchik were here, he could argue how philosophy emerges from the halakha itself, and and he's written this as well. You can look at the first at the last chapter in a book which is called Halakhic Mind, which by the way is the only chapter in the book I can understand. But, um No, it's a it's about philosophy of science, and knowing nothing about philosophy and nothing about science it makes it a challenging book. But, other than reconciliation or an analysis of philosophy of science and philosophy of religion, you know, it's I don't know if he thought it was going to be a best seller or not, but uh Yes, sometimes you get a sense that he wrote for himself. I mean, that's I'm sure he understood it. But, anyway, the last chapter he speaks about Jewish philosophy and what are is authentic Jewish philosophy. I'm not going to pursue that any longer or more than this, but what I said the Rambam did something which is fascinating, and that is the way he would finish books. At the end of a book, in the last paragraph, he gives us something much more philosophical and much more interesting. As a matter of fact, if you get bored, you can just go to the end of various books of the Rambam and say and and he does something else which is interesting. He kind of weaves a conclusion of one book and an introduction of the next book. So, it's it's actually a little bit more interesting about what he's doing. By the way, when he gets to the end of the last book, he actually is kind of writing an introduction back to the first book. There's just a lot of Again, it's the Rambam, he doesn't need my haskamah, but it's the Rambam. And and never underestimate the Rambam. At the very end, it's verse 11, the very end of the laws of tum'at tzara'at, he writes that tzara'at she may have more blemishes in any number of ways and don't miss out on that. Tzara'at is a major category of various things that are not necessarily related to one another. Sha'arei Luban Or Adam Kavu'a Tzara'at and Essentially saying you have tzaraat biological and you have it on clothing and you have it on on a home and these are not the same phenomenon. And this thing on the houses and the things on the clothing is not a natural phenomenon. And he says this is not biological, it's not scientific. He says this is ot u'pela. You want to translate ot? It's a sign and it's a wonder. B'Yisrael it's a way that God macro manages Jews k'dei l'hazhir milashon hara. By the way, here here he just said it. In order to warn us against lashon hara. So just in case you're wondering you know, what where tzaraat came from By the way, he waited till this point. He didn't do this. This is chapter tet zayin, perek tet zayin. Right? So he waited, you know, through all the chapters of tzaraat to tell us the reason for it and the all the philosophical point all the way here at the end. mish'tanu kirot beito his walls are going to change. Im chazar bo yitehar ba. And again he describes over here a a completely mystical if you will phenomenon which takes place and he focuses very much over here on lashon hara. I just don't know how much we want to read about this. Cuz he actually draws a much broader situation and especially what Miriam did and talking against prophets. And he also has in the back of the mind moshav leitzim going back to the beginning of to heal him, and hanging out in idle chatter in silly places and where it's going to lead you. So, it really is an I mean, if you want I we we we can read the whole thing, but I I I gave it to you here and I really strongly recommend going through this for more or just maybe a little more. Feel I'm skipping Feel the going to right going to Miriam, right? And and she stresses it. And and and and he stresses what I said before that Moshiach wasn't even affected by this. That you don't get ensnared by wicked foolish people. Right? And again, all this is connected to lashon hara, which is what wicked foolish people excel at. I wish I am again going back and that is what it means to say about Moshiach leitzim. And eventually says that such talk ends up to heresy. People end up everything they're cynical about everything and they end up being the kind of people who could anything which is has weight to it, has gravitas to it, they end up demeaning it, they end up not taking it seriously, and that's what leitzanut is. And he says that this ends up leading to a situation where somebody ends up rejecting everything which is serious, which will include wisdom, Torah, and God. And he And he just paints this whole situation, how everything deteriorates. So, so as I said, the Rambam who stayed away from giving any reason for it very much goes into the reason for it over here. So, I believe that that's enough of an introduction. Is this a record of how long it took me? Yeah, I think this is a record for introduction. So, now we can begin. >> It's interesting and amazing that it was only on a building Yes, yes, yes, yes. He's holding He He's Yeah. It never happened. Only on the building and on the clothing. Didn't say clothing. I believe he did. Am I Am I wrong? Why you giving me a hard time? No, no, no. Second line. Second line of the Rambam. V'zeh she noya more b'vigadei muvatim. Ain't no way you can go by all of them. He includes the clothing in it. No, no. Okay. Okay, we'll have to read that again and decide. No, look at Continue on. The Rambam says m'she'teim habigadim she'alav. Meaning he he goes back to Anyway, we could decide. You need to read through this whole Rambam carefully, okay? So now, let's go to the beginning. In source number one, we have Parshat Metzora. Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe lemor zot tihiyeh torat hametzora bayom taharato. V'huva el hakohen. So, just that this doesn't come as any kind of surprise, what most of the words that I bolded here along the way is hakohen. The kohen is uh is very much involved in this. V'yetza hakohen michutz lamachaneh v'ra'ah kohen. So, I have to pull Right, v'tziva kohen. You have the N'urei Mayim Chaim. You have again the Mayim Chaim. You have the Chibes hametaher et Right, what's the bigadav? V'rachatz b'mayim v'taher v'shilach michutz l'olam shivat yamim. But even the number seven reminds us back of uh early Bereishit. V'shilach et hatzipor hachaya el pnei hasadeh. I wonder if that reminds you of the flood or not. V'shilach et et hatzipor. V'yashav michutz l'olam shivat yamim. And then we have again, a mid a coin with a hair. Right, we have again a coin from coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin coin and so on. A coin coin coin coin coin coin coin You have many many many words used with the coin there. You can make a list of them if you need to. But uh I'll note a coin is all over this. Simple question. What is the coin functioning as in this situation? Simple answer. A coin, right? Wasn't that But that's not what I'm asking. What I'm asking is how many different roles does the coin have? So I could say the coin has a role of a void and the role of a void is very much a mishkan or mikdash centered function. Which means it takes place in the mikdash. So how many things does the coin do which is outside of a mikdash and how exactly do I categorize the outside of the mikdash kind of work? Is this just fundamentally the same thing and just okay? I could say that he is the protector and the one who guards the mikdash which by the way is a little bit incorrect cuz then it could have been a levy. Right, it could have been a levy who's already in that position. But what is the role of the function? So it's re-entry. So why over here is that the role of the coin? And by the way, in Gan Eden there was also someone who was guarding the way in terms of re-entry. Okay? The crew van with the hair of a meter back which again is is just interesting. And by the way, the term there in terms of the of guarding the path to Etz Chaim and over here we do have Etz and we have Chaim and we have the Mayim Chaim. And again, that's interesting because did we just now suggest that somehow the the Kohanim have this role of the Keruvim in guarding the path, but the difference is there is a way of re-entry. That's really important. There is a way of Kaparah. There is a way of Taharah. There is a way again of of of fixing it. And that's the whole thing which is fascinating here is that there is something that can be done to fix this. This is not the same as being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Maybe you can get back there, but it seems to be a little bit challenging. All right, you can see people are dying to get in and so on and so forth. But but it it's it seems to be that man was exiled from the Garden of Eden. Man is exiled from the again, Chutz Mi'Klal Ha'Machanot, but we have a process of of fixing this. And then again, you have the Kaparah and you have the Taharah and you have Lifnei Hashem. And and and this whole thing and I'm going to say it again, this is the Kohen. So what exactly is the role of the Kohen and how do you how do we understand this? So I want to read a Halacha in the Rambam. So just realize now, we're in Halacha and the Halacha is not just interesting but it's doubly interesting. When I get to the double part, I'll show you what the double is. The Rambam over here is predictably in source number two in Hilchot Tum'at Tzara'at, Perek Tet. Af al pi she kol ksheirim lirot niga'im everybody is able to look and to see this thing. We don't We don't know what this means yet. Ha'Tum'ah ve'Ha'Tzara'at tluya ba'Kohen. The only one who can make the declaration that this is in fact tamei or tahor is only the Kohen. Keitzad? And now he gives you a wild example. The it's wild is just to try to wrap your head around the whole case over here is not as simple as you think. Kate said, "Cohen ain't no idea." Again, if I had to go back to the Garden of Eden, that ain't no idea. I'm saying that ain't no idea. Cohen ain't no idea or oath. He doesn't know. He has no idea how to look at Negaim. He never learned this. He doesn't know this. He doesn't have a clue. So, what should you say? Get another Cohen. Get a competent Cohen. Learn from somebody who knows this. So, it says, "What does he do?" Kate said, "Cohen ain't no idea or oath. Ha HaKam Royo." He comes with a HaKam and the HaKam is competent. The HaKam looks the only way low and the HaKam says to the Cohen, "Amor Tame." The Cohen "Omer Tame." "Amor Tahar." The Cohen "Omer Tahar." His Guru will must Guru. Shin Amur the opium yak or even a call Naga. Now, I just want to pause that for a second. If you want to read another clause. The feel going to cut down or show tear. The HaKam will mirror over who might lead or what there or sugar. So, this I'm going to say it again. This is a wild law. You didn't get what the double one was, did you? Did that go right by you? What am I going to do with What am I going to do with you? You missed the double. The obvious one was standing in front of you and you got it. But, but you missed it because we we we we going throughout the generations, we have failed you trying to teach you on how to be discerning. What did he miss? You missed the pulse that he quoted. Where's the pulse from? You're allowed to say you don't know. That's fine. You're not. And then if you don't know, so what should I do then? I should stop and tell you, "Okay, look it up and find that pulse." And we're not going on. I actually did that yesterday in election in the university cuz I wanted to teach them that uh you have to know the Hazal make this wonderful assumption that we know all the psukim. So so I quoted a case where it just quoted the first three words and said "V'gomer." So what does v'gomer mean? It means you it's not just Yeah, this is it was actually the second part of the pasuk that was more important. So I said "Okay, go look it up." And then "Oh, wow, that's what it means." But I want people to do that. So over here, can you admit this that you just completely Not only do you skip this over like there's no actually no zero intellectual interest by what pasuk did he quote? Okay, the Rambam knew lots of things. He quoted the pasuk. It must be the right pasuk. Are you at least intrigued what the pasuk is? Yeah. Yeah, after that whole uh after that whole thing. So so let's pause for a second cuz the first thing that was interesting that the Rambam did is Can you Can you explain to me what just now happened? Why does the Cohen speak about something he knows not not what he speaks? What is the role of the Cohen in the in judge He's the one who He's not the judge. The Okay, the the Are you going to say that this Hakham is a ventriloquist? No. Is the Is Is the I mean Is Is he holding the dummy? By the way, I just really bad I just called him a dummy but but but but but but the Rambam the Rambam did So So So No, he's not teaching him. He's not teaching him. But by the way, continue in the Rambam. That's why I said it gets a little more interesting. He goes "But midvar mamorim k'shehu Cohen someekh al divrei Hakham." When he just completely trusts him. "Aval im hayah Cohen ro'eh v'someekh al atzmo but if he knows by himself asur lo l'rot nega'im k'neged einayim ad she yir'enu Rabbo v'hu bakki bakol nega'im uvishmotam." If he's going to be doing this himself, then he has to know he has to wait and learn from his teacher and then he can't just say anything which means only if he's a dummy is he able to do this. This is total ventriloquism. And please explain to me what this what in the world is taking place in this halacha. And when I asked you the question before, so what is the role of the cohen? What a part of what I'm doing here is I'm using this Rambam to help define what the role of the cohen is. Now, those of you who've been doing this for a while with me, even though today I've I kind of confused you or confounded you a little bit by not going in sequence at all. But even doing this for a while, and I ever ask you a question, all you need to do is really look at the next source, and then you get the answer. And the next source, as you'll see, is completely disconnected, which is why the where the problem is. What do you what is this parsha known as? The parsha of the egglah roofah. Here you have this homeless, nameless person who's found someplace. A corpse is found. So, interesting turn of phrase. Who goes? The the the the elders, the judges go. What do they do? And they go to the cities which are adjacent. And what they're going to do is they're going to measure. So, you had ziknei ir or redu ziknei ir hi. Again, the elders. By the way, also we have some pastoral scenes over here, out there in the beautiful wild in the in the nachal. That's not so pastoral. I just want to pause here for a second. Remember I told you before we had two problems? So, once again we have two problems. What are our two problems here? One is what in the world are they doing here? Secondly, is why they're called B'nei Levi. I mean, every so many times it's Kohanim Kohanim. Why call them B'nei Levi? The next one Kohanim B'nei Levi Ki vam bachar Hashem Elokecha l'sharto ul'varech b'shem Hashem v'al pihem yakol riv kol naga. By the way, notice naga. That's what the Rambam just now quoted. V'al pihem Right? V'al pihem yakol riv kol naga. Correct? Is that what he quoted? Shenemar v'al pihem yakol riv kol naga. What in the world does this have to do with the eglah arufah, by the way? And now you continue, cuz I asked you what are the Kohanim doing there? V'chol V'chol ziknei ha'ir hahi we went back to the ziknei ha'ir hakrovim el ha'eglah yirchatzu et yedeihem al el al ha-eglah arufah banachal v'anu amrim yadeinu lo shafchu et hadam hazeh v'ein eineinu ra'u kapar la'amcha Yisrael asher pidita Hashem al titen dam naki b'kerev amcha Yisrael v'nikaper lahem hadam v'ata t'vaer et hadam hanaki mikerev ki ta'aseh hayashar b'einei Hashem. What what did the Kohanim do here? Other than get stuck in the middle of a narrative to be ripped out of the middle of a narrative for the Rambam to use in a completely different narrative. Do do do you realize that this is not the easiest question I've asked you today? Like, what in the world what in the world is going on over here? So, I'm going to say it again. When the Rambam quite innocently used this verse, you were all you didn't even think Can I make fun of you? Is is this okay? No, you're saying no? Really? I have to call you before Yom Kippur and ask for Okay. I ask forgiveness. I should At least you didn't say "Motzei Shabbos." Some people, when I read that Rambam, may not necessarily have even bothered to process, you know, what the proof text is. So, just in general, it is important to quote to understand a proof text. It is important not just to look it up, but even to know the context and maybe even the entire chapter in order to get a real feel about what it is that either Hazal or in this case the Rambam were trying to indicate. Over here, once we understood it, we just completely stop. Hold it. Did the Rambam just kind of with surgical precision cut out a verse out of context because it said a couple of words? I mean, you do realize that potentially there are better places to do this. It It talks about the Cohen declaring the person tamei. In Parshat Tazria and Metzora, we find that. Why in the world do you have to go to Eglah Roofah to find this? So, there is something which is interesting over here. And on top of that, we have a problem with an Eglah Roofah itself. But, what did the Cohen do? So, my suspicion is that there's one word that we needed to pay attention to, and that was a word in Posek Zayin. Which word? I bolded it. I tell you, my questions are so easy to answer. What word is that? V'anu. So, if they're responding, what are they Who are they responding to? Cohen. So, first of all, the way that Hazal take this, if you look at Sefaria of Anu Vamru B'lashon Hakodesh. So, the way they understand this is that this is a formal text, and it has to be in Hebrew. In source number five again, I will read six. It's a little easier to understand, but it's in the Midrash Tanhuma also. V'anu Vamru B'lashon Hakodesh. Nemar Kan V'anu Vamru. Nemar L'hahal V'anu Halvi'im V'omru. Where is that? That's Har Gerizim and Har Ebal. Where the Levi'im are over there. By the way, that may help us with the the Levi. V'kativ Elohim Ya'anenu B'kol. That's also interesting because that just took us to Matan Torah. Mal Halon B'lashon Hakodesh. Aniyah Hamurakan B'lashon Hakodesh. Sh'kol Makom She'nemar Aniyah V'amirah, Kacha Kol Harei Hu B'lashon Hakodesh. I'm willing to go one step further. We can go, if you want, through the through the Me'iri source seven, or we can go through the Rabbenu Bahya source eight, but they're they're coming from this same tradition. But, my suspicion is that the Annu is telling you First of all, when they say it's lashon hakodesh, what they're telling you is that there's a formal text that needs to be said. It's not enough to kind of approximate, "Okay, we take responsibility." And anybody can get up and say it any way that they want. There's a formal text that needs to be said. So, it therefore sounds that this is actually the inverse. Okay? This is what's important. It's the inverse of what the Rambam just now described. The Rambam described, yeah? Did this this Did this penetrate? The Rambam described as kind of a ventriloquism taking place, whereby the Haham knows facts, and then the Kohen has to say it. And over here, the Kohen says it, so then that the people can say it. There there there is this feeding somebody a line that takes place. In both cases, the Kohen is apparently a critical part of the process which takes place, but it's a critical part of the process in inverse proportions. Did Did Did any of the last 2 minutes make any sense? It It It's part of what we need to understand in terms of all of this, because again, I'm going back to the other point, what is the Kohen? You know what? Let me try another another thing which is probably more connected than we think. When the Kohen blesses the people, Birkat Kohanim. So, there's actually two types of Birkat Kohanim. Do you know this? There's one type of Birkat Kohanim in the Beit Hamikdash, and there's one kind of birkat kohanim outside the beta mikdash. If we were to look in source number 14, it's a Mishnah in Tamid. By the way, I will tell you that source 14 and source 17 simply arrives simply because among other things believe in it or that I do is I learn Mishnah Yomi. Right? It wasn't that anybody else in the discussion said, "Oh, take a look at this." It's that when you it's worth learning Mishnah Yomi, by the way, because or it's worth learning Mishnah because it's really concentrated in terms of information. And you know, basic information that we should know. But anyway, Mishnah Tamid was not so long ago and I came across this Mishnah and it said, "U'verchu et ha'am beracha achat." They said one beracha, which means Okay, I'll continue. "Eilu shebeMedina omrim oto shalosh berachot." So, if anybody was in shul this morning and the kohanim got up and they said three berachot, "Yevarechecha Hashem veyishmerecha." Right? And then amen, right? In the beta mikdash, they said the whole thing but as one beracha. That's what the Mishnah says. "U'verchu et ha'am beracha achat. Eilu shebeMedina omrim oto shalosh berachot. U'veMikdash beracha achat." "U'veMikdash omerim oto et ha'Shem ha'meforash." They said the Shem "Yevarechecha Hashem." They didn't say Hashem and they didn't say aleph dalet nun yud. They said the Shem ha'meforash. "U'veMedina bechinuy." A chinuy is aleph dalet nun yud. "U'veMedina kohanim nos'im et kapeihem." They would lift up their hands. "Yedeihem keneged kitfoteihem." The shoulders. "U'veMikdash al gabei rasheihem." They're they're reaching up. Actually, they're reaching up to heaven. Except for the coin got all close into a side point. Revive the bar to near and source 15 says and for rash the Sheena and Malachi Kisha at sport the hand. And the and the Sheena is flowing down and it's going to be coming out and through there through their fingers, which means by the way, this is in the beta migdash. In the in the beta migdash the coin serves as a conduit for the Sheena. And and that's I think really what I think what we should be focusing on. It's a conduit for the Sheena to coming down. So now I I have to then also wonder when the coin says to may or to her or whatever it is, meaning why is it important for his words? Now I asked you a while ago. So this thing about the coin doing this whole process, you know, what is it similar to? So the fact that it's outside of the migdash. By the way, that already could take you to an egg roof up because it's something which I although the egg roof of we may not have remembered that the coin is there, but the coin is there. But why is the coin there? But the coin's there cuz he has to bring those words down from heaven. I'm going to say that again. I think the coin there is serving as this conduit to bring these words down and now the elders can say it. The elders can't say it without the coin. Why not? Which means if you just have a formal text, there's many ways of solving a formal text. I can have it printed up and hand it to somebody and say please say this formal text. Right? I can have anyone else remind them. I can have the court scribe being charged of telling somebody the formal text they need to say. Right? This again, you go to a Britney line, the father has to say something over there and then the mobile hands them over. He's got the text over there. Just say these words. Okay, he says these words. So over here what happened? Apparently, and I'm saying that's also why the rabam is is so interesting because it's LP. It's by the words of the coin. Why the words of the Cohen? Cuz the Cohen is the conduit whereby now depending on what we're the words come down or the words can go up or it creates some kind of a spiritual reality. If we go to the same way that the hands of the Cohen and now but the Cohen is going to be saying these words bringing them down. There's a Ramban. That's what I thought I printed which I don't have over here. The Ramban is by Pirkei Avot and the Ramban says that there's a mystical secret and that is that the bracha travels down from above. And and you read this and it's there to be guarded and you read this Ramban which I don't have the text in front of me so I'm not going to bother reading it but Did you have someone print it out? No, I didn't I didn't send it to anybody. I added it last night after I sent it and then I thought I printed it this morning. But you you read that Ramban and there's this sense of verticalness. That's really the issue. There's a sense of verticality. By the way, if I go back to the Keruvim and I think about this verticality just in terms of the Cohen is doing, I know I'm going too fast now but there is something over here that does remind you of the Sullam Yaakov in terms of entering into holy into holy spaces. I I think that that then becomes a part of the issue. But now you go back and you think about what the Rambam had said that even this Cohen who has no understanding whatsoever or maybe especially the Cohen has no understanding whatsoever, the chacham tells him what to say but why do you need him to say it? Cuz he's the Cohen. But what value is there in him saying it? Well, the value in it is cuz he is the conduit. He is the one who then is going to bring these words and create a spiritual reality with it. And one second. I think the Mishnah in 17 may be connected as well. But before I read that, it's very useful over here in 16 and this will connect with what you know. It's very useful commenting on that same Mishnah in Talmud Berakhot Hebrew coming in. The core of it means him aleha amen possible because they didn't answer amen in the middle. But then he corrects himself. Which at the correction is the correct way bracket. The government saying that my company came and she is here but hashem no no amen. Ella owning aleha. Baruch shem malchut olam vaed. The same the because it says she ain't owning amen the mikdash. The Gamora says a number of times you never say amen in the Beit Hamikdash. Why? Why? Because in the Beit Hamikdash they use the Shem Hamiforash. And just remember that right and when the Cohen says Hashem Hamiforash Hagadol kol Yisrael amen right Baruch shem malchut olam vaed. They're responding to the Shem Hamiforash. So the Cohen would bless the people with the Shem Hamiforash. I hope you realize now that this By the way, if you kept on falling down right you you have constantly be falling and I think that may be part of it as well. You wait till the very end and then you fall and you say Baruch shem malchut olam vaed and that's the response to the Shem Hamiforash which means again what is the Cohen doing? He's bringing the Shechinah down by using the words of the Shem Hamiforash. He's bringing the Shechinah down and he is this conduit whereby he's a conduit in terms of his body, he's a conduit in terms of his words and I think this helps us now understand all the processes which are taking place in terms of the Cohen and the Metzora. He is this conduit and therefore even or maybe especially when you say but this Cohen doesn't know what's going on, it doesn't make a difference. These words need to be said. And where do I prove this from? I prove it from the case of of the the roof of where he's not even doing anything. Well, no, he is doing something. Well, how do I know he's doing something? Because it's a Cuz cuz I'll told us it is a text that needs to be said be Lashon Hakodesh, which makes it a formal text. But it's not just a formal text. It It's more than that. L- L- Let's just pause for a second. Somebody was murdered. A person is bitzelem Elokim. That means that somebody did not appreciate the tzelem Elokim. Rav Soloveitchik once said, "You know why murder is wrong?" Because a person's bitzelem Elokim. By the way, it's so interesting. Many people that kind of shocked when he said that because you know murder Everyone knows murder is wrong. It's morally wrong. But uh yes, he was being a little more philosophical. And he says beca- And And by the way, it's it's a possuk. It's a possuk back in uh perek 10 in Bereishit. Yes? Possuk ain't possuk vov, no? V'shifcho v'shifcho What is it? Uh v'shifcha damim Adam b'Adam ki bitzelem Elokim asah ha'Adam. Says you can't spill blood because man is the image of God. So he was just quoting the possuk and says, "No, that's why you can't murder." Yes, it's morally wrong. But somebody who murdered this person, you have a dead body over here. That means that there was an affront to tzelem Elokim, which is here. That means the kedushah of the person, right? That's what creates tum'at met. That this is a clay that had holiness within it. By the way, the same way that our speech is something which is a holy thing. It is a tzelem Elokim. I mean, that that's part of what's important in in terms of this whole connection over here. Is that when man was given the tzelem Elokim, they became a speaking being. That means that God endowed us with this ability to speak. So therefore, when we misuse speech, essentially what we've done is we've It's a betrayal cuz we're taking something which is holy and it could be used for comfort, could be used in learn Torah, could be used for Kedusha, and instead we use it as a betrayal and we use it in a destructive manner. This body that held the Tzelem Elokim is now you know has lost its Tzelem Elokim cuz the person never recognized the Tzelem Elokim in the other individual. So therefore there really is a parallel situation and now we see that who has to enter into this? The Kohen has to enter into this and he has to bring holy words. That's important because if I'm going to fix what's broken, the starting point is the Tzelem Elokim which is this Koach Hadibur and he has to use the holy words Lashon Hakodesh. And then that's repeated by the elders and that's part of this healing process which took place. I hope that that last minute also made some sense. Let me now point out this Mishna in in Midot. It says in verse 17. It talks about the proper way of moving in the Mikdash, right? The traffic traffic patterns in the Beit Hamikdash. So what does that mean? If you come in right and then go left? Clockwise, counterclockwise? You'll think about that. Except for somebody who had some kind of thing happened. Right in a certain case, let's say somebody just became an Avel, just heard somebody died. So what do you say to him? Now now I know what do we say to somebody unfortunately? We say Hamakom. And and and there's all kinds of Divrei Torah which are given to explain why we say of all formulas we say "Hamakom yenachem etchem." I think this may be the origin story of Hamakom yenachem. Read the next line. What do you say when somebody happens upon Right, there's somebody who's in the Bet Hamikdash. By the way, who's in the Bet Hamikdash? It's a kohen. And something happened. Now he has to leave and he's able to, you know, get out of there as quickly as possible. He's an onen. And what do you say to them? "Hashochin babayit hazeh yenachemcha." May he who dwells in this house offer you comfort. By the way, notice something. Here you have the others using words to comfort. Using words by paying attention to God who's in the building and bringing their tzelem Elokim, their ability to speak to comfort another person who is in this situation where they need comforting. Of course, if I wanted to work hard harder and death comes into the world ultimately going back to the nachash and eating from the tree and the etz Right? Da'at. And again, you I can just say da'at da'at da'at da'at da'at. But it it's interesting. And by the way, also somebody who's menudeh, somebody also who has become excommunicated. "Hashochin babayit hazeh yiten belibam yikravchem." Again, may may the presence of God be placed inside your heart and may you bring to some kind of a healing to take place. But I'm going to say again, this is really interesting because I I would assume that whoever invented the Hamakom yenachem etchem, it's only when there's no longer the Bet Hamikdash. Cuz when there's the Bet Hamikdash, then you say "Hashochin babayit hazeh." "Aval nam manigid kasher ein bayit?" Right? What do you say when there no longer is a bayit? So then you say "Hamakom." It It's still It's There's still It's still a place that we face and the prayers go up and the prayers go down. And you can think about the ladder as well. Let me back up and try to tell you what I was trying to do today. And that is we have this association in our minds between tsaraat and between leprosy. Sorry, and between lashon hara, motzi shem ra, misuse of speech. So I try to go back and then from Bereshit, from the Nachash, through Mosha, through Miriam, and look at various cases where we see that. And there's there's enough there. We cited Reish Lakish who sees the linguistic connection perhaps between motzi shem ra and metzora and feels that they're connected. We saw the Rambam actually build a whole philosophy around this around in the end of the laws of of tsaraat. So there is something which is there. Then we moved and we looked at the pesukim themselves. We find this constant use of the kohen and this is part of what we want to understand. So why is the kohen so involved in this? Because ultimately, and I didn't say it clearly, it's not a korban. So you need a kohen for a korban, I get it, right? He's the one who needs to do it, but it's not. Not only is it not a korban, it's not inside so it's this outside of the Mishkan or Mikdash and works. So what's going on? And again I pointed out this connection between being kicked out of Eden and between the pastoral scene and what's taking place in terms of the tsaraat and how this is kicked out of all three machanot and so on. And there is again there's some kind of a connection over there. We then moved to this strange Rambam who tells us that the the kohen who understands nothing about what he sees, nonetheless, it's his words that create something. So ultimately, it's not listening to God's words or it's misusing God's words or our ability to speak, God's gift to us, which creates this situation. So therefore we need the words of the coin Lashon Hakodesh. We need again the healing as it takes place. We need this conduit of this holiness coming down from heaven which is going to be used. And it's interesting because now we come to this realization. Again the second part of what I did and you I don't know if to say if it was if it was complex or not complex but I noted and I stressed and I made you note that the rabam quoted a verse. I made you what's the verse? And the verse seems to be completely disconnected and that was verse with Eglah Arufah. And not only is it disconnected what's the coin doing over there and there was only one word I was able to connect it with because he doesn't seem to do anything and that is the word Anu. The people respond in the Hazam Stein Lashon Hakodesh. Lashon Hakodesh means it's a formal statement. If it is a formal statement that means that again in this space Anu it seems to be the coin says it. So again it's the coin serving as this conduit in this sense bringing it down and the other sense I think it's sending it up. We saw the Birkat Kohanim where he where the Kedusha is coming down and then he's using the words and spreading it about. The people respond to this and and this whole situation of the conduit for holiness seems to be what the coin is both in terms of his person in terms of giving the brachot in terms of the words in terms of the Shem Hamiforash in terms of the the Kedusha and the person who's guilty of bringing a lack of Kedusha. The person who's guilty of misusing words who's then and then physically geographically is sent away from a place which is holy. We realize how again mourning has a similarity I'm not I talked about this in the past. Mourning has a similarity to the situation of the metzora. There's there's a number of laws of mourning which are learned out of the Torah including the pre person being somewhat separated from society and there there are other elements as well but it's so interesting this point about the the Hamakom in terms of he who dwells in this house. The coin is the one who sort of the people to the house or to the place to the McColl to this What was the exact terminology here? Hashochain to the Shina. As it were, the coin is the conduit for the Shina, but the person who can't access the Shina, the coin has to recreate, right? Recreate the the synapses as it were in order to try to get this person to be able to be reenter into a place which is Kadosh, but it's a geographic situation, but it's also a spiritual situation. And therefore, what we see is the coin all over this, it's this coin as a conduit of Kedusha who then reaches out to this person who's been expelled from Kedusha because he has expelled the Kedusha from his own life and therefore to try to recreate an ability to enter. So, that's what I try to point out from all of the Halacha which is over here, which was obviously, I say I say obviously, a bit more ambitious. Okay, have a Shabbat Shalom.