Why Is There A Connection Between The Zayin Mashkim And The Yamim Tovim?

Hi, this is Double AA Lasky with our question and answer series where in a few minutes we try to answer some of our listeners questions. I wanted to reach out with you with a question that has been bothering me and my students. I teach a Yiddisher curriculum to the second and fifth graders in the Talmudic Academy of Baltimore. And when I taught a lesson about the Zion Mashkim, I mentioned the p'shat you often discuss from your friend Rabbi Mordechai Kornfeld about how the seven liquids correspond to the seven Yom Tovim. The boys were always impressed and in many of the classes were able to figure out the connections on their own. But inevitably they would ask me a follow-up question, why? Like it's really cool connection that they fit so perfectly, but what's the shiychus? How do the seven liquids that enable food to become tumah correspond to the seven Yom Tovim? What's the real connection is there between these two topics? I was stumped by this. I haven't a clue. So I told them I'd reach out to you and maybe you'd be able to enlighten us. So, help. >> [laughter] >> Would you ever do explain the why behind the fascinating connection? Why do these two seemingly totally disparate ideas connect so well? I would really appreciate a response as soon as possible because my students really want to know. Okay. Now for those of you who have no idea what this question is talking about. Uh the Torah explains that in order for food to become tumah, to get become ritually impure, it first has to become wet on purpose by uh seven liquids. So, if I on purpose pour Tropicana Pure premium orange juice on my apples and then a dead mouse falls on it, it will not become tame because it's not one of the seven liquids. May Paris is not. There are seven liquids that are known by the mnemonic device Yad Shachad Dam which stands for Yud Yayin which is wine Dalet which is Devash which is honey. Uh Shin is Shemen oil Ches is Chalav which is milk, Tes is Tal which is dew. Um the last Dalet is uh Dam which is blood and Mem is Mayim water. So only if that becomes tame by one of these seven liquids. Now the fact that there are seven liquids So what Rabbi Kornfeld said to me, if there's seven liquids and there are seven holidays they must correspond. And we explained how the seven ones uh correspond. We've talked about it in the past. So the question is um why? Why do these things have to connect? That's his question. So Rabbi Shachor once said a very interesting thing. He says when you look like this, it looks like there are four separate fingers. When you get down, you see they're all connected. He used to give a shiur on Motzei Shabbos where anybody could uh ask whatever question they wanted. Uh all the talmidim there, everybody would ask a question. And after they asked all their questions, he would say one idea on the parashah that would answer all of the questions. Because all of Torah is related. I remember he did a series of shiurim once where he explained that three which uh number three uh >> [snorts] >> every three that you find is related. They're all significant. So, Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov, which corresponds to the spheres of Chesed, Gevurah, and Tiferes, and he shows how they relate. And anytime you find a three, it's those three things. Right? Chesed, Gevurah, and Tiferes, how they all inter- uh twine and come together. So, the Gemara in Eruvin says there are three Pischei Gehennom, three gates to hell. Yeah? One is in the yam, in the uh ocean, and one is in the desert, and one is outside of Yerushalayim. So, he says the desert is always din. It represents eish, it represents fire, destruction. And water is always chesed. So, one is in the ocean because water is chesed, and the you can get into Gehennom through chesed, you can get there through din, and one is outside of Yerushalayim cuz Yerushalayim is Tiferes, where the two of them come together. Yeah? And he said, uh there were three generations who were destroyed. There was S'dom and Amora, there was the Dor HaMabul, the generation of the flood, and there was uh the Dor HaFlagah, the Tower of Babel. And he said, uh S'dom was destroyed by fire. That was din. Why? Because they wouldn't do any chesed. And um the Dor HaMabul was chesed run amok, where everybody does whatever they want when there's no limitations, and that was destroyed by water. And the Dor HaFlagah, which was building this Migdal, this Tower of Babel, which was to be a counterbalance to the Beit HaMikdash, which as we mentioned Yerushalayim is Tiferes, that corresponds to that. And he went down the line on everything. Everything you find three, the threes are all connected. Everything is connected. And I remember he did a throwaway line once which was particularly meaningful to me because I've been giving Shiurim in Sicha Shiurim and he says, "You'll find this everywhere." He says, "The beginning of Sicha Shiurim Yesod Hachasidus V'Shoresh Avodah Temimah. Yeah? Yesod Hachasidus is Chesed. V'Shoresh Avodah, the Avodah is Yitzchak. Temimah, uh Yaakov is the Ish Tam. It's Every time you find the threes, they connect. At the beginning of Geulas Hashem, he explains how the number is six and 60 and 600 and 600,000, how all of them are connected. They all represent uh uh the elements of this world. And all the sixes are connected. All the sevens are connected. Anytime you find something, they're all connected. So, what Rabbi Kornfeld was saying is if there are seven holidays and there are seven liquids, it's not just by chance. They're all connected and anytime you will find the number seven and if it's the seven Sefiros and the seven Sefiros correspond to seven parts of the body and we mentioned Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, but the whole Ushpizin, which is Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, Moshe, Aaron, uh Yosef, and David, they correspond to those same Sefiros and the seven planets that you can see, or I should say the seven heavenly bodies that you can see with the naked eye, the sun, the moon, uh Mercury, Venus, Mars, uh Jupiter, and Saturn also correspond to those and the seven days of the week. Whenever you find any of these particular numbers, any 40s, all the 40s are related, the fact that it rained for 40 days in the flood, the fact that the Torah was given in 40 days, the fact that it takes 40 days to form a uh a fetus to become a viable fetus, they're all related because all of Judaism is connected and you can start at any point and come back to another point and they are related if you understand how to get down to the foundations of everything. So, yeah. Everything is related and we have the ability to be able to see that relationship. This has been David Alansky with our question and answer series.