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Sh'lah on the Torah |
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Parshat Lech L'cha The following translation by Mr. Eliyahu Munk is an excerpt from the book Shney Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah I have explained the deeper meaning of
this commandment (brit milah—circumcision) elsewhere at length. However, we cannot simply pass by this
opportunity to comment on such an important commandment and some of the secrets
contained in that mitzvah. This is
especially so in view of the Torah relating the fulfillment of this commandment
to Israel’s possessing the Holy Land, seeing that G-d said to Abraham: “I shall give to you and to your descendants
after you the land in which you sojourn, the whole of the land of Canaan as an
everlasting possession; I shall be their G-d” (Genesis 17,8). Our sages comment that G-d told Abraham: “If your offspring will observe the commandment of circumcision they will enter the Holy Land; if not, they will not enter.” (compare Rashi on Joshua 5, 4). We observe that the land of Israel is closely tied up with the rite of circumcision, the relevant verse in Scriptures (Deut. 32,9) being ‘ki cheilek Hashem amo, Yaacov chevel nachalato’, “For the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob His own allotment (the “allotment” being the land of Israel). G-d chose us from all the other seventy nations to be our G-d, and chose us to be His people. He gave the other seventy nations their respective languages and countries, all under the supervision of seventy representatives at the Celestial Court. Our tongue, however, is a holy tongue. To us He gave the Holy Land, a land that is supervised by G-d directly and not through one of His agents. This land is situated “opposite” its counterpart in the Heavenly Spheres. We cannot lay a claim to this land except through removal of the foreskin, which represents the klipah, the symbol of the serpent’s pollution, the influence of the sitra achra. If Jews should fail to observe this commandment, G-d forbid, then this would be something shameful for the land, i.e. ervat ha’aretz (nakedness of the Land), since all students of Kabbalah are aware that the Eretz Yisroel in the Heavenly Regions, i.e. the emanations of yisod v’malchut symbolize the secret of the relationship between Zion and Jerusalem on earth. They are surrounded by klipot, known also as areilim, uncircumcised people, seeing that Mount Zion and Mount Moriah are surrounded by the mountains of Esau and his offspring Amalek. As long as Isaac had been alive, Esau’s descendants observed the mitzvah of circumcision, but as soon as Isaac died they abandoned it (Tannah de Bey Elyahu chapter 24). All the wicked people surround Jerusalem, as is written: ‘kol goyim sivavuni’, “All the Gentile nations surround me: (Psalms 118,10). Jerusalem can be compared to the “lily amongst the thorns,” Solomon’s description of Israel in Song of Songs 2,2. Because terrestrial Jerusalem is surrounded by such secular turbulence, the orlah in the emanation yisod has to be removed as a first step so that the covenant called brit ha’moed, the mystical root “sod” of the emanation yisod can be revealed and the atara be laid bare. This is the secret of the relationship between milah, removal of the foreskin and priah, the splitting and pulling down of the thin membrane beneath the foreskin (which is part of the operation, and without which the rite of circumcision is halachically invalid). Once this has been accomplished the form will resemble its Creator, and man will emerge in the image of G-d. We have discussed elsewhere how different parts of the human body correspond to different regions of the sfirot, emanations (see page 6 in this volume). Just as there can be no peace and harmony in the Heavenly Regions until the power of the emanation malchut has been revealed as the ultimate objective G-d had in mind when He started the creative processes, so man on earth is not “complete” until his member has been revealed minus the foreskin and the membrane underneath it. This is what the sages had in mind when they said ‘mal v’lo para k’ilu lo mal’, “If someone removed his foreskin and failed to split that membrane, he might as well not have removed the foreskin at all” (Shabbat 137). Similarly in the case of a Sotah, (a woman who has to disprove accusations of mshlahtal infidelity), the Torah demands that the hair of her head be loosened and thereby prominently displayed to indicate that she had committed a violation of religious norms (Numbers 5,18). [It is considered an act of ervah, unchastity, for a married Jewish woman to thus display her hair. Ed.] We read in the Sefer Habahir, that the reason the Torah commands circumcision to be performed on the eighth day of the infant’s life is that man possesses eight extremities, i.e. his right and left hand, the right and left foot, the head, the body, the male member and its mate, since the Torah describes man as ‘v’davak b’ishto v’hayu l’basar echad’, “he cleaves to his wife so that they become one flesh” (Genesis 2,24). When G-d said to Abraham: ‘ani hininee briti itach’, “I, here My covenant is with you,” this is a reference to the fact that the shechina (Divine Presence) is known as Anee, and that the heavenly covenant is symbolized on the body by a tzion, a mark. Once the male glans is uncovered, this enables the shechina to return to tzion, Zion, and man on earth remains whole, retains the image of G-d. When that condition exists, all his 248 limbs are whole, and this is what the name Avraham=248 represents. When in that condition, Abraham is able to enter the Zion on this earth. We can then be a nation on our own land for the imprint of G-d is on our bodies. This seal signifies that we are permanently different and distinct from the other nations and are indeed part of the holiness of G-d. This consideration explains what our sages had in mind when they interpreted the words ‘b’etzem hayom haze nimol Avraham’, “Abraham was circumcised on that very day” (17,26), to mean that if he had circumcised himself at night the other nations would have said: “we would have prevented you from doing this had we known about it” (Bereshit Rabbah 47,9). We must ask ourselves the question why the Gentile nations should have objected to this commandment more than to any other. Clearly, the reason is that performance of that very act drew a clear distinction between Abraham (and later the Jewish people) and the remainder of mankind. |
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Ascent of Safed
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