Parshas Tazria & Metzora/grumn-ghrz, ,arp (27th & 28th Parshas of the Torah ) By Rabbi Avraham David, great grandson of the Strettyner Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Langner.
Inthis week’s Parsha, we are introduced to the laws and regulations of childbirth including periods ofpurity and impurity, circumcision, and the sacrifice ritual. We are first introduced to the subject of child birth in Genesis where the Torah commands Adam and Chava to be fruitful and multiply (see Genesis ). With the aid of the codes, we see an interesting finding. The Torah says,rfz vskhu ghrz, hf vat “When a woman conceives and gives birth to a son.”[1]Before we get to the code, lets make an observation as to the accuracy of the Torah. The Torah mentions when a “woman” conceives. It’s been 3318 years since the Torah was given and those words are true. With all of the advances of technology and the wishes and desires ofsome scientists and others, it is still only the “woman” that gives birth till this very day. If we take the acronym of the encircled letters, it spells the term ,ufz, meaning merit, privilege. With children, the world continues to exist (See Talmud Bava Basra 16b). As noted, since it is a privilege we cannot take it for granted but we must give much thanks to G-d who gives us life. In fact we see an allusion to life as the above phrase has exactly 18 letters which stands for hj , chai, life.
The Torah says u,krg rac kunh hbhnav ouhcu, “and on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised” (Leviticus 12:3). We see an allusion to God in this phrase as the encoded letters spell v-h , the yod hei, which is one of the names of God. In my opinion, it means that God is protecting the child during the circumcision. If we take the first letter code (rearranged ) of the whole sentence including the first letter of the word in the previous sentence and the first word in the following sentence,
ohakau: u,krg rac kunh hbhnav ouhcu: tny, , we find the following word, vu,cghu, “and they weave a web” (Micha 7:3). The entire sentence there reads the following, “In return for the evil of their hands, do they expect that He will benefit from them? The prince asks, and the judge is in the payment, and the great man speaks what is in his heart- and they weave the web.” By removing the foreskin, we are removing the evil. Not only are we removing evil, but we are adding protection against HIV. In a story published in the New York Times on 4/28/06, it read, “Circumcision Studied in Africa as AIDS Preventive.”According to Dr. Kasonde Bowa, a urologist at a hospital in Lusaka, Zambia said, “one reason we decided to set up this service was the increasing evidence in the research in relation to reducing HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, he said. “The evidence is very strong.”
If we take the Gematria of the above phrase regarding circumcision, it equals 1773. Another term with the same number can be found in Psalms 23:3, where King David says, una ignk esmhkdgnc hbjbh ccuah hapb , “He restores my soul, He leads me on paths of justice for His Name’s sake.” Although the circumcision may be painful and make the baby (person) weak, in the end God will restore the person’s strength (see also Rashi’s interpretation of the phrase, ccuah, restore in Psalms). According to Artscroll commentators, the Arizal says that this Psalm has 227 letters which is the equivalent of the word, vfrc, blessing. It is also relevant for this Parsha as the term for rfz male,is also 227. As noted by the Arizal, the ones who read and follow this Psalm will always have their needs taken care of. This Psalm has much meaning to me as we sing it with
much fervor and devotion with Yosef Yitzchak in our shul, Shaarei Tzedek, every Shalosh Seudos.
As we are in a double Parsha, we need to discuss a few findings on Metzorah. The term, grmnv, hamitzorah, can be rearranged to read as gr vmn, matzah rah, or bad matzah. In my opinion, it would refer to matzah that cannot be used for Passover. Perhaps it fermented or had risen. It is similar to someone who is haughty or arrogant. According to the sages of Israel, the metzorah is one who is punished with leprosy because he/she spoke lashon harah, or evil speech. If we do the atbash of the term grmnv, it can be rearranged to read as shm vz , zeh tzayid, this is provisions. In my opinion , it refers to eating prohibited foods as we just learned last week about the dietary laws. As the saying goes, we are what we eat. If we eat treife, we are punished accordingly. If we eat Kosher, we are blessed as the letters of the term raf have a mispar kattan (small letter code) of 2-3-2, which is also the Gematria of the word, vfrcv , habracha, meaning the blessing.
In summing up, we merit blessings by eating Kosher foods and circumcising our sons.
A refuah shlaima to my father , Yaacov Zev Ben Malka Blima who is recovering from a stroke at Vanderbilt Nursing Home, SI, NY
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