Tazria 

The sicha for parshas Tazria is Vol. III of Likkutei Sichos.

The Rebbe says that the mitzvah of milah, of circumcision is that it should be performed on the eighth day after birth, as it says in parshas Tazria, “on the eighth day you circumcise the flesh”. If you do the milah after eight days, although you have fulfilled the mitzvah in general and the bracha is made, but it would appear that it is missing this virtue of being on the eighth day. So mila b’zmana, in its proper time is lacking here. And fulfilling the milah on the eighth day has a unique virtue, whereby if the milah is on the eighth day from birth, then it is performed even on Shabbos. If the circumcision is delayed because the baby is ill, then it can’t be performed on Shabbos, it has to wait until the next day.

This seems to imply that when a child is not circumcised on the eighth day even if it is for a legitimate reason because the child is not well, then he doesn’t have that virtue of milah b’zmana. So that when the milah is performed, it has an effect on the future, that from now on he is circumcised, but until now, he was uncircumcised and the circumcision can’t retroactively give him the virtue of milah b’zmana, of having been circumcised on the eighth day.

That’s the way it would appear.

The Rambam in the laws of milah says that the reason that a child must be healthy before a milah can be performed is for two reasons: a) protecting a life takes precedence over all else, so that if there is a danger to the child even the great mitzvah of milah is delayed; b) since it is possible to perform it later, and nothing is lost in doing that, and a person can never bring be brought back once he has been killed, from the illness and the circumcision.

So the Rebbe says that the first reason of protecting a life seems to imply that if the milah is done later it is not as good as if it was done on time, and it doesn’t retroactively correct that time in which the child was not circumcised but it is worth sacrificing that virtue in order to protect a life.

But when the Rambam gives the second reason for not performing the milah on the eighth day when the child is ill, because it can always be performed later, that seems to be saying that there is nothing lost in doing it later, and that would imply that when it is done after the eighth day, it retroactively goes back to the eighth day, and it is as if the child had been circumcised from the eighth day and on.

How can it be that the mila should have an affect retroactively? We also have to understand why does the Rambam end with the words “a soul cannot be brought back after it has died”, that seems to go back to the first reason of protecting a life and it is not connected with what we are saying that the milah after the eighth day is retroactively affective.

It says in Likkutei Torah that through the mitzvah of milah, we bring a level of G-dliness into the world, into the person that human effort could never reach. It is such a high G-dliness that human effort could not reach there. So the G-dliness comes by itself, it is given from above, only as long as the child is uncircumcised, that G-dliness can’t connect to the person. By removing the obstacle, by having the milah, G-dliness can come down from above to connect to the body and to the world. So it is merely the removal of an obstacle, it is not the creation of a new condition.

And the same is true concerning the soul. That part of the neshama that is brought into the body as a result of the milah, is the part of the neshama that we cannot reach on our own. The G-dliness of the neshama that comes as a result of milah is also a G-dliness that is given from above, it is part of the neshama that we cannot control and we cannot draw to ourselves. It comes of itself, only it is blocked by the lack of milah. So when the child is circumcised that part of the neshama settles of its own into the body because the obstruction, the unholiness of the uncircumcised child has been removed. And so the circumcision is merely revealing that which pre-existed.

The same is true with tshuva. If one does tshuva m’ahava, out of love, it has a retroactive effect. Tshuva also does not produce anything new, in fact the word tshuva means to return to a previous G-dly condition, and that is because even while a person is sinning, that part of the neshama that the tshuva comes from, was always loyal to G-d, and never participated in the sin. It is only that during the sin, that part of the neshama was hidden, and through the tshuva it is revealed. And so again, it has an affect retroactively because the neshama was there before; it simply needed to be revealed. So once the obstruction, the sinfulness, is removed then the part of the neshama that has been waiting to express itself is now free to have that expression.

If the Jew does not perform the milah or doesn’t do tshuva, that part of the neshama, the innocence of the neshama, is still there, however the point of creation is to reveal in the body that which exists in the neshama. So the milah and the tshuva are necessary to bring out this reality, the pre-existent G-dliness and reveal it in the level of the body. Then it has a retroactive effect.

Now we will understand what the Rambam says that it is impossible to bring back a Jewish soul forever. With these words the Rambam is hinting at an additional explanation as to why it is that the milah can have a retroactive effect. The Rambam is saying that the connection between a Jew and G-d is higher than all considerations. The bond that exists is always there and cannot be damaged, regardless of the condition in which the Jew may find himself. As it says, G-d says that whether it is true that the Jews worship idols or not, either way they are My children, and to exchange them for another nation, G-d forbid, is impossible. So not matter what the condition the Jew finds himself in, the bond with G-d always remains whole.

In a footnote, the Rebbe says that there is the famous halacha that a beis din can force a husband to give his wife a get, a divorce by whipping him, until he says, I am willing to give the get, since the husband has to give the get willingly. How does this make it a voluntary act? The Rambam explains that his neshama really does want, because the neshama of a Jew always wants to do whatever it is that halacha demands, and since the halacha demands it, his neshama wants to do it.

The question is, knowing that his neshama wants to give the get because that is what halacha demands, why does he have to be whipped until he says I am willing? Why not just make the get and have him sign it, since we know his neshama is willing. So we see from this that what is true of the neshama needs to be revealed by the body. He has to say what his neshama feels. And that is the purpose of having him say “I am willing”.

So this bond that existed between the Jew and G-d, which is indestructible, is what the Rambam is hinting to when he says that it is impossible to bring back the soul of a Jew forever. Rambam is saying that it is impossible to take back the bond that is created between a Jew and G-d, which can’t be destroyed, because not only is the bond between G-d and the Jewish people as a people, but with each individual Jew. G-d bonds with each Jew, with a bond that could never be severed. Every Jew individually G-d loves with an essential love, as the Baal Shem Tov said, every Jew is precious to G-d like an only child born to parents in their later years, and even more so.

Therefore when we say that G-d created the world for the Jewish people, it doesn’t mean the Jewish people as a whole, it means each individual Jew. The entire kavanah, the entire motivation for creation is focused on and depends on each individual Jew. That is why every individual should say that the world was created because of him. That is also why if one saves the life of a single Jew it is as if he kept the entire world in existence, because if there were one Jew missing, if there was one Jew lost from the Jewish people, then the entire creation would be lacking.

And so the Rambam says since one cannot take back the soul of a single Jew forever, one can’t take back the bond, the commitment that G-d makes to each individual Jew, and at all times that bond, that connection is there and it is effective, it needs only to be revealed, that’s why it is possible for milah to have a retroactive effect. Even if the milah takes place later, after the eighth day, it affects the past as well, because the connection to G-d, that always exists, even before the milah, needed only to be revealed and brought into the physical, into the state of revelation, and that is what is accomplished when the obstacle is removed.

We have spoken many times before that the mitzvah of milah carries within it all other mitzvahs, all forms of avodah. We learn from this that on the one hand  a  Jew  must  know  that  it is up  to him, it is up to his effort to bring
G-dliness into the world. One cannot go to sleep and claim that since in essence he is connected to G-d with an eternal bond that can never be severed therefore it is not important how he behaves and what he does, since in essence all the goodness is already there. The reason he can’t say that is because the bond with G-d must be brought out and revealed. That revelation, bringing the G-dliness to the surface, has to come through human effort. Therefore there has to be the actual performance of the mitzvah, the actual milah.

On the other hand, we also need to know without a shadow of a doubt that that which we do accomplish through our efforts, this comes as a gift from above, and it is a far greater result than is justified by the efforts of our avodah. And yet through our avodah and our efforts of removing the uncircumcised heart so that the heart becomes sensitive and responsive, G-d promises that He will circumcise our hearts, a much greater revelation from above comes as a result of our efforts.

In Vol. I of Likkutei Sichos, on parshas Tazria, the Rebbe quotes Likkutei Torah on the opening verses of parshas Tazria, that if a woman’s seed is dominant, then she gives birth to a boy, and if the husband’s seed is dominant, then the child will be a girl. On a spiritual level, this refers to G-d and the Jews, G-d being the husband and the Jews the wife. If the initiative comes from G-d, from the man, the result will be a girl, and if the initiative comes from below, from the Jew reaching up to G-d, the result will be a boy.   When  G-dliness  comes   from   above,  then  it is  a   much  greater
G-dliness then we can stimulate from below, but that G-dliness produces a girl, which is a G-dliness that is given from above. When the initiative comes from below, from the woman, from us, it is not as great a G-dliness, because we can’t reach as high, but whatever G-dliness we do get, it is boy, meaning G-dliness acquired through our own efforts.

This difference between bringing down from above, or raising up from below, is also the difference between the months of Nissan and Tishrei:  Nissan is a month which G-d comes from above, and is drawn down into the world, as in the miracles of Pesach, and Tishrei is the time where the Jew has to raise himself through tshuva to connect with G-d.The Midrash says that when G-d chose His world, He established the beginning of the year in Tishrei, and when G-d chose the Jewish people, He established a Rosh Hashanah for them in Nissan.

Sefer Akeidah and other seforim bring an explanation as to why the two months are so different. In G-d’s conduct when He relates to the world, there are two types, the natural conduct and the miraculous conduct. Tishrei is the Rosh Hashanah for natural conduct. On the first day of Tishrei man was created, and that was the conclusion of creation of nature. Nissan is the Rosh Hashanah for the miraculous conduct, above nature, because in Nissan all the miracles of yetziras Mitzraim were completely beyond nature.

To understand this more deeply, in Tishrei the attribute of gevurah is dominant, tshuva, rising from below upwards. Since human beings in their avodah are finite and limited, therefore the month of Tishrei is a time of nature, where the conduct is within the laws of nature, as it depends on the human beings initiative. However Nissan is a time of chesed; of drawing down from above, and what comes down is beyond, greater than the world, and therefore chesed produces miraculous conduct, above nature.

So why in the month of Tishrei do we ask for rain, and in the month of Nissan we ask for dew? The difference between rain and dew is that dew comes from above, independent of what’s happening on earth whereas rain is produced by the earth, the heat that rises from the earth produces rain. That is why rain can sometimes be withheld, for example a drought, but dew is never withheld. Since rain comes as a result of human effort, as a result of the earth’s efforts, it is possible that the human being fails in his efforts, and therefore there is no rain. But the dew comes from above, independent of our efforts, therefore it is never withheld.

Concerning the coming of Moshiach, we find an argument in the Gemarrah between Reb Eliezer and Reb Yehoshua, whether it will happen in the month of Nissan or it will happen in the month of Tishrei. So we need to understand since the yetziras Mitzraim happened in Nissan and the coming of this golus is similar to the geulah from Mitzraim, why should this geulah come in Tishrei, and not in Nissan? The difference between the two opinions is whether the geulah comes as a result of tshuva or whether it comes from an initiative from above.

As we said before, when the initiative comes from below, it is not as great a G-dliness, but on the other hand, it is absorbed and contained in a pnimiyus. That is why there is the opinion that the geulah has to come in Tishrei, because even though Tishrei is a time when it is dependent on the avodah of human beings, it has the advantage of being permanent, absorbed into creation.

Yetziras Mitzraim happened before the Giving of the Torah. At that time all the Jews were sunk into the forty nine levels of tumah, and therefore the geulah from Mitzraim had to come from above, it couldn’t be from below, from the people, and so it happened in Nissan. But the geulah with Moshiach comes after thousands of years of the avodah of Jews after Matan Torah, and through the mitzvahs we have made the world much clearer, much holier. The world is receptive, is a keli to G-dliness, which is what Matan Torah accomplished, that the highest G-dliness can come into the world and be absorbed into the world. And so it is with the coming of Moshiach although Moshiach is much higher than the world and the revelation is a much greater one, we are now more capable of absorbing it inwardly, internally and becoming merged with it.

And that is why Reb Eliezer says that the geulah will come in Tishrei, in a pnimiyus. But Reb Yehoshua says, in the halacha is as Reb Yehoshua, that it will be in Nissan because we can have a combination of both, it can be from above, initiated from G-d from above, the highest form of revelation and at the same time, absorbed in a pnimiyus.

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