Shalom everyone and thank you so much for joining me in studying Parashat Metsurah. In Parashat Metsurah, the Torah speaks about this tsarat, this very spiritual, mysterious disease, that I will not really call it leprosy, because leprosy is somewhat of a skin disease. But we will call it a disease that reflects some kind of a spiritual deficiency, that God, in a way, sends us a sign that we need to correct ourselves and to better ourselves, to be better people. So we will call it from now on tsarat, and we will try to understand, as the title suggests, is that a punishment? Is that a sign? Or perhaps even a blessing? In our Torah portion, the Torah begins with, Hashem says to Moshe and Aaron, saying to them that's in the middle of the Pasha, Kitavo Rakzknan, when you will arrive to the land of Knan, to the land of Israel, that I'm giving you this land, this inheritance. And I will place a tsarat, this disease, where? In the house itself. So it seems to be very odd, very, very strange. There is a very happy declaration, that you will come into the land of Israel, that I'm giving it to you as an inheritance, and then what? I will place tsarat in your homes. It looks to me that there is a tsarat on the walls, on the ceiling. So the Kohen will order everyone to evacuate the house. So prior to the priest coming to check out what's going on in that house, he will ask everyone to evacuate the house, veloit makolash, and he's doing that in order not to contaminate all the other possessions in the house. Because if the priest will declare that that house has sarat, everything in the house will be contaminated. So therefore, before the coin comes along and declare whatever he's going to declare, we evacuate the house. So after you emptied the house, after the house is clean, the coin comes along, he looks at the walls, at the ceiling, and whatever it is, and he's trying to figure out and to determine is that a tzarat or not. So obviously, the question that comes up that we need to address is the what I will call the gap between the beginning of the sentence and the second one, which means at the beginning of the verse, the Torah says in a very festive way, Kita vowel, that you will go into the land of Israel, that I'm giving you as an inheritance. And you would think that God would say, you know, this is a beautiful land, land that filled with milk and honey, like all the other description about Erat Israel, about the land of Israel. And instead, it's like part of this festive declaration. Oh, by the way, I'm going to place a tsarat in your homes. Is that a blessing? Is that a curse? Is that a sign? Let's try to figure out, based on the commentators, what should we learn from that vasuk, from those psuki? Says Rashi. Rashi, one of the most famous commentators from the 11th century in France, says the following. Says Rashi. Besorail. It's a good announcement. It's really a good thing for them. Sha negaim baim alehim. When Hashem says to Moshe and Aaron, tell the Jewish people, they are going into the land of Israel and I'm going to place Tsarat in their home. It's a good thing. It's a wonderful news for them. Why? So Rashi quotes our sages from Emidrash, which says something very, very interesting, in a way a bit mysterious. The Emorites, one of the seven Canaanite nations that dwell in the land of Israel, prior to the return of Am Israel, of the people of Israel back to their land, they knew that the people of Israel are coming. They are returning back to their inheritance. So what did they do? They basically took all their treasures and hid them in the walls of the house. Basically trying to avoid the reality that the Jewish people will come, will have the land back, and will find all those treasures. So they didn't want the Jewish people to have it. So they hid it in the walls of the house. Now, if you go to the house, if you are a Jew, you go into your home, you're not going to break the walls in order to find treasures that you don't know that exist there. So what God does, God place tsarat in the home. The Kohen, the priest, will come, will declare this is tsarat. And what do you need to do when you have a tsarat in the home? You need to break it. You need to basically demolish the house. When you will demolish the house, you will demolish the walls of the house, and what would you find? Treasures. So it's a wonderful news. Now the problem with this very, I would say, enigmatic midrash that Rashi quotes is, I don't understand. If Hashem, if God wants the Jewish people to gain wealth, He can do it in so many other ways. Why do I need to demolish the house to find the treasures and then to rebuild the house? And you know what? If I'm not that lucky, and my the first owner of the house, the first Amorites who was from the seven Canaanite nations did not have too much money, and he put a little bit of treasures. Demolishing the house and rebuilding the house might cost me more than those treasures. So what exactly is this wonderful news that I will find those treasures? So let's keep that question, perhaps even until the end of this shi'ur, until the end of this class. And let's see other opinions. The Ibn Ezra, Rabbi Avram Ibn Ezra, also from the same century but just not from France, from Spain, says the following Vetam Kitavo el Eretz Knan Kizenoegba Aretz Levada. The Ibn Ezra emphasize the beginning of the verse. The verse began with Kitavo el Eretz Knan when you will arrive to the land of Israel and then I will place Tsarat in your homes. Says the Ibn Ezra, it can happen only in Eretz Israel, it can happen only in the land of Israel. Why? It's because of the sanctity of the land of Israel. The idea, Earth Israel, the land of Israel, is not just a new place. It's just not a substitute for the desert that the Jewish people were wandering around for 40 years. The land of Israel is the place of the divine presence. It's the place of the Shinah. It's a place when you feel God. This is a place that immediately sends signs of impurity. Because the land is so kdosha, it's so holy, it's sanctified with the mitzvot that depends on the land itself, because of the people of Am Israel who dwell in the land of Israel. It's because God dwells with us through the tabernacle, through the Bet Migdash, through the temple. So therefore, it's a sign from God, nothing to do with treasures. The only place that God would send spiritual signs to your home, which is the most physical structure, it's only in Erat Israel. This is the beauty, the uniqueness of the land of Israel, which can detect if something is wrong and send signs through your home. So this is the idea according to the Ibn Ezra. Khizkuni, another commentator, suggested the following: So he says the land of Israel is basically stage one in terms of sanctity, stage two or level two of sanctity is the preparation for the building of the Petmigdash of the temple. Which means, says the Khiskuni, this is an tremendous insight. Therefore, don't forget, the inhabitants or the people who dwell in the land of Israel prior to the return of the people of Israel back to the land of Israel were the seven Canaanite nations. All of them were pagans and they were worship, they idol were idol worshippers. And therefore, in order to prepare for the building of the temple of the Beth Migdash, which is in a way the highlight of Kdusha of sanctity, you need to eliminate, you need to clean up all idol worshippers, idol worshipping from the land of Israel. The idol worshippers will escape or will have a war with the Jewish people. But then, when the Jewish people came into the land of Israel, they don't know what home, what house was designated for idol worshiping. And therefore, in order to assist the Jewish people in doing what they need to do in order to prepare the land for the temple, so God placed Tsarat in every home that used to be a place for idol worshiping. So the Tsarat will basically identify those homes and then you will demolish them. You fulfill the mitzvah of Abedte Abdun that you should basically destroy all the places that they were worship idols, and this is how you prepare for the temple. So look at what happened here. Rashi quotes a midrash, talks about those treasures, so it's for the benefit of Am Israel, so they will become wealthier. And we asked some questions. So Rashi, if God wants us to be wealthier, perhaps there is another way, much easier way to do it. So let's leave Rashi aside. The Ibn Ezra talked about the sanctity of the land of Israel, which tsarat, which is basically a reflection of a spiritual deficiency, can happen only in the land of Israel. The Chiskuni goes one step further. The Khizkuni says that when the Amisrael, when the people of Israel, when the nation of Israel enter the land of Israel, this is only one step in this grand plan of God. The second level, the second stage, the second chapter in our nation history and destiny is to build the Betamiddash, is to build the temple. And therefore, you need to have two major components. A, we need to elevate ourselves to be worthy for God to dwell among us. That's what we need to do on one aspect. But the second aspect is that all the places that they worship idols need to be demolished. How do I know? The tsarat will identify it. The tsarat will show me what are the homes that were used for idol worshippers, and therefore they will be demolished. So the tzarat has nothing to do with my treasures, it's all to do with my spiritual growth. So that's what the Hiskunis suggested. The Ralbag gave us a different option. He says, when you will go to the land of Knan, to the land of Israel, magit she einig ey batim nuagim elaberat Israel. So first and foremost, he agree that tzarat can happen only in the land of Israel. Why? Because of its sanctity, because of its holiness. What does it mean, venatati negat tsarat, that I, Hashem says, will place et tsarat in the homes? The verse, the Pasuk itself, basically relates or connected or linked the tzarat to Hashem, which means Hashem is in charge on placing the tzarat. Because he is the reason, he is the cause for everything new that happens in his creation. Even though he says, when it comes to evil, how do we, and this is by the way, a very wide, complicated, real complex theological question. Because based on what the Ralbag suggested, that everything comes from God and God is the reason for everything, obviously it's very easy to say it when it comes to good things. What should we say when it comes to things that we view and we see as evil? How is that connected to Hashem? But this is not the topic for our shi'ur, but it's something that we definitely need to think about. But then he continues and he says, So now he says, so why is it that God placed tsarat in the homes? So he says one option is what we quoted from Rashi, that it's to find those treasures, those hidden treasures. Or perhaps another option. That's incredible. He says, you go into a house that you didn't build. Who knows? Maybe the house is very old and it's going to collapse on you. Maybe the seven Canaanite nations put something in the house so that it will collapse on you. So God, He knows if that house will collapse or not. So, in order to protect the Jewish people from God forbid a calamity, just imagine you have 10,000 Jews going into their homes, and then God forbid, in one day, all those homes collapse on them. It's going to be a terrible calamity. The Ralb Bag says God, in order to protect the Jewish people, he would place a tzarat in every house that is about to collapse. So, when you see the tzarat, what do you do? You yourself demolish the house and then you rebuild it and you built it with strong foundations. So, in a way, now we have a fourth opinion. The Ralbach suggested that basically the Ralbach suggested what? When you go to the land of Israel, you need to know God's providence, what we call in Hebrew Hajgacha Pratit, God's providence, is in such a level that God, who knows obviously everything, he knows that that house will be will collapse. He puts tsarat in that house, so you will evacuate everything from the house, you will not even have a financial damage, even more so, God forbid, no one will die or no one will get injured, you will evacuate the house, the Kohen will declare that this house needs to be demolished, you will demolish the house, you will rebuild the house, and it's going to be a strong home. This is a Besoratova. This is a wonderful announcement to the Jewish people. Don't think that when you go into the land of Israel, which is definitely a land that requires more emuna, more faith in God. Because it's not like the desert that everything is by miracles. You have the cloud, then you have the pillar of fire, and then you have uh Moshe, Rabbeinu, Moses doing all the things for the Jewish people. And when you go to the land of Israel, you need to understand you are going to live in nature. You're going to plow the field, you're going to plant the field, you're going to harvest the harvest, you're going to fight your enemies, you're going to build your own banking system, your hospital system, your schooling system. You have an army, you need to defend your borders. You need to do everything by nature, in a very natural way, but never forget and never lose sight. The providence, God's providence is on this land from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. Sometimes we feel that we need a little bit more Hajj, we need to have a little bit more providence. But we have the faith that God will never abandon us. And what the Ralbag suggests is an incredible insight into Hajj, into providence. God brings us to the land of Israel, gives it us, give it to us as inheritance, and still make sure that everything is safe. That God forbid the house does not collapse on us. So that's what the Ralbag suggested. The barbanel, Rabbi Sagdona Barbanel, obviously from Spain, from the 15th century, says or explained this verse in a bit of a different way. And he says the following. So when God says in the Torah, I will give, I shall place this tsarat in the house, it's come to teach us that it's not a natural thing, it's not like a natural phenomena, that maybe it's like a mold or something. No, no, it's not mold. It's not because of water damage, it's tsarat. It came because I, Hashem, decided to have my providence on you. But what's the purpose? And what was the purpose of that miracle, that tsarat in the house? So one option is it's a spiritual message. Hey, you, the owner of the house, your spiritual life are not intact. So the first sign is in the house. If you get the message, wonderful. If you don't get a message, the tsarat will go on your clothing and then it will touch your own your own body and your family. So this is a sign, just a warning. Hey, think, pause. Something is not going well with your spiritual life. And that's what Chazal says, that's what our sages says, mach tsaratabati machar torata metzurah. And this is why there is a connection between the tzarat in the homes and the tzarat on someone's body. So basically, it's come to teach us that the tzarat in the house, it's also part of God's providence, but unlike the Ralbag that we saw before, that suggested perhaps it's because God wanted to protect us from the house collapsing on us, here it's a spiritual sign. It's a spiritual sign that God is not happy with the owner of the house. And perhaps we can suggest another option, vehi, which is Leo Dianki Akrei Buamelarets, Yiraeba Negat Sarat Vuremes la Akumashari Avduba, Vitivabenetizata Bahpi Pne Atzaraot remes le bet cocham vetifartam. Shimipne Nega Vonotehem Yavole Harisat Ustirad Binyano. So basically he says, perhaps we can suggest another option, which is much more general, which is the Bait is not only your own home. The Baite is a metaphor for the Betamigdash, for the temple, for the house of God. And basically the tsarat in the house that basically will result in demolishing the house. It's what will happen with the temple. Because the temple, the existence of the temple is based on our purity, on us doing God's commandments. It's not only about the sacrifices. The sacrifices is only one component. But tsarat, for example, comes because of inappropriate behavior between people. What the Barbanel says is that the Torah basically telling the Jewish people from the get-go, if you don't know how to behave spiritually, your private homes can definitely be demolished. But also the house of God, the Beita Mikdash, the temple itself, will be destroyed. So therefore, this parshah that talks about the tsarat in the homes comes along in order leahem shia holiva tsarata ba lehem vanirpa mehem ha kolu beajga tashem. The tsarat itself, the way you cure yourself, the remedy for the tsarat is all from God. And it's like very similar to what Moses says in Deuteronomy, be careful, be aware and be careful with that spiritual disease of the Tsarat. If you want to avoid the Tsarat, you should be very careful in listening and doing what the prophets and the priests are telling you. What I commended them, what I ordered them, you should follow, you should do. And if you remember, and we will obviously learn it when we get to the book of Numbers, but after Miriam, Moshe's sister, spoke in not in a respectful way about Moshe, she got Tsarat. And obviously, there was no natural reason for that. It came from God. So that is basically the tsarat, is I would call it the prototype or the prime example of providence. But it's not as a punishment. And this is the beauty of it. Nothing in all the commentators that we just learned together suggested that that's a punishment. Rashi spoke about these treasures. The Ibn Ezra spoke about the spiritual expectation that we have when we arrive to the land of Israel. The Ralbak talked about God's protection and providence. The Abarbanel speaks about providence. And they all talk about the idea of Tsarat as a reflection of God's care for us and about us. In a way, they flip it. Because when we read the Psukim, when we read the narratives about Tsarat, we always ask ourselves, okay, so what's wrong with us? What did we do wrong that we deserve that punishment? That someone deserves such a punishment, that he needs to leave his family, leave the camp, needs to be isolated somewhere for seven days and then to go through a process of purification. What did he do wrong that he was punished? It's not about punishment. It can be a spiritual sign that God is telling you, you need to recalculate, you need to re-evaluate, you need to pause, you need to think about your spiritual life. Do you do what I ask you to do? Do you behave nicely to your friend, to your neighbor, to your wife, to your kids? All of the commentators are viewing tzarat in a very positive way. It's not a punishment. Perhaps it's because of the nature of the tzarat. It's not a disease. And by the way, I'm not sure that people suffer from it physically. They suffer from it spiritually and socially because we know that someone who has a tzarat needs to leave his house, needs to leave the camp, and he needs to be isolated. Or if you have a house that has a tzarat and it needs to be demolished, but you yourself, you don't physically you don't suffer because this is not the point of tsarat. The point of tzarat is to get you back to the right path spiritually. So this is the idea, and especially in the land of Israel. The Kliakal suggests yet another option. And it says the following. What was the sin? What was that transgression? Tsarutain. Tsarutain probably can be translated into being stingy. This person thinks that he is the owner of the house, and the house belongs only to him. He's not opening his home to anyone. No guests, no hospitality, no kindness. And he does not understand that person, the owner of the house, he does not understand that God gave him those beautiful homes, house, homes with plenty, not only for his own sake, but rather that he will open his house, and other people who don't have a home, other people who don't have plenty, will come and enjoy his plenty. And you need to understand that when you give something, you don't really give something that belongs to you. It belongs to God. You are just the messenger, you are just the agent. You are basically just the conduit to give this blessing that God bless you to give to others. Look how he played with the verse. It says, that I am the one to give you the land. And also I am the one to give the tsarat in the home. Basically saying, Because you need to know, yes, you went to the battlefield, you fought for the land of Israel, but don't forget, without me, without God, you will not be able to conquer the land of Israel. And therefore, and therefore, because you didn't conquer the land of Israel by yourself, you were a participant, you were a participant, but without God you will not be able to bring it into fruition. Hashem says to you, don't forget it. And therefore, and therefore you are required to share your plenty, to share your wealth with others, because it's not yours. It's not yours. God gave it to you and He's testing you. Would you give it? Would you share your wealth with others? Would you be able to always maintain and remember that whatever you have, yes, you worked hard for it, no one will take it away from you, but that you need to share it with others because ultimately it's not yours. And if you will not listen to God, and you will be stingy and you will not share your wealth, and you will think and you will relay the inheritance that you received, that you were gifted, and you think it's yours, as then I will place tzarat in the home, and then you will what? It will be demolished and you will lose your home. Ah, the first commentator that we have, which is basically says that Tsarat is an onesh, it's a punishment. It's a punishment to teach you that what you think you have, you don't. You think it's yours, it's not. You think that no one can take this inheritance from you because you worked so hard for that? You are wrong. God is the one. So, in a way, the Kliya Ka also think and admit and and agree with the idea that it's part of God's Hajjakar, it's God's providence. But it's not only a sign, it's much more than a sign. It's a punishment. It's a punishment for being stingy, but it's much more than that. It's a punishment of not fully understanding the gift of the land of Israel. The land of Israel is a gift, it was given to us by God. We worked for it. We definitely joined forces in order to have this land. But ultimately, it's God's land. All of us remember the first Rashi in the book of Genesis, in the book of Sephiroth, Rashi brings a statement which is beautiful, which basically says, why do we need to start from Genesis? It's all stories. We should start from the book of Exodus, where God starts giving commandments. And he brings a beautiful insight into this question and saying that no, God had to describe the creation of this universe in order to teach us that because God is the creator, he has the ability and the right to decide who gets what. So no one else can dispute it, no one else can challenge it. If you believe that God is the creator of this universe, he has the right to give whatever he wants to whoever he wants. So Ehat Israel, the land of Israel, was given to us as a gift. And if you don't understand it and you think you are the one who created everything, you are the one who accumulated that wealth because of only of you yourself, you need to get corrected. And therefore, there is a tzarah, there is a punishment. The last commentator for today is the Svatimet. And the Svatimet suggested a different take on what Rashi says. And he says the following. And I, as Hashem, says, I will place a tzarat in your home. Darushul Khazal, our sages, suggested, Vihibesurai? What kind of a declaration of uh of festivities that you get into the land of Israel, you go into your home, and then I'll place a tzarat and I will demolish the house. But he brings what Rash he brought that, that's based on our sages, that this nation, the Emorites, part of the seven Canaanite nations, they basically they hid treasures in the walls. Says the Svatimet. He says, I'll tell you what's the idea behind this Sarat in the home. God promised this land to us. And this land needs to go through a transformation from Eretz Kanaan, from the land of Canaan, the seven Canaanite nation, into Eretz Israel, the land of Israel. The process of this transformation takes time and has some stages in it. So when the Jewish people enter the land of Israel, they have a mission. Their mission is to purify all those places that once were designated for idol worshiping and impurity and to transform them into pure, holy, and sanctified places. And by performing the commandments, you take the impurity and you transform it into something that is pure. When you look at the verse, it says, which means we found cure for the nega tsarat, for that plague of tsarat, from the person who has the tzarat. It should say nirpaha metsurah. The person who is the metsurah, he is cured, but no. Hidden things, these treasures. The thing is, and this is a very Hasidish perspective, is that you can find hidden sparks of holiness in things that you don't think that they exist. Which means if you have a house, a home, we view a house, a home as a place, as a shelter, as a place that we grow our family in, but we look at the house only from a physical perspective, from a materialistic way, from a materialistic angle. Svatemed says you have matumoniot, you have treasures in the house. You need to find these holy sparks of kedusha. Sometimes you need to demolish the house to find it, and sometimes you can just look at the wall and you can look at the treasures, those holy treasures. Basically, it has a tremendous amount of insight into how we view the material world that we live in. We are getting close to Pesach. We read Parashatmet Surah, the Shabbat before Pesach, before Passover. Passover has a very similar idea according to the Svatemet. When we remember Exodus, four nights from now, two nights from now, when we after Shabbat, we have two nights for Lela Sedr, Monday night. We start to tell the story of Yetziat Mitzraim, and we need to view ourselves like we went out from Mitzraim. We went out from Egypt. But it's a little hard. How can I exactly imagine myself going out from Egypt? I was never there. But the Sfate met in a different place suggested that the idea of Yetziat Mitzraim is to be able to understand that even in the depth of Egypt, and the word Egypt in Hebrew is called mitzraim, which comes from the word mitzar, something very narrow. That even if you find yourself in a very narrow place, in a very dark place in your life, you need to know that you can get out of it. This is the story of Yetziat Mitzraim. No one, according to our sages, no one was able to get out of mitzvaim of Egypt. People tried, they failed. No one was able to leave Egypt. The Jewish people, probably two, three million people left Egypt. It means to us, says the Sfatemat, there is matmonio, there are hidden treasures even in the darkest of places. We all know we are being faced with tremendous challenges for the people of Israel, for Amissail. We find ourselves sometimes in a very dark place. But we need to know there are hidden treasures. We need to dig deeper and find them. We need to find the way, the abilities. The strength to be Yot Semi Mitzaim, to find the strength to get ourselves out of this meetzah, of this narrow place, of this dark place, and to find them at Monioot, to find those treasures. Those treasures that come from God, that light, this redemption that we all yearn for and deserve. Thank you.