Bechukotai
bechukosai
bechukosai
FB 2022
1. How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
2. How can water ('mikve'/ritual bath) purify? If one dips an impure item in a mikveh, why doesn't the mikveh become impure?!
3. Can music be impure?
4. Did anything exist before the creation-time mentioned in Genesis?
See below for these discussions, based on this week's Torah reading (oortion of "Bekhukotai"), and Haftoroh (prophets) readings.
...
Question 1: How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
Answer: See the opening of this week's portion Lev 26:3: https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0326.htm :
ג אִם-בְּחֻקֹּתַי תֵּלֵכוּ וְאֶת-מִצְוֺתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם.
3 If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them;
and its continuation in 26:11 : וְנָתַתִּי מִשְׁכָּנִי בְּתוֹכְכֶם.
This can be translated as "I will place my mishkan (Tabernacle) among you".
An alternate meaning is: as "My Shechinah will reside amongst/within you" [Shechinah = Divine presence].
And so this is the answer to question1 - " If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them" we become imbued with the Divine presence!
Note: For this latter translation, see the great Traditional commentator Sforno: https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sforno_on_Leviticus.26.11.1?ven=Eliyahu_Munk,_HaChut_Hameshulash&vhe=On_Your_Way&lang=en
.
And see the continuation in Lev 26:12 וְהִתְהַלַּכְתִּי בְּתוֹכְכֶם, literally meaning "and I will walk inside you". So translating this slavishly literally, if we walk in the ways of God, God places the schchinah in us and walks within us. The great sage 'Ramban' (Nachmanides) unpacks some of the mystical allusions in these passages, referring the fuulfilment of the promises to the World to Come: https://www.sefaria.org.il/Ramban_on_Leviticus.26.12.1?ven=Commentary_on_the_Torah_by_Ramban_(Nachmanides)._Translated_and_annotated_by_Charles_B._Chavel._New_York,_Shilo_Pub._House,_1971-1976&vhe=On_Your_Way_New&lang=en
Conclusion: God provides us with a prescription for how to obtain God's presence within us ; via following God's Path we develop ourselves, refining our spirit (which is of God, as described in Genesis), removing the shell covering it (ego & impurities etc), so that is sensitive to the divine presence, which is actually everywhere, all the time, and it willbe in us as well.
May we indeed be blessed to keep the Torah ("If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them") and - as written elsewhere in the Torah, and explained by the mystics - thereby develop our soul to the point where after it separates from the body it can attain a closeness with its source, the divine, and thereby experience the greatest possible joy.
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Notes: Source texts
For the passages at the end of the haftarah reading, and the deep teachings associated to them: The great sage 'Ramban' (Nachmanides) unpacks some of the mystical allusions: see:
The haftara, prophets reading:
https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/317015?lang=en
..................
Now that we see the relevance to our week's readings of water as purification, let's dive deeper....
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A mystical explanation of why water purifies, & a kabbalistic reason for why melody cannot be impure (and a riddle: DId anything exist before the creation mentioned in Genesis?i
Why should specifically water purify ritually? And in addition, it is very odd - people or objects which are considered ritually needful of purification go into a ritual bath and emerge purified, yet the next person goes into a water-body which just had not-quite-purity placed in it, so why didn;t the water-body become not pure? Why is it able to continually purify?
Why do I raise this quesiotn now? Because the prophetic reading (Haftarah) this week is Jeremiah 16:19-17:14, and it alludes to a 'mikveh', 'ritual-purification water' (see the advanced note at the end.):
According to Tradition, purification can be obtained via immersion in a body of water that is not 'contained' as it would be eg in a pot or a swimming pool but rather direct from rainwater, as in a lake or river or ocean etc, or in a specially-constructed rain-water collection; these ritual water-bodies are known as a "mikveh".
The word appears in the creation account, Gen 1:10, and later in Lev.11:36.
”וַיִּקְרָא אֱ' לַיַּבָּשָׁה אֶרֶץ, וּלְמִקְוֵה הַמַּיִם קָרָא יַמִּים“ (בראשית א, פסוק י)
”אַךְ מַעְיָן וּבוֹר מִקְוֵה-מַיִם, יִהְיֶה טָהוֹר“ (ויקרא יא, פסוק לו)
The prophetic reading contains a word which is identical, in spelling and in basic pronounciation, מִקְוֵ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙, but has very different meaning, though it is clear the prophet meant to allude to this meaning, see the advanced note at the end.
So back to our question of why a mikveh of water purifies:
In Genesis we are told that the spirit of God hovered above the waters, but there is no prior mention of the waters having been created! Tradition (see eg the first Rashi) teaches that the creation account is not meant to tell us exact chronology, and the first words are correctly translated as "In the beginning of the creation of the heaven and the earth when the earth was formless .." ie as part of a process, somewhere in the middle, rather than "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" so we are NOT told exactly what happened "in the beginning" (if such can be defined).
Tradition teaches that there were prior creations to the one we inhabit - mystical insights are needed to understand all this - and in fact the waters mentioned in Genesis, our water, is from a prior creation!
(The wording is: 'mayim kadmu' = 'the waters preceded' that which Genesis mentions as being created).
According to deep Traditional teachings, this other-worldly origin is the reason water can purify (when it is 'free' and 'uncontained'), and why it does NOT become impure when an impure entity from this world is immersed in it!
This is the secret of a 'mikveh'.
....................................................................................................................
A kabbalistic reason for why melody cannot be impure:
There was a halachik (religious-law) question asked of a great sage: can one use in relligious Jewish worship a melody taken from pagan sources. Surprisingly the answer was in the affirmative. The reason given (by "the Ben Ish Chai" I believe) is that melody like water is 'free/fluid', until it becomes fixed by adding words, and indeed melody is from the "upper-world root" of water, and so its source is other-worldly and so it cannot become impure! In other words if there is a song used in pagan worship then all one needs to do it remove the words and whatremains is the melody which can now be utilized for Jewish forms of holiness!
Note: The whole book of Leviticus was about this topic of removing impurtiy and so especially with the interpretation of mikveh as a purifying essence this is a very fitting prophetic reading to end the book (next week we start the next book, Numbers/'Bamidbar').
Conclusion: We can perhaps adapt all this to the message in the Torah reading about following the divine Path - just as there is a distinction between melody and lyrics (ie the tune vs the words), so that one can rescue the sparks of melody, in general our task here in this life is to liberate the real (spiritual) essence of everything (in Kabbalistic terms:"liberating the holy sparks from the impure shell"), and so too for that which is inside ourselves.
May we be blessed to find the right way to not throw out everything that has been rendered 'impure', but rather jettison only the bad part of it, and be able to re-purpose the essence for the good, and in this way get closer to our own essence, our soul, God's breath/Spirit which (as described in Genesis) was imbued into us, making us human, a holy being created by God 'in the image of God'.
...
Advanced note: here's the source, but it's really only for people interested in the Hebrew of the Bible.
The second to last passage ofthis week's prohets-portion starts with the words "Thou hope of Israel מִקְוֵ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ where the word "hope" is "mikveh", an unusual form of the word which also appears for example in the Israeli national anthem "The Hope" "HaTikva". It seems pretty clear that the prophet chose that word and its form in order for it to be the sameas for the purifying body of water:
17:13 speaks not just of God as 'mikveh' of the People of Israel (their hope) but also as the Fount of living waters('mekor mayim chayim' מְק֥וֹר מַֽיִם־חַיִּ֖ים)." and 17:14 speaks of God as Healer.
So I would suggest interpreting the word "mikveh" in the first part as inreference to pure waters as well, ie as a mikveh of water.
'כִּסֵּ֣א כָב֔וֹד מָר֖וֹם מֵֽרִאשׁ֑וֹן מְק֖וֹם מִקְדָּשֵֽׁנוּ׃ מִקְוֵ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ ה' כָּל־עֹזְבֶ֖יךָ יֵבֹ֑שׁוּ יסורי [וְסוּרַי֙] בָּאָ֣רֶץ יִכָּתֵ֔בוּ כִּ֥י עָזְב֛וּ מְק֥וֹר מַֽיִם־חַיִּ֖ים אֶת־ה'׃ (ס) רְפָאֵ֤נִי ה֙ וְאֵ֣רָפֵ֔א הוֹשִׁיעֵ֖נִי וְאִוָּשֵׁ֑עָה כִּ֥י תְהִלָּתִ֖י אָֽתָּה׃ O Hope of Israel! O LORD! .... the LORD,The Fount of living waters...heal me....
ie mikveh =
a) as in the word "le kavot" to hope;
b) body of water for ritual purification.
So although the main interpretation is a), the end of the passage referring to "the Fount of living waters" strengthens the interpretation b) of the first word 'mikveh' as (an analogy to) water which purifies.
Also: RIght after this passage, after the words "The Fount of living waters" comes the words: "heal me....", again making interpretation b) appropriate.
כִּסֵּ֣א כָב֔וֹד מָר֖וֹם מֵֽרִאשׁ֑וֹן מְק֖וֹם מִקְדָּשֵֽׁנוּ׃ מִקְוֵ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ ה' כָּל־עֹזְבֶ֖יךָ יֵבֹ֑שׁוּ יסורי [וְסוּרַי֙] בָּאָ֣רֶץ יִכָּתֵ֔בוּ כִּ֥י עָזְב֛וּ מְק֥וֹר מַֽיִם־חַיִּ֖ים אֶת־ה'׃ . רְפָאֵ֤נִי ה֙ וְאֵ֣רָפֵ֔א הוֹשִׁיעֵ֖נִי וְאִוָּשֵׁ֑עָה כִּ֥י תְהִלָּתִ֖י אָֽתָּה׃ ....
Now you can re-read the passages above with the double-meaning of 'mikveh'....(And notice elsewhere in the hafotro reading the mention of "me'rishon", unique in tanach so it is perhaps a hint that this all harks back to Genesis.)
.
bechukotai bechukosai:
Can music be impure?
How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
DId anything exist before the creation-time mentioned in Genesis?
How can water ('mikve'/ritual bath) purify? If one dips an impure item in a mikveh, why doesn't the mikveh become impure?!
See below for these discussions, based on this week's Torah and Haftoroh (prophets) readings.
...
1) Question: How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
Answer: "My Shechinah will reside amongst you, everywhere" (if we follow the path outlined):[Shechinah = Divine presence]
This Divine promise is one of the central messages of this week's portion ('Bekhukotai in Israel. Elsewhere the portion is the previous one, Behar).
It is not that God denies us the divine presence as punishment for not following the Path, but rather it is a prescription for how to 'tune in', namely via following God's Path we develop ourselves, refining our spirit (which is of God, as described in Genesis), to the extent that it removes the shell of ego and impurities and so on cloaking it, so that is sensitive to the divine presence which is actually all around all the time!
.....
Answers to the other questions:
Can music be impure? Why does water purify? etc:
The prophetic reading this week (Haftarah) is: Jeremiah 16:19-17:14 · (17 p’sukim)
17:13 speaks of God as the 'mikveh' of the People of Israel and the Fount of living waters, and 17:14 of God as Healer.
mikveh =
a) as in the word "lekavot" to hope
b) body of water for ritual purification
The beginning and end of the passage is: "O Hope of Israel {'mikveh')! O LORD! .... the LORD, The Fount of living waters ('mayim chayim')."
So the end of the passage strengthens the interpretation of the first word 'mikveh' as water which purifies.
כִּסֵּ֣א כָב֔וֹד מָר֖וֹם מֵֽרִאשׁ֑וֹן מְק֖וֹם מִקְדָּשֵֽׁנוּ׃ מִקְוֵ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ ה' כָּל־עֹזְבֶ֖יךָ יֵבֹ֑שׁוּ יסורי [וְסוּרַי֙] בָּאָ֣רֶץ יִכָּתֵ֔בוּ כִּ֥י עָזְב֛וּ מְק֥וֹר מַֽיִם־חַיִּ֖ים אֶת־ה'׃ (ס) רְפָאֵ֤נִי יְהוָה֙ וְאֵ֣רָפֵ֔א הוֹשִׁיעֵ֖נִי וְאִוָּשֵׁ֑עָה כִּ֥י תְהִלָּתִ֖י אָֽתָּה׃ Also: RIght after this passage comes the words: The Fount of living waters...heal me....
.........
A Kabbalistic explanation of why water purifies ('metaher'): In Genesis we are told that the spirit of God hovered above the waters, but there is no prior mention of the waters having been created! Tradition (see eg the first Rashi) teaches that the creation account is not meant to tell us exact chronology, and the first words are correctly translated as "In the beginning of the creation of the heaven and the earth when the earth was formless .." ie as part of a process, somewhere in themiddle, rather than "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" so we are NOT told exactly what happened "in the beginning" (if such can be defined).
Tradition teaches that there were prior creations to the one we inhabit, and in fact the waters mentioned in Genesis, our water, is from a prior creation! ('mayim kadmu' 'the waters preceded' that which Genesis mentions as being created).
According to deep Traditional teachings, this is the reason water can purify, and why it does NOT become impure when an impure entity is immersed in it!
This is the secret of a 'mikveh'.
Now you can re-read the passages above with the double-meaning of 'mikveh'....(And notice elsewhere in the hafotro reading the mention of "me'rishon", unique in tanach so it is perhaps a hint that this all harks back to Genesis.)
......
Why melody cannot be impure:
There was a halachik question asked of a great sage: can one use in relligious Jewish worship a melody taken from pagan sources. Surprisingly the answer was in the affirmative. The reason given (by the Ben Ish Chai I believe) is that melody is fluid until it becomes fixed by adding words, and melody is from the "upper-world root" of water, and so it cannot become impure! Removing the pagan or impure words removes the impurity, and the melody can now be utilized for holiness!
Note: The whole book of Leviticus was about this topic of removing impurtiy and so especially with the interpretation of mikveh as a purifying essence this is a very fitting prophetic reading to end the book (next week [in Israel] we start Numbers/'Bamidbar').
Conclusion: We can perhaps adapt all this to the message in the Torah reading about following the divine Path - just as there is a distinction between melody and lyrics (ie the tune vs the words) and so one can rescue the sparks of melody, in general our task here in this life is to liberate the real essence of everything (in Kabbalistic terms:"liberating the holy sparks from the impure shell"), and so too for that which is inside ourselves: May we be blessed to find the right way to not throw out everything that has been rendered impure, but rather jettison only the bad part of it, and be able to re-purpose the essence for the good, and in this way get closer to our own essence, our soul, God's breath/Spirit which (as described in Genesis) was imbued in us, making us human, a being created by God 'in the image of God'.
...
Footnotes: Source texts
For the translation of Leviticus 26:11: ונתתי משכני בתוככם which I used above, see the great Traditional commentator Sforno: https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sforno_on_Leviticus.26.11.1?ven=Eliyahu_Munk,_HaChut_Hameshulash&vhe=On_Your_Way&lang=en
...
The great sage 'Ramban' (Nachmanides) unpacks some of the mystical allusions in the passages above from this week's portion:
For the Advanced reader: see:
https://www.sefaria.org.il/Ramban_on_Leviticus.26.11.1?ven=Commentary_on_the_Torah_by_Ramban_(Nachmanides)._Translated_and_annotated_by_Charles_B._Chavel._New_York,_Shilo_Pub._House,_1971-1976&vhe=On_Your_Way_New&lang=en
https://www.sefaria.org.il/Ramban_on_Leviticus.26.12.1?ven=Commentary_on_the_Torah_by_Ramban_(Nachmanides)._Translated_and_annotated_by_Charles_B._Chavel._New_York,_Shilo_Pub._House,_1971-1976&vhe=On_Your_Way_New&lang=en
.....
The haftara, prophets reading:
...
email version:
Can music be impure?
How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
DId anything exist before the creation-time mentioned in Genesis?
How can water ('mikve'/ritual bath) purify? If one dips an impure item in a mikveh, why doesn't the mikveh become impure?!
See below for these discussions, based on this week's Torah and Haftoroh (prophets) readings.
...
1) Question: How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
Answer: "My Shechinah will reside amongst you, everywhere" (if we follow the path outlined):[Shechinah = Divine presence] 26:11: ונתתי משכני בתוככם
[Also: 26:12 "And I shall walk amongst you..."]
This Divine promise is one of the central messages of this week's portion ('Bekhukotai in Israel. Elsewhere the portion is the previous one, Behar).
It is not that God denies us the divine presence as punishment for not following the Path, but rather it is a prescription for how to 'tune in', namely via following God's Path we develop ourselves, refining our spirit (which is of God, as described in Genesis), to the extent that it removes the shell of ego and impurities and so on cloaking it, so that is sensitive to the divine presence which is actually all around all the time!
For the translation of Leviticus 26:11: ונתתי משכני בתוככם which I used above, see the great Traditional commentator Sforno: https://www.sefaria.org.il/Ramban_on_Leviticus.26.11.1?
...
For the passages at the end of the haftarah reading, and the deep teachings associated to them: The great sage 'Ramban' (Nachmanides) unpacks some of the mystical allusions: see:
https://www.sefaria.org.il/sheets/317015?lang=en
...
Answers to the other questions: eg Can music be impure?
The prophetic reading this week (Haftarah) is: Jeremiah 16:19-17:14 · 17 p’sukim https://www.sefaria.org.il/Jeremiah.17.13?ven=Tanakh:_The_Holy_Scriptures,_published_by_JPS&vhe=Miqra_according_to_the_Masorah&lang=bi
17:13 speaks of God as the 'mikveh' of the People of Israel and the Fount of living waters, and 17:14 of God as Healer.
mikveh =
a) as in the word "lekavot" to hope, kaveh = trust
b) body of water for ritual purification
The beginning and end of the passage is: "O Hope of Israel {'mikveh')! O LORD! .... the LORD, The Fount of living waters ('mayim chayim').
כִּסֵּ֣א כָב֔וֹד מָר֖וֹם מֵֽרִאשׁ֑וֹן מְק֖וֹם מִקְדָּשֵֽׁנוּ׃ מִקְוֵ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ ה' כָּל־עֹזְבֶ֖יךָ יֵבֹ֑שׁוּ יסורי [וְסוּרַי֙] בָּאָ֣רֶץ יִכָּתֵ֔בוּ כִּ֥י עָזְב֛וּ מְק֥וֹר מַֽיִם־חַיִּ֖ים אֶת־ה'׃ (ס) רְפָאֵ֤נִי יְהוָה֙ וְאֵ֣רָפֵ֔א הוֹשִׁיעֵ֖נִי וְאִוָּשֵׁ֑עָה כִּ֥י תְהִלָּתִ֖י אָֽתָּה׃ O Hope of Israel! O LORD! .... the LORD,The Fount of living waters...heal me....
A Kabbalistic explanation of why water purifies ('metaher'): In Genesis we are told that the spirit of God hovered above the waters, but there is no prior mention of the waters having been created! Tradition (see eg the first Rashi) teaches that the creation account is not meant to tell us exact chronology, and the first words are correctly translated as "In the beginning of the creation of the heaven and the earth when the earth was formless .." ie as part of a process, somewhere in themiddle, rather than "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" so we are NOT told exactly what happened "in the beginning" (if such can be defined).
Tradition teaches that there were prior creations to the one we inhabit, and in fact the waters mentioned in Genesis, our water, is from a prior creation! ('mayim kadmu' 'the waters preceded' that which Genesis mentions as being created).
According to deep Traditional teachings, this is the reason water can purify, and why it does NOT become impure when an impure entity is immersed in it!
This is the secret of a 'mikveh'.
Now you can read the passages above in their double meaning....(And notice elsewhere in the hafotro reading the mention of "me'rishon", unique in tanach so it is perhaps a hint that this all harks back to Genesis.)
......
There was a halachik question asked of a great sage: can one use in relligious Jewish worship a melody taken from pagan sources. Surprisingly the answer was in the affirmative. The reason given (by the Ben Ish Chai I believe) is that melody is fluid until it becomes fixed by adding words, and melody is from the "upper-world root" of water, and so it cannot become impure! Removing the pagan or impure words removes the impurity, and the melody can now be utilized for holiness!
The whole book of Leviticus was about this topic of removing impurtiy and so this is a very fitting prophetic reading to end the book (next week [in Israel] we start Numbers/'Bamidbar').
I would say that just as there is a distinction between melody and lyrics (ie the tune vs the words) and so one can rescue the sparks of melody, in general our task here is to liberate the real essence of everything ("liberating the holy sparks from the impure shell"), so too for that which is inside ourselves - not to throw out everything that has been rendered impuree, but rather jettison only the the bad part of it in order to re-purpose it for the good.
....
FB 2022
Can music be impure?
How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
DId anything exist before the creation-time mentioned in Genesis?
How can water ('mikve'/ritual bath) purify? If one dips an impure item in a mikveh, why doesn't the mikveh become impure?!
See below for these discussions, based on this week's Torah and Haftoroh (prophets) readings.
...
1) Question: How can we become imbued with the Divine presence?
Answer: "My Shechinah will reside amongst you, everywhere" (if we follow the path outlined):[Shechinah = Divine presence]
This Divine promise is one of the central messages of this week's portion ('Bekhukotai in Israel. Elsewhere the portion is the previous one, Behar).
It is not that God denies us the divine presence as punishment for not following the Path, but rather it is a prescription for how to 'tune in', namely via following God's Path we develop ourselves, refining our spirit (which is of God, as described in Genesis), to the extent that it removes the shell of ego and impurities and so on cloaking it, so that is sensitive to the divine presence which is actually all around all the time!
.....
Answers to the other questions:
Can music be impure? Why does water purify? etc:
The prophetic reading this week (Haftarah) is: Jeremiah 16:19-17:14 · (17 p’sukim)
17:13 speaks of God as the 'mikveh' of the People of Israel and the Fount of living waters, and 17:14 of God as Healer.
mikveh =
a) as in the word "lekavot" to hope
b) body of water for ritual purification
The beginning and end of the passage is: "O Hope of Israel {'mikveh')! O LORD! .... the LORD, The Fount of living waters ('mayim chayim')."
So although the main interpretation is a), the end of the passage referring to "the Fount of living waters" strengthens the interpretation b) of the first word 'mikveh' as (an analogy to) water which purifies.
Also: RIght after this passage, after the words "The Fount of living waters" comes the words: "heal me....", again making interpretation b) appropriate.
כִּסֵּ֣א כָב֔וֹד מָר֖וֹם מֵֽרִאשׁ֑וֹן מְק֖וֹם מִקְדָּשֵֽׁנוּ׃ מִקְוֵ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ ה' כָּל־עֹזְבֶ֖יךָ יֵבֹ֑שׁוּ יסורי [וְסוּרַי֙] בָּאָ֣רֶץ יִכָּתֵ֔בוּ כִּ֥י עָזְב֛וּ מְק֥וֹר מַֽיִם־חַיִּ֖ים אֶת־ה'׃ (ס) רְפָאֵ֤נִי ה֙ וְאֵ֣רָפֵ֔א הוֹשִׁיעֵ֖נִי וְאִוָּשֵׁ֑עָה כִּ֥י תְהִלָּתִ֖י אָֽתָּה׃ ....
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Now that we see the relevance to our week's readings of water as purification, let's dive deeper....
A Kabbalistic explanation of why water purifies ('metaher'): In Genesis we are told that the spirit of God hovered above the waters, but there is no prior mention of the waters having been created! Tradition (see eg the first Rashi) teaches that the creation account is not meant to tell us exact chronology, and the first words are correctly translated as "In the beginning of the creation of the heaven and the earth when the earth was formless .." ie as part of a process, somewhere in themiddle, rather than "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" so we are NOT told exactly what happened "in the beginning" (if such can be defined).
Tradition teaches that there were prior creations to the one we inhabit, and in fact the waters mentioned in Genesis, our water, is from a prior creation! ('mayim kadmu' 'the waters preceded' that which Genesis mentions as being created).
According to deep Traditional teachings, this is the reason water can purify, and why it does NOT become impure when an impure entity is immersed in it!
This is the secret of a 'mikveh'.
Now you can re-read the passages above with the double-meaning of 'mikveh'....(And notice elsewhere in the hafotro reading the mention of "me'rishon", unique in tanach so it is perhaps a hint that this all harks back to Genesis.)
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Why melody cannot be impure:
There was a halachik (religious-law) question asked of a great sage: can one use in relligious Jewish worship a melody taken from pagan sources. Surprisingly the answer was in the affirmative. The reason given (by the Ben Ish Chai I believe) is that melody is fluid until it becomes fixed by adding words, and melody is from the "upper-world root" of water, and so it cannot become impure! Removing the pagan or impure words removes the impurity, and the melody can now be utilized for holiness!
Note: The whole book of Leviticus was about this topic of removing impurtiy and so especially with the interpretation of mikveh as a purifying essence this is a very fitting prophetic reading to end the book (next week [in Israel] we start Numbers/'Bamidbar').
Conclusion: We can perhaps adapt all this to the message in the Torah reading about following the divine Path - just as there is a distinction between melody and lyrics (ie the tune vs the words) and so one can rescue the sparks of melody, in general our task here in this life is to liberate the real essence of everything (in Kabbalistic terms:"liberating the holy sparks from the impure shell"), and so too for that which is inside ourselves: May we be blessed to find the right way to not throw out everything that has been rendered impure, but rather jettison only the bad part of it, and be able to re-purpose the essence for the good, and in this way get closer to our own essence, our soul, God's breath/Spirit which (as described in Genesis) was imbued in us, making us human, a being created by God 'in the image of God'.
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Footnotes: Source texts
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For the translation of Leviticus 26:11: ונתתי משכני בתוככם which I used above, see the great Traditional commentator Sforno: https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sforno_on_Leviticus.26.11.1?ven=Eliyahu_Munk,_HaChut_Hameshulash&vhe=On_Your_Way&lang=en
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The great sage 'Ramban' (Nachmanides) unpacks some of the mystical allusions in the passages above from this week's portion:
For the Advanced reader: see:
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The haftara, prophets reading:
https://www.sefaria.org.il/Jeremiah.17.13?ven=Tanakh:_The_Holy_Scriptures,_published_by_JPS&vhe=Miqra_according_to_the_Masorah&lang=biCan music be impure?
END
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All of vayikra is about tahara etc, and this is the last parsha in vayikra;
The end of the haftoro mentions "mikveh" which means "hope" but also "a mikveh", ie H' is metaher Bnei Yisroel - given that sefer Vayikra is all about tahor/tame, a mention of Mikveh at the end of the last haftoroh (of Vayikro) is appropriate.
The topic is also appropriate for yom yerushalaylim which is close by: the navi mentions the upper throne etc, which is upper Ylm, and the 'even shsiya', waters of the deep, etc; these thematically connect to the tahara process, which starts with water and ends in purification rites in the bet hamikdash, ie Yerushalayim.
etc etc.
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People from all over the world, different cultures, now come to Ylm, and want to be pure, as the beis hamikdash enabled.
We should all merit the brocho that being in Ylm, and etc which is mikdash, we should be able to rescue the sparks of holiness of all the cultures etc.
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[For RH/YK: , have to liberate the real essence, the tune, from the inpure song, so too:inside ourselves not to throw out the bad only the bad part of it; and the matsav]