At the end of this week’s פרשה, which talks about the הלכות of צרעת and those afflicted by it, in the last פסוק it says "זאת תורת נגע צרעת...וכו'". I saw quoted from the שפתי כהן that the reason why the תורה associates and juxtaposes צרעת with תורה is because if one has earned himself the עונש of צרעת, he should then delve into the potently purgatory and purifying pyro-pool of תורה which will cleanse him and remove his צער. The פרשה ends with the words לטהרו או לטמאו, which comes to teach us that one who learns תורה absorbs and receives the potential for טהרה, but one who neglects it opens himself to doing bad things and makes him susceptible to טומאה.

In many places in א"י, starting this Monday (or perhaps in two weeks if יום הזכרון negates it, I’m not entirely sure,) people will start observing the three בה"ב days, which are days of סליחות ותחנונים for עבירות possibly committed over חג due to the extra level of שמחה which could have ח"ו led to קלות ראש or other sins, such as fighting or לשון הרע, like I discussed last week. These days also fall out in the beginning of brand new זמנים in ישיבות, where a re-dedication to לימוד תורה is taking place after a meaningful and fun בין הזמנים. This is especially appropriate to this message that our פרשה is trying to teach us, that the תורה is what maintains us and keeps us from doing wrong and makes us the עם הקדוש that we strive to be. Not only that, but when we do fall and lose some of our קדושה, it is the תורה that has the power to cleanse us and bring us back to our original heights.

May we be זוכה to strive to reach the spiritual heights we know we can achieve through increased לימוד התורה and be cleansed of any wrongdoing or misdeed we may have done.

Have a wonderful שבת קודש!

מרדכי שמחה טיפנברון