EYES ON THE GOAL

GET THE EARTHENWARE VESSELS OUT!

One of the most bizarre phenomena recorded in the Torah is “lesions of the house,” described in this week’s parsha. In addition to the skin and garment lesions discussed earlier in the Torah, the Torah here addresses the ritual impurity of house lesions. These lesions, as our Sages taught, were intended to signal us that all was not well morally and spiritually.

The Torah delineates the proper procedure for identifying these lesions and how one goes about purifying the home from them.

Prior to declaring the home tamei, ritually off limits to its inhabitants, its owner summons a Kohen to determine whether the home is tamei:

The owner of the house should inform the priest saying, “There appears to me to be something like a (tzaraas) lesion in (my) house.”

Upon the priest’s instructions, they should clear out the house before the priest comes to inspect the lesion, so that every vessel in the house should not become ritually impure.

Rashi explains that the concern was not for the food that would become impure, because impure food may be eaten by a person while he himself is in a state of ritual impurity. The concern was also not for most vessels because they can be immersed and purified in a Mikveh. Rather, the Torah here was concerned specifically with earthenware vessels that cannot be purified in a Mikveh.

The commentator Sifsei Chachamim raises the obvious question: What is the difference between earthenware vessels and the food they contain? Just as impure food may be eaten when a person is ritually impure and will not therefore go to waste, so too, one may use earthenware utensils when he is in a state of ritual impurity. Why the concern for the earthenware vessels?

THE OBSESSIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS

One may answer this question by referring to an intriguing statement in the Talmud (Chullin 91a) regarding righteous peoples’ obsession with their belongings. For example, the Patriarch Jacob risked his life to retrieve a few small vessels when he was approaching his brother Esau.

How could a person whose sole focus is on the spiritual be so concerned about material possessions?

The answer given in Chassidic literature is that, appearances aside, their concern was not for the material or financial loss they might incur if their possessions were not protected, but for the lost opportunity to fulfill their mission vis-à-vis their possessions.

The underlying philosophy behind this obsession is that G-d gives us possessions to use, and thereby harness them, in our service to G-d. To neglect one of our possessions and allow it to be lost represents a lost opportunity. Moreover, that small part of creation will be denied its potential to be refined, elevated and transformed into an integral component of G-d’s dwelling place here on Earth.

This transformative goal, according to the Midrash, as emphasized and elucidated in Chassidic thought, is the very reason G-d created the world. G-d created a world in which His presence is concealed and we must, through our observance of the Mitzvos, “reintroduce” G-d into our consciousness and into the physical world. Toward this end, every part of the physical world is crucial and when G-d entrusts us with possessions we must not deny them their opportunity to become receptive to the Divine.

PALACE MINUS ONE BRICK

One can liken this to a king who commissions his subjects to build him a magnificent palace and provides them with all of the building materials needed. However, one of the builders decides to cut corners and leaves out one of the bricks. Relative to the entire massive structure, the absence of one brick is hardly noticeable. Nevertheless, it is not fitting for a king to have a palace that is incomplete. In a certain sense, the absence of one brick is comparable to the absence of an entire wall because from the vantage point of its owner, the king does not have the palace he desired and cannot move into it until he is fully satisfied that every small detail is in order.

The analogue for this parable is that we too have been commissioned by the Divine Contractor to construct His palace and fulfill His desire to have our physical world transformed into His dwelling place. From G-d’s vantage point, it makes no difference how apparently trivial a certain component of that palace may be. Even if one small part of the resources that were entrusted to us is not part of this effort, G-d’s palace will remain deficient and His desire for creation will go unfulfilled.

TWO TRACKS

To be sure, this does not mean that if we miss an opportunity to do a Mitzvah with one of our physical objects it will render everything else we did valueless. This attitude of all or nothing is anathema to Judaism. Particularly, as we know from Chassidic teaching, G-d cherishes and treasures each and every small gesture. Every solitary Mitzvah stands on its own. To get one Jew to do one Mitzvah generates infinite Divine energy.

There is no such thing as an insignificant Mitzvah, just as there is no such thing as an insignificant Jew. If one Jew had been missing from the foot of Mount Sinai when G-d gave us the Torah, then the Torah would not have been given! Every individual counts and every individual positive act has an inestimable value.

However, when we discuss our mission we must discern between two possible tracks. We must discern between what we accomplish in terms of our own spiritual agenda and that which we do to fulfill G-d’s overarching plan for this world.

While many will focus on their personal spiritual life, the truly and perfectly righteous focus on G-d’s plan. Indeed, the Alter Rebbe in his classic work, the Tanya, describes the role of the Tzaddik, also known as the B’nei Aliya, as those whose concern is with G-d’s agenda to have a dwelling place in this world. The importance of their personal agenda and spiritual journey is secondary to their desire to fulfill G-d’s agenda and facilitate His “journey” into this world.

MISSING AN OPPORTUNITY

We can now understand why the Torah was so concerned with the possibility of the earthenware vessels becoming ritually unclean in a home infected with impure lesions. The question was raised, why couldn’t these vessels simply be used when a person is ritually unclean, just like the ritually unclean food that can be eaten when the owner is ritually unclean?

The answer is that the food can be consumed totally and will not be wasted on account of its having contracted ritual impurity. The earthenware vessels, however, will lose some portion of their functionality because ritually impure vessels can only be used while their owner is ritually impure. At all other times the earthenware vessels must remain “idle.”

The Torah is revealing to us the extent to which we must value every opportunity to introduce the Divine into this world. We do not allow anything to be wantonly destroyed; that would violate a Biblical commandment known as Bal Tashchis. By the same token we may not allow our possessions to lose a portion of their functionality and opportunity to become part of the Divine palace.

THE JEWISH HOME AND JEWISH LAND: MODELS OF G-D’S PLAN

We can now also understand why this lesson was taught in the context of the subject of the “impurity of the house” and entry of the Jewish people into the Land of Israel. The Jewish home is emblematic of G-d’s desire to have a home in this world. By extension, the Land of Israel, the “Holy Land,” is not just our homeland, it is G-d’s Homeland; it is a physical land that is hospitable to and expressive of G-d’s overt presence.

Thus, the Torah introduces the laws of lesions on homes as the People are about to enter the Land of Israel. It does so to forestall the potential for the inhabitants of the land to undermine G-d’s natural home and thereby delay the fulfillment of G-d’s Master Plan for the entire world.

To further underscore the importance of our mission to build G-d’s home with integrity, the Torah exhorts us not to allow any component of our mission, no matter how insignificant, to go to waste. The earthenware, arguably the most insignificant vessels in our homes, should not be allowed to become contaminated and their use restricted.

RADICAL?

Upon reflection, it might seem that this approach will prove too radical for most people. For most it would suffice if they would limit themselves to following all of the explicit commandments in the Torah. Nowhere does the Torah state that one must focus on G-d’s plan. One may therefore argue that while we are compelled to do our part by doing one Mitzvah at a time, let G-d do the rest by putting all the pieces together to create His palace. We are not the Architects or Contractors, we are just the laborers.

The dispositive response to this argument is to concede that it may have had some merit when we were far away from the Messianic Age; but no longer. In earlier historical periods, the focus was indeed on living day to day and contending with the struggles and challenges of life in exile. Perhaps only the truly and perfectly righteous people were able to see the larger picture.

However, times have changed. We are presently standing on the threshold of Redemption and nearing the completion of the Palace. Now, not only can the righteous focus on the Grand Plan, but, indeed, each and every one of us has the capacity and obligation to direct all of our energies towards realizing the goal.

EVERYONE A TZADDIK!

Perhaps, this is one of the meanings of the Rebbe’s statement that today we can all aspire to reach the level of Tzaddik. If the Tzaddik’s principal focus is on fulfilling G-d’s plan and agenda and, only secondarily, on his own, then that is eminently possible for us to do today as well because we are so close to the completion of the Divine Palace.