Maharal Tzintz

Parashas Tazria

“And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”

This verse interrupts the sequence of the laws of impurity and purity, and comes after the law of the impurity of a woman after childbirth, which is for seven days. What is the explanation of the continuation of these verses?

The Maharal Tzintz explains that from here there is an answer to the heretics who ask mockingly: “If the Holy One desired men to be circumcised, He would have created them so!” Those “wise in their own eyes” do not grasp the depth of the matter of bris milah, and how it is a great merit and a precious gift to Yisrael. It is known that through the sin of Adam HaRishon, evil entered into the body of man. Beyond the evil inclination for all evil desires, man became susceptible to impurity. It is impossible to escape becoming impure. A sign of this is the impurity of childbirth, as explained above. The impurity takes hold up to seven, as the reader will observe, for many impurities that endure for a time are for seven days, like the impurity of childbirth.

Therefore, after the sin of Adam HaRishon, the Holy One made man with the foreskin, which absorbs in great measure the impurity from the person. For this reason the foreskin must remain on the person for seven days, corresponding to the days of impurity, like the days of a woman’s impurity after childbirth, in order to absorb the impurity. Thereafter, on the eighth day, one rises above and is saved from impurity through the removal of the foreskin, as we wrote above. A person must do this himself as a rectification for Adam HaRishon, because he brought impurity into mankind. These are beautiful and precious words.

Parashas Metzora

It is well known that tzaraas comes on account of a blemish in the soul, the greatest of these being lashon hara, as Chazal expounded on the verse, “This shall be the law of the metzora,” reading it as motzi ra, one who brings forth evil. Therefore, at first, “he shall be brought unto the Kohen,” meaning that his deeds rise to the Supernal Kohen in the Heavenly Court, to see whether he has repented and become worthy of rectification. And if indeed he has improved his ways, then “the Kohen shall go forth,” meaning that the Kohen on earth goes out to him to save him and to purify him.

Now it is written, “the affliction of the tzaraas has been healed from the metzora.” It should have said the reverse: “the metzora has been healed from the affliction of the tzaraas.” The Maharal Tzintz explains that this hints that although he remains still a metzora, meaning that there still remain in the depths of his soul certain matters requiring rectification, nevertheless Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in His abundant mercy and kindness, permits him to become purified once the “affliction of the tzaraas” has been healed. Once, through some measure of repentance, the visible signs of the tzaraas have departed from him, he is already purified from impurity, even though he still remains a metzora and must continue to repent.