Shabbat Parshat Bechukotai - 5763
“The One Who Purifies Israel is HaShem” (Yirmiyahu 17:13)

Towards the end of the Haftarah of Parshat Bechukotai, in Yirmiyahu 17:13 we find the words, “...the One Who purifies Israel is HaShem...” We find this passuk cited also in the Mishnah in Yoma 85b, “Rabbi Akiva said, ‘Fortunate are you, O Israel! Before Whom are you purified and Who purifies you? Your Father in Heaven! As it says (Yechezkel 36:25), ‘And I will sprinkle upon you pure waters and you will be purified;’ and it also says (Yirmiyahu 17:13), ‘The One Who purifies Israel is HaShem’ – Just as a ‘mikveh’ (the ritual bath that is the main source of purification, and the term used in the passuk) purifies the impure, so does HaShem purify Israel.’ ”

The Land of Egypt was beyond compare in the ancient world in its impurity. Their “culture” descended, according to Jewish Tradition, to the 49th level of impurity. And the Jewish People were not far behind. In fact, that is one of the reasons given for their deliverance after “only” 210 years, rather than the 400 years “promised” by G-d to Avraham. For had they tarried any longer, they would have become indistinguishable from the Egyptians. Indeed, the Ministering Angels did complain that G-d was “playing favorites,” because while the Egyptians were idol worshippers so, for that matter, were the Israelites.

The Days of Sephirah are a 49-rung ladder that HaShem has given the Jewish People to climb from the depths of impurity to the heights of purity.

The state in which one finds one’s self after having been purified is the state of “taharah,” purity. And the Hebrew word for pure is “tahor,” to which a very close synonym is the word “kadosh,” which means holy. Except that the connotation of “holy” is more one of separation, of withdrawal from unholy behavior. Whereas the connotation of “pure” is wholeness and integration.

In fact, separation and division are in general forms of “tumah,” impurity, as we see in Yechezkel (37:16-17, 22-23), “And you, son of man, take one stick and write upon it, ‘For Yehudah...’ then take another stick and write upon it, ‘For Yoseph, the stick of Ephrayim, and for all the House of Israel, his companions. And join them one to the other to make one stick; and they shall become one in your hand...And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel...And I will purify them, so that they shall be My People and I will be their G-d.’ ”

Both concepts apply to “place,” and in fact the verse preceding that cited earlier from our Haftarah is Yirmiyahu 17:12, “Like the Throne of Glory, exalted from the Beginning, is the place of our Sanctuary;” referring to the Holy Temple. “Tahor” also describes a person (recovering from “Tzaraat), a house (also recovering from that “disease”), an object (such as the Menorah in the Temple) or a nation (as the Jewish People). It can also describe a part of the body, as in Tehilim 51:12, referring to Man, “Create within me a pure heart” or anthropomorphically to G-d, as in Chavakuk 1:13, “So pure of eyes is He, that he cannot look upon evil.”

A spiritual attitude can be described as “tahor,” as in Tehilim 19:10, “Fear of G-d is pure; it stands forever.” As can the heavens, in a metaphor for the Throne of G-d in Shemot 24:10, “And as the essence of the heavens, for purity.” In Tehilim 12:7, we find “The utterances of G-d are pure utterances.” And in Yechezkel 36:25, we find the description applied to water, “And I will sprinkle upon you pure waters.” On the first Shavuot, the Jewish People gathered to hear the Ten Utterances of G-d, the essence of the Torah, that is compared to water.

The culture of Egypt was a “death-worshipping” culture. What were the pyramids, the great wonders of that “magnificent” culture, but tombs? That is why the Jews, when they were depressed, complained in Shemot 14:11, “Was it for lack of graves in Egypt, that you took us out to die in the desert?”

The very opposite of wholeness is death, when the bond between the physical body and the soul that is a “chelek Eloka mima’al,” as it were a “part of G-d” conjoined miraculously with the body, is broken. Therefore, must the Kohen, who represents purity and purification in Jewish life, scrupulously remain apart from death; the High Priest, at all times.

In the Yom Kippur Service, three times did the Kohen Gadol invoke the Ineffable Name of G-d to seek Atonement and Purification for his family, his tribe, then the whole House of Israel. He did this as he recited the passuk recorded in VaYikra 16:30, “For on this Day He will Atone for you, to Purify you from all your sins, before (the Ineffable Name) you will be purified.”

At this point in our history, our People suffers from many ailments, physical and spiritual. Therefore, in hope of Divine intervention in our behalf, we turn to the Great Physician of the World and recite the last passuk in the Haftarah, which finds an echo in the “Shemoneh Esray,” Yirmiyahu 17:14, “Heal me, HaShem, and I will be healed, save me, and I will be saved, for You are the only object of my praise.”

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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