Bilvavi Part 3 - Tazria | Circumcising The Heart

בלבבי חלק ג – עמ' קצא-קצד – מאמר "וביום השמיני ימול בשר ערלתו"

 Orlah On An Inner Level: An Uncircumcised Heart

[In Parshas Tazria the Torah commands:] “And on the eighth day, circumcise the flesh of his foreskin”.[1] The Mishnah[2] states that only a circumcised Jew is called “circumcised” (mahul), whereas a gentile who is circumcised is not considered to be “circumcised”, but an arel, one who is uncircumcised. This is based on the verse, “For all the gentiles are uncircumcised, and the entire house of Yisrael are uncircumcised in their hearts”.[3] Anyone who learns these words of the Mishnah can clearly understand there is much depth contained in the concept of orlah, of being uncircumcised, and that orlah exists on an inner level as well.

It is written, “And you shall circumcised the foreskin of your hearts”,[4] and the Targum translates this to mean, “And remove the foolishness of your hearts”. The Ibn Ezra writes: “It makes sense that the meaning of this is to purify the heart, until one understands the truth.” His words are closed and mysterious, as he does not explain what kind of “truth” he is referring to. The Sforno explains more about this matter: “It is proper that you remove the foreskin of your hearts, and this means that you reflect about how to remove all errors which produce erroneous beliefs and so that your stiff-neckedness will not become harder. When you remove the hard stiff-neckedness which prevents you from turning to that which it is proper to turn to, you will turn to recognize your Creator.”

What is the ‘error’ that produces erroneous beliefs, which prevent a person from recognizing the Creator?

Discerning Hashem’s Message In Any Event of our Lives

When Hashem sent angels to Avraham and Sarah in the form of Arab wanderers, who promised that Sarah would have a child in a year’s time, Sarah laughed. Hashem rebuked Sarah for her laughter, for she should have believed that Hashem could do anything. It is difficult to understand Sarah’s error. The Arab guests who came to Avraham were suspected of idol worship, so why should she have believed their promise that she would have a child? Why should she trust these Arabs who were idol worshippers? Why shouldn’t she laugh at their words, if they were promising her something that went against nature?

There is a traditional explanation for this matter, that the criticism of Sarah is based on the statement, “A person cannot lift his finger below, unless it was so decreed from above.”[5] That is the brief outline of the answer, and we shall elaborate upon this and explain it. When we reflect into these words of the Sages, we see the true perspective, of how need to view each thing in Creation.

“A person cannot lift his finger below, unless it was so decreed from above” – this means that nothing in the Creation is by chance. Everything that happens is with precision and calculation, to the tiniest detail.

Here is an example. A person is walking in the street and he sees a sign posted on the streetlight pole, about an organization for kiruv rechokim (drawing close our brethren to the observance of Torah). It says on the sign that they are arranging for avreichim to go to countries outside of Eretz Yisrael for the purpose of kiruv rechokim, and there is a phone number there listed, for anyone who is interested in joining. A person sees it and immediately tells himself that he cannot join this endeavor, for various practical reasons. He continues on his way. While it may be true that he cannot join this kiruv rechokim program, it is still true that it isn’t by chance that he came upon the sign! He should have thought to himself, “It’s not for nothing that I came upon this sign and saw it.”

Now, if a person lives without any palpable emunah, then he will think that he just “happened” to have noticed the sign, and that perhaps if he would have been guarding his vision better when he walks in the streets, he wouldn’t have seen it. But a person who lives with palpable emunah knows that this is just being superficial. The truth is: “A person does not raise his finger below, unless it was so decreed from above!” It didn’t happen by chance that he saw the sign.

Certainly, he chose to see the sign, but that is only the external part of the matter. There is a more inner reason of why he saw and noticed the sign. There is definitely some reason that he noticed the sign! If there was no necessity for him to see the sign, then he wouldn’t have noticed it. Now that he did see it, there must have been some necessary reason for him to see the sign. In whatever a person encounters in his life, there is a reason that he encountered it.

If a person does not live with this attitude, then he is missing the feeling that Hashem runs the world every hour and moment, and that He runs every detail. He lacks clear, strong emunah.

Let’s return to the example of the person who notices the sign about doing kiruv rechokim in chutz l’aretz. Although it is true that he cannot be involved in this for practical reasons, he should still view it as a message from Heaven, that something is wanted from him, in this area. If he can’t get on a plane to do kiruv rechokim in chutz l’aretz, at least he should tell his friends about it, so that perhaps he will find someone who can.

Or, if he can’t go to chutz l’aretz to do kiruv rechokim, perhaps he can do kiruv in Eretz Yisrael, where he is living, because we have brothers here in Eretz Yisrael who, unfortunately, are distant from the Torah (may Hashem have mercy one them), and they can use help from others.

In fact, there are even a percentage of those who sit in the Beis Midrash of whom it can be said, “And their hearts are not proper with Him”. Their hearts are very far from Hashem…may Hashem have mercy on them.

And if a person feels that he cannot help even those people, then at least he should try to do kiruv on one person: himself!

In Conclusion

Now we can understand why Hashem rebuked Sarah’s laughter. While it is true that the promise that she would have a child came from Aram wanderers, she should have understood that nothing is by chance. If they were blessing her that she will have a child, she shouldn’t have laughed at their blessing, because she should have realized that this entire event wasn’t by chance. This does not mean that she should have believed in the blessing of these Arab wanderers. Rather, she should have realized that the Arab wanderers were a tool of Hashem, to convey His words to her.

When one lives with the feeling that nothing in the world is coincidental, and that he lives in the world of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it changes his entire view towards everything around him. Whenever he sees something, instead of seeing only the outer, external wrapping of the event, he reflects: “How is Hashem speaking to me?” This can be done in any place and in any time, and in any situation.

In a time such as this, when the entire world is shaking, everyone has the obligation to understand, that Hashem is speaking to him and that he wants something from him. One does not have to be a prophet to understand this. One only needs to be someone who isn’t so blind and foolish who can’t understand, for of him it said, “And you shall circumcise the foreskin of your hearts”, which the Targum explains to mean: “Remove the foolishness of your hearts.”