Drashot of the Ben Ish Hai - Kedoshim

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In the first part of his book, parashat Kedoshim was joined with the previous parasha of Ahre Mot In the second part of his book regarding this parasha, the Ben Ish Hai zt"l referred to passuk 3:21 in Perki Abot (where Rav Elazar ben Azariah stated) - "If there is no wisdom there is no awe (of Hashem) - and if there is no awe there is no wisdom."

 

The Ben Ish Hai zt"l questioned how is it that after the above passuk stated that awe (fear) is dependent on wisdom that the passuk then went back and stated that wisdom is dependent on awe? To answer this, he said that it is known that there are two types of awe:

 

1 "External awe" - Here, there is awe of Hashem because a person is scared of the punishment that he could receive or in order to receive a favor from Him.

 

2 "Internal awe" - Here, the awe of Hashem is when a person realizes that Hashem is our L-rd and that He created us and the rest of the world and that He is in total control of the entire world.

 

He said that a person is not able to merit receiving internal awe until he cleans the physical part of his body by eliminating or controlling the mundane items which his body desires. As a result, his soul will then become cleansed. As long as his soul is contaminated and murky, then the intentions of that person will be directed towards gratifying his own physical desires and satisfactions (Ed: in other words, a body is like a keli (utensil), it has to be prepared before it can accept Torah).

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He said that the study of the Torah is called - "wisdom" because it is the main ingredient, which can cleanse the physical part of the body and purify the soul from all its impurities He said that the reason that a person (Ed: actually a Jew) is called - Adam is because the letter alef of the word (Adam) is related, to learning Torah - "for the sake of heaven" (with no secondary gains). He likened this to one thousand tongues learning (Ed: in Hebrew, the word alef also means one thousand) as we saw in Tehilim 55:14 - "my guide and confidante" (Ed: In this part, King David a"h was describing his close relationship with Achitofel by calling him "my guide and confidante") and also in Iyob 33:33 - "I will teach you wisdom." (Ed: Here, our great Rav was using the meaning of the root word to be one thousand and also as a guide or for teaching).

 

The Ben Ish Hai zt"l said that letter alef is written as a straight line (denoting the Letter vav) and two letters yud (one above and one below the straight line) giving the letter alef a gematria value of (10+10+6 =) 26 (Ed: for the two letters yud and the letter vav). This is equal to the numerical value of the name of Hashem as a remez (hint) that the study of Torah should be (for the sake of heaven) and no other secondary benefit. By doing so, a person will be able to release the sparks of kedusha (holiness) which are contained in the eleven components of the ketoret (incense) which are found within the four olamot worlds Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah and which are contained in olam (Asiyah) according to the Kabbalah, each of these four olamot contains a subset of the four olamot of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. (Ed: refer to the section of olamot in the introduction chapter).

 

We, therefore, recite the eleven components of the ketoret (incense) in the morning prayers when we are in olam Asiyah as part of the prayer of the korbanot (offerings). (Ed: refer to the introduction chapter. The morning prayers of Shaharit are likened to moving up from one olam to the one above it until we reach the Amidah prayer where we are in olam Atzilut). We recite this part of the ketoret twice as outlined:

 

a. One time is taken from the pessukim of the written Torah - "Take Spices for yourself"; and

 

b. The second time is from the oral law (from the Briata) - "The Rabbis said, the mixing of the ketoret'.

 

We repeat the prayer of the ketoret (incense) another time at the end of the prayers before we recite - "We have to give praise" (to Hashem) when we back in olam Asiyah (Ed: after descending from olam Atzilut in the Amidah prayer). There, we also recite the ketoret twice; one for the written Torah - (Take Spices for yourself) and another time for the oral law from the Briata - (Rabbis said the mixing of the ketoret).

 

Hence, we see that we recite the eleven components of the ketoret four times each morning (juxtaposed) to the ketoret (incense) which are located within the four olamot of (Atzilut. Beriah. Yetzirah and Asiyah) which are contained in olam Asiyah for a total of 44 (Ed: four times the 11 components of the ketoret). This is the same numerical value of “dam” - (blood) which are the last two letters of the name (Adam). This means that, as result of the study of the Torah, which is hinted at from the letter alef of the word (Adam), we will then be able to release the sparks of kedusha (holiness) of the eleven components of the ketoret (incense) which are located within the our olamot and which form the part “dam” - (blood) of the word (Adam).

 

As a result, the body, of a person can then get cleansed in its four components (Ed: the four components of the body of a man are: fire rouh (spirit), water and dirt and also the soul can get cleansed from its impurities in its four parts (Ed: these are the nefesh rouh, neshama and neshama le neshama (which is haya). Then, the person will merit receiving the internal awe that was mentioned earlier.

 

Now we can better explain the above passuk from Perke Abot (if there is no wisdom) and here, the word "chokhma" (wisdom) is a remcz (hint) to the study of the Torah. The Ben Ish Hai zt"l then divided the word "chokhma" (wisdom) into two words (and rearranged the letters of the first word) to form "koah ma" (the power of ma). The ‘ma’ part has a gematria value of (40 +5 ) 45 which is equal to the numerical value of (Adam; 1+4+40). The continuation of the above passuk is “ein yira” (there is no awe) and this means that the person will not have any, internal awe.

 

The second part of the passuk is "eim ein yira" - (if there is no awe) and here, this is referring to the external awe that must first be present in a person otherwise there will be "ein chokhma" (no wisdom) to mean that his heart will not be drawn to learn the Torah. He then questioned how can a person's heart get involved with the study of the Torah if he has no awe of Hashern?

 

The Ben Ish Hai zt'l then said that the Torah was compared to a fire as we saw in passuk 23:29 in Yermiahu – (My word like fire said the L-rd, and like a hammer which breaks up rocks into mall fragments). This teaches us that just like a fire cleans up everything from its darkness and impurities, so does meat becomes softer and gets cooked in the fire. The same applies to the blood contained within the meat that we consume: and which is considered as part of its impurities. The blood will come out to the meat through the use of fire as we were told by Chazal in Masekhet Pessahim 94B that (fire draws out the blood) from the meat. In a similar way, the Torah purifies the soul and draws out its impurities.

 

The Torah is also called "isha'" (woman) as we saw in Mishli 31 – (a woman of valor who can find). He said that the word "isha" (woman) has the same letters as the word “eish”- (the fire). The gematria value Torah) is (400+6+200+5) 611 and the majority (Ed: meaning more than 50%) of the number (611 divided by 2 = 305.5) is 306 which is the same numerical value “isha” (woman) (1+300+5) or, when the letters are rearranged, to form the word "eish" (the fire). This is to teach us that the Torah draws out the impurities from the soul and cleanses the physical part of the body of a person just like fire draws out the blood (removes the impurities of the meat) and cooks it (and hence, fixes the body).

 

He then proceeded to discuss the halachot of salting meat and drawing out the blood which is contained in the meat prior to cooking it.

 

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