A Son for the Mitzvah: Intention Brings Blessing

1“When a woman conceives and gives birth to a male.”¹ The Baal HaTurim, R' Yaakov ben Asher, writes in his commentary on the Torah that zachar, “male,” has the same gematria, the total numerical value of its letters, as berachah, “blessing.”² But why should the birth of a male in particular be a blessing? Surely “male and female He created them.”³ Why single out the male?

2aThe holy Ohr HaChaim raises a question on the next verse, “And on the eighth day he shall be circumcised …”⁴ The mitzvah of circumcision was already given in Parshas Lech Lecha,⁵ so why does the Torah repeat it here? The holy sefer Tiferes Shlomo answers as follows.⁶ The verse can be understood through a teaching of Chazal on “Who has preceded Me, that I should repay him?” The Holy One, blessed be He, said: “Did you ever make a mezuzah before I gave you a house? Did you ever make tzitzis before I gave you a garment? Did you fulfill the mitzvah of circumcision before I gave you a male child?”⁷

2bAt first glance this is hard to understand. Without these things a person was never obligated in these mitzvos at all. If he has no house, how can he put up a mezuzah? If he has no garment, how can he make tzitzis? The same is true of circumcision and the like. But the Midrash means the following. The root of everything a person does in this world is to direct all his deeds for the sake of Heaven. Before he takes up any work in this world, he must first think about the purpose that will grow out of it: which of Hashem's mitzvos it will lead to. That purpose should be the root, the starting point and the foundation of all his deeds in this world and of his service at all times, and all his work and business, all his days, should revolve around it. Then all his work will be holy work, and it will find favor before Hashem, as Chazal said: “Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven.”⁸

2cThis is what the Midrash means by “Did you ever make Me a mezuzah before I gave you a house?” In other words: when you set out to build your house, was it for Hashem's sake, so that you could put a mezuzah on it and the like? Was the whole purpose of building it only to fulfill the mitzvah of mezuzah? People usually build a house to live in and make clothes to cover themselves, and the same is true of all the worldly pleasures they provide for themselves. Yet this whole world was created only for Hashem's honor. That is the meaning of “When a woman conceives”: from the very moment of conception, her intention should be only for the sake of Heaven, not for her own pleasure, and she should intend only to bear a son in whom Hashem's mitzvah of circumcision will be fulfilled. That is why the verses continue, “When a woman conceives … And on the eighth day he shall be circumcised”: the child is conceived so that this verse will be fulfilled in him. Those are his holy words.

3It seems right to add a further point to his words. The purpose of the whole world is expressed in the verse “This people I formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.”⁹ A person must serve Hashem with everything, and give thanks and praise only for Hashem's sake, not for his own honor. So too when he sets out to raise a family, build a home and the like, and in every material thing he does in this world, he must act solely in order to fulfill the mitzvos bound up with it. For everything has some connection to avodas Hashem, the service of the Creator. This is the level a person must reach: to know that the whole purpose of this world is only to give satisfaction to the Creator. It is a lofty level, though, and only a select few attain it. That is what Chazal meant by “Did you ever make a parapet …?”¹⁰ In other words: before you built your house, did you give any thought to building it in order to give satisfaction to the Creator, by fulfilling the mitzvah of a parapet with it?

4With this we can explain the Baal HaTurim's remark that zachar has the same gematria as berachah. When the whole purpose of bringing a son into the world is to fulfill the mitzvah of circumcision, a person falls naturally under the verse “The blessing, that you heed the commandments of Hashem,”¹¹ for through this he becomes a vessel fit to receive blessings. Even if he was not actually privileged to have sons, as long as he intended to fulfill Hashem's mitzvah, Chazal's words apply to him: “If a person intended to do a mitzvah but was prevented by circumstances beyond his control and did not do it, Scripture counts it for him as though he had done it.”¹² So he has the reward of blessing even before the deed.

5aIn this light we can also explain Chazal's teaching on the verse “And on the eighth day he shall be circumcised”: “‘On the day,’ even on Shabbos.”¹³ The Baal HaTurim finds a hint of this: our verse has as many words and letters as the verse Vayechulu, “The heavens and the earth were completed,” to teach that circumcision overrides Shabbos.¹⁴ But why is permission to circumcise on Shabbos taught here, in Parshas Tazria, in the passage about a woman who gives birth, and not in its main place, in Parshas Lech Lecha? And what does Vayechulu have to do with circumcision? The answer lies in the mitzvah of resting from work on Shabbos, which has two sides. One is rest and relief from the toil and burden of the six workdays. The other is the recognition that Hashem renews the world, to which we testify on Shabbos night when we say “The heavens and the earth were completed …”

5bSurely the heart of the mitzvah of resting on Shabbos should be the honor of His Name: a person should intend to serve Him in everything, and not merely to rest his body. As Rashi writes on the verse “And on the seventh day is a Shabbos of complete rest, holy to Hashem”: “Keeping its holiness for My Name's sake and because of My commandment.”¹⁵ This is what Chazal meant when they said, “Whoever prays and says Vayechulu, Scripture regards him as if he had become a partner with the Holy One, blessed be He, in the work of creation.”¹⁶ By saying it he shows that the purpose of the Shabbos rest is to testify that Hashem created the world, and in this way he becomes a partner in it all. That is why Vayechulu is hinted at in the passage of the woman who gives birth. The root of the mitzvah of rest, and of the recognition that Shabbos holds, is learned from Vayechulu, and so Shabbos and the passage of the woman who gives birth share a single theme. Just as on Shabbos one must rest for Hashem's sake and not for the body's comfort, so with “When a woman conceives and gives birth to a male”: the main reason for bearing children must be to fulfill the mitzvah of “And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”

6Along the same lines we can explain a Midrash: “When Bnei Yisrael heard the passage of nega'im, they were afraid. Moshe said to them: Do not be afraid; these are for the nations of the world, but you are to eat, drink and rejoice.”¹⁷ Nega'im are the plagues of tzara'as described in these parshiyos. The commentators, the Etz Yosef on the Midrash and the Vavei HaAmudim, raise a difficulty: according to halachah, non-Jews do not become impure through nega'im; only Jews do!¹⁸ In light of what we have said, we may answer as follows. The punishment of nega'im comes for blemishing material things and not using them properly. Bnei Yisrael, however, can serve Hashem even through material things such as eating and drinking; only the nations have no grasp of this. That is what Moshe was telling them: Bnei Yisrael can be saved from the nega'im by using everything material for the sake of Heaven.

7May Hashem grant that we serve Him with joy and an abundance of blessing, and may we be privileged to bring the redemption near. Amen, may it be His will.