The Aveira—Transgression
Now, let’s take a look at what Adam did. The basic sin that Adam committed is that he believed his wife.
The Satan spoke, in one conversation, lashon ha’ra—gossip, degrading speech; rechilus—defamation;
and motzi shem ra—slander, all three in one conversation.
Lashon Ha’ra
The snake, the Satanic being, spoke lashon ha’ra because he degraded G-d by saying: the reason G-d
told you not to eat because He doesn’t want any rivals. He got His power from the tree. That’s Rashi’s
explanation. The snake could say: G-d doesn’t want any rival so that’s why he didn’t want you to eat.
That’s lashon ha’ra; that’s degrading G-d. Obviously, G-d created everything.
Rechilus
The second transgression was the snake’s saying to Adam: the reason why G-d doesn’t want you to eat
from that tree is not to benefit you. On the contrary, He doesn’t want you to rival Him. So, that would
create a sina—hatred within Adam Ha’Rishon. He could think: Aah, that’s what G-d is; He’s selfish!—
and that’s what rechilus is. When you say something that will create hatred in the listener based on the
subject of the conversation, that’s rechilus.
Motzi Shem Ra
The third transgression was that the statement was false.
The Satan/snake committed all three.
Bris Mila & Niddah
Chava listened and she believed it. She told Adam what she’d been told and he believed her despite the
fact that you’re not allowed to believe lashon ha’ra nor, certainly, rechilus, nor motzi shem ra. All of
them committed the sin of lashon ha’ra.
Since lashon ha’ra is done with the mouth and the tongue, Adam and Chava damaged those sefirot that
are represented by the mouth and the tongue—yesod and malchus. Yesod is the ninth sefira which
“pours” its energy into the tenth sefira called “malchus” which is the receptacle of all energy of the
upper nine. Ten does not give forth its energy because there’s nothing below it. It receives the energy
and forms a reality. So, lashon ha’ra, which is done with the tongue and the mouth, damages the ninth and tenth sefiros. Remember, the ninth sefira, yesod, pours its energy into the tenth, malchus, and this no longer works! Therefore, lashon ha’ra was the real sin Adam committed. He damaged his yesod and malchus!
If that’s the case, he stops the energy of those two sefiros, yesod and malchus and, automatically, his body is
affected because the corresponding aveira of yesod and malchus performed by his tongue and his
mouth damaged the area of the body that those sefiros maintain. What areas were damaged?—the
genital region. Therefore, both the man and the woman suffered in the genital region. It’s astounding!
In terms of the male, the Gemara says that Adam was born circumcised because there was no blockage,
no diversion so that area of his body, the genital region, the region sustained by yesod-malchus, was
fine. But after the damage he did with his mouth by believing the lashon ha’ra, he damaged the mouth
which is the organ of communications so Adam grew a foreskin over the genital region. There you go:
milah—circumcision! That’s how circumcision happened. The Gemara says that Adam actually grew a
foreskin that would require cutting and removal and that’s the whole concept of the “bris.” What I’m
saying is exactly what happened to Adam Ha’Rishon. The necessity for a bris was caused by the growth
of a foreskin. That “orla,” is the blockage, a result of the zohama.
A woman acquired the same suffering. An area considered as the genital region experiences an effect upon
yesod-malchus—the uterus—that’s her “yesod.” Suddenly, she became a niddah—menstruant. G-d
could say: since you destroyed life, guess what! The lining of your uterus will be destroyed once a month.
See how it works? Because she destroyed the “flow” from her sefira of yesod into malchus which,
basically, represents the lining of the uterus, the concept of “menstruation” ensued. Why?—because
the lining of the uterus represents life. Without that, you’re not having a kid. So, once a month, she must
experience an aspect of death, to experience that which she introduced into the world by spreading the
lashon ha’ra the Satan told her. Once you understand how this works, the Ribono Shel Olam’s command to the Jewish people, to Avraham Avinu makes sense. He was to conduct a bris to remove that area that represents the Orla. Such is the job of the Jew, to restore the flow from yesod, the ninth sefira, into malchus. That’s what the job of a Jew is, believe it or not. In order to indicate to the Jew that that’s what he has to do, every Jewish male has to have a bris—circumcision. The major objective of the Jew is to undo the damage caused by Adam Ha’Rishon, the damage to yesod, the ninth sefira, flowing into the tenth. To symbolize this job, every Jewish male infant has to have a circumcision. Very interesting is the word for “foreskin,” which is called “orla.” What was the sin that created the orla that covers the whole area that represents yesod and malchus? It’s lashon ha’ra, so the word “Orla” is spelled using “lamed-hey-resh-ayin” which is “lamed, ha’ra” which abbreviates “lashon ha’ra.” The word “Orla” itself can be seen to be loshon ha’ra; the word itself spells it out.
We now begin to understand something incredible, why lashon ha’ra is so bad. It’s a threat to the
existence of reality. How? It’s done with the mouth and the tongue which represent, in the head,
kabbalistically, the yesod-malchus, the ninth and tenth sefiros. Yesod, the ninth sefira must “pour” its
Divine energy into tenth or else there’s no reality. That’s why it’s so bad. It’s a very, very profound
concept. The RaMCHaL actually says this in the sefer “Tikkunim Chodoshim.” He actually brings this down. When I first saw this, I was astounded. This is the kabbalistic understanding of what’s going on.
The Eighth Day?
This also explains other aspects of the bris. Why that organ? Why on the eighth day? When was that
damage done?—on the eight-thousandth year.
This world, the age of the tikkunim—rectifications, precedes that of the messianic era. This world of
rectifications ends in the year 6,000 and then it goes from 6,000 to 7,000, which is characterized as
“zikuch”—existential purification transformation of one kabbalistic domain even though the actual
beginning of the end of physicality, the end of zohama, ends during the messianic era because the Satan is killed and the physical world begins to change. The world of geshem without zohama transforms
toward the spiritual at the beginning of the eight-thousandth year; that’s the 8th day. That’s why bris
has to be done on the eighth day. Also, a bris is a symbol that every Jew carries with him to indicate
that he has to undo the cheit—sin of Adam Ha’Rishon. You now have an understanding of what a bris really is, kabbalistically. You now grasp the whole setup of the concept of the “vulnerability” of all of this. You also understand what lashon ha’ra is and why it is so bad.
By Yoeri Schepens
Sources:
A Rabbi Mendel Kessin, Hashkafa Shiur #131 – Consequences of Zohama and the Origin of Disease. https://www.torahthinking.org/post/weekly-hashkafa-shiur-131-consequences-of-zohama-and-the-origin-of-disease Given May 16, 2023
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