[Avodah] levels/gates of tuma?

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 11:19:34PM -0400, Sholom Simon via Avodah wrote:
> I have often heard (in English) that b'nei yisroel had sunk to the 49th (of
> 50) level of tuma while in mitzrayim.  But when I read it in Hebrew, in
> Chassidus, the expression is 49 "sha'arei tuma".

R Yaakov Haber (Ramat Bet Shemesh) notes that sha'ar doesn't mean level
and therefore "everyone" misunderstands the medrash by not just taking
it at face value.

RYH notes that this explains why the omer is ony 49 days to get from the
49 sha'arei tum'ah to 49 sha'arei qedushah and Matan Torah. If these were
indeed levels, then getting from -49 to +49 would require 98 or 99 days
(depending on whether there is a level 0).

His peshat (which may not be the only way of reading the medrash where
"sha'ar" means "sha'ar"):

There are 49 gates between humanity and HQBH. One can leave them open, one
can utilize them, or one can be ch"v metamei them and make them unusable.

Of the 49 gates, BY in Mitzrayim were metam'im 49 of them. One gate,
that of our identity was left usable. Thus the medrashim of "shelo shinu
es leshonam" or "es malbushaim" or "es shemam". (We established here a
long while ago that the list of those particular three in one place is
not a real maamar chazal.)

We were on the verge of losing that too -- so Hashem saved us.

And the 49 days correspond to cleaning out the shmutz we dumped in each
of 49 gates.

Brilliant, no?


Off topic for Avodah, but shiur recommendations can't hurt...

I recommend RYH's YouTube channel, if you are into hashkafah with an
Qabbalistic edge. For example, RYH has a shiur in his shul on Nefesh
haChaim that is currently being serialized. He is in sha'ar 4 pereq 6
right now, something like 240 appx 45 min shiurim in from when he
summarized the haqdamah. The channel is at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCreLT58vLhinyB-u85BDJvg/videos
For my own purposes, I have a script that turns that channel into an
audio podcast. As I don;t have permission to "republish", ask me for
the URL of the podcast feed off-list.

There is also a similar feed for a podcast version of RYGB's YouTube
channel at http://www.aishdas.org/rygb/rss . And, of course, or growing
collection of video shiurim at http://shiurim.aishdass.org


Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 14th day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   2 weeks in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Malchus sheb'Gevurah: How does judgment reveal
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                          G-d?