Shabbat Parashat Vayikra 5778

Ein Ayah: Failure to Attract Positive Attention

Gemara: [The gemara continues to expound upon the p’sukim (Yeshaya 3:16-17) that complain about the Jewish girls who acted in a provocative manner and mention the punishment they thereby bring upon themselves.] “Hashem will be mesape’ach the heads of the Daughters of Zion.” Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina said: This teaches that leprosy broke out on them, as the root sepach overlaps with that of one of the types of leprosy (see Vayikra 14:14).

Ein Ayah: When a woman focuses on the horrible moral phenomenon of putting her focus on attracting others with illusions of what she is not, she becomes hollow and an empty vessel. Specifically because she is guilty of this internal deterioration, she becomes guilty of intentional haughtiness and desire for self-aggrandizement.

When a person tries to attribute to himself distinctions that are untrue, he will internally realize the effort’s futility because he is subconsciously aware that he is actually lowly. He may have an exaggerated need to show love to himself, but his internal recognition of his shallowness will disturb his heart even though it will not be expressed clearly.

In any case, the outcome of this complex phenomenon will start to have a negative impact immediately. The person wants to complete that which is lacking specifically by means of making his external side fancy, so that others will show him respect. Somehow, he does not consider that this will not complete that which is innately and internally lacking. Such a foolish thought will never succeed; rather, it will destroy the foundations of general society and the individual’s well-being.

This is what happened to the Daughters of Zion, whom tragedy hit as a result of their internal moral fall. The seal of their general deterioration found expression in a horrible way to the extent that they totally lost their self-value. Rather, their entire interest was to find favor in the eyes of others, even if it was to a foreign nation, as long as it made them feel that it filled the emptiness of their degraded spirits.

The infliction affected their heads, the part of the body that housed all of their strange thoughts, and they actually received the exact opposite of what they sought. Their heads were afflicted with leprosy, which is a growth that is secondary to the body and does not have its own essence. Rather, what it does is to make that part of the body despised by others that look at him. Such an affliction tortures the soul and makes the groundless haughtiness disappear. Then a person is forced to look inwardly to find any positive meaning. That is actually the opening of hope for recovery from the pointless lightheadedness that existed previously. Then the person can realize that his hope is not in shallow attraction that others have toward him or her but from the depths of the spirit. The benefit that comes from the depths of the spirit when the divine light shines upon him will be the beginning and the purpose of the recovery.

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