Tazria-Metzora: Not Just Being But Becoming Tahor

2:13 So too the Torah of man. This parsha after Taurus behemachayev oif is explained. After the halachas that we had in last week's parsha, which deal with animals, Rashi is referring to the description in last week's parsha of which animals can be used for certain karbanos and under what circumstances, and which animals may or may not be consumed. So just like in the creation of man, first comes behema chayav ov, all the animals of creation, and then culminates with the creation of man. So too, we find Rishon LeYisrael says the same pattern in Parsha Shmini, and then again in this week's Parsha in Tazria Metzora. First, we deal with the halachos of the animals, and then we deal with what he calls the Torah, the Torah of man. There is an obvious question that we should ask on this Rashi: Are these Halachos of Tazria Metzora? This halacha of if a woman gives birth to a baby boy, she becomes tamei for seven days, and on the eighth day the baby gets a bris mila. That's the Torah of man. That's the whole thing.

3:31 If you say that this is the Torah of man, that's a very serious statement. What does that have to do with her tuma? Does she become okay? Excellent, excellent point. We're gonna get there. I promise you. By the end of the share, I hope to answer that question. So our first question for tonight, we're going to have several questions for those of you that are keeping score at home. Our first question for the night is: Rashi calls this the Torah of man after the Torah of the animals. What is it about these halachas that they're referred to as the Torah of man? That's our first question. There's a second question. It's a little bit of a strange thing. Normally, how do we think of tumah? We think of tumah as something impure, something with a negative influence. Childbirth. Might be the single most important thing that any of us do in our lives. To give birth to a child is the most precious moment that could possibly be.

4:27 And somehow the Torah tells us that this event creates an impurity A separation between the husband and the wife. That's unexpected. If you didn't grow up in the Orthodox Jewish world Or in the Jewish world at all, and somebody told you. If a woman gives birth to a baby boy, it creates tumah. Your natural reaction would be, 'Why? That's not a state of tumah. That should be a state of tahara. That's the ultimate.' You can try to get an answer. Right now, we're just talking about a baby boy. And then One last question Girls: Where is the mitzvah of bris mila in the Torah? Think, you girls have had. Don't have a vino. Excellent. Avraham Avinu, you girls learn parsha every week, right? After the shir, right? You have your parsha class, so you know that the mitzvah of bris mila was already from the times of Avraham Avinu. Why is the Torah repeating the mitzvah of giving a baby boy a bris on the eighth day? We already got that mitzvah from the times of Avraham Avinu. So we have in front of us three questions so far.

5:39 Review them very quickly. Rav Simui says these halachas are called the Torah of man. What is it about the halacha of a woman becoming tamei after she gives birth to a boy, and then the baby boy having a bris on the eighth day that this is called the Torah of man? That was our first question. Our second question was childbirth is a beautiful moment Not a negative one. Why does it create tuma? Why does it create a separation between a husband and a wife? And the final question is why the repetition of Those are the three questions. In order to understand this, we are literally going to go back to the very first day that man was created. In order to understand all of the one answer to all of these three questions Let's go back. Man was created on the sixth day. How did that day go?

6:29 Probably not good. Not good. How'd that day go, girls? Really bad. Man was created, and only a couple of hours later, man sinned. And brought massive levels of destruction to the world. Let's talk about what were the consequences for a moment of Adam and Chava's sin. What were those consequences? Consequence number one: painful children. They were expelled from Gan Eden. Consequence number two. We're going to go in order. Consequence number two: death. That's pretty bad. Up until that point, man could live forever. Now death is brought into creation. Number three, we're gonna get there. That they had to work in order for the land to produce food. In Gan Eden, you didn't need to work; it naturally gave you its abundance. Number four, listen carefully now. This is fascinating. I really only learned this today. We all know that women were created in a situation in which, so to speak, women were punished, that childbirth is painful.

7:34 But actually, I learned something deeper today. In Kabbalah, it's spoken about that until that point, and I know it sounds funny because Chava had only been alive for a couple of hours, she didn't have a menstrual cycle. There was no such concept as nida. Until Chava sinned, there was no concept of tumas nida. And now that Chava sinned, not only is childbirth painful, but there's a cycle that a woman has that otherwise she wouldn't have. What was your question? Regarding Adon, do you think that if it still existed today, in a certain sense? We're gonna get there, Bezr Hashem. Bezr Hashem. I see a lot of good questions tonight. We're gonna get them. Last one. We have lots to cover. Just gonna sound misogynistic, but why don't we hold it against Chava for every single day of our lives? Why don't we hold it? Aren't you angry at her? She's the one. She's the one that's sin. She's the one that's doubt. She's like Why don't we hold her to me?

8:28 I think you'll see that perhaps by the end of this year, that question will be answered. Obviously, Was it? Was. Let's But they're fully. Baruch Hashem, there's so much vibrancy in the room right now with so many good questions. Let's see if we can get started. Just to be Ezra Hashem, finish the shir. I know I promised you so many answers with so many beautiful questions. Maybe the questions you have will be answered even if you don't ask them. If they're still there at the end of the shir, feel free to ask. There, obviously, these things are not by accident. We have been expelled from Gan Eden. We have death. We have the fact that Adam Rishon, man in general, needs to toil now for his food. And that women develop a nida cycle and the halachas of nida, and ultimately the pain of childbirth.

9:33 When I was growing up My mother used to say to me Your actions have consequences. If you're an ADHD child, what do you not know? What do you not remember? That this action will yield this consequence." So my mother would say to me, "Your actions have consequences. If you do this, this will happen." Of course, it never worked, and I never listened to her until I was like 18 years old. But, Mom, if you are listening to this year, I did listen to you say those words for many years. Your actions have consequences. But when actions have consequences, the consequences make sense. For example, if I punch this stander, you will hear a noise because the consequence of my action is the natural consequence. The noise that the stander makes is the consequence. If Adam orishom sins, if Chava sins, and we have these consequences, we have to understand why that action led to that consequence. Does that make sense? These are not random things that they were expelled from Gan Eden. It's not random that there was death, or that Eldom needs to toil for his food, or that Chava needs to have pain now in childbirth. Obviously, there's a one-to-one connection between these things. The question is, what is the connection?

10:44 So I want to share with you an unbelievable approach, al pichasidus, of what this means. There are two types of leadership. We have a marker here. The same concept in the bus stop. We'll call just for a moment. I'm not going to erase everything. Pre and post sin. Pre and post other marishon's sin. There are two ways that a person can influence their surroundings. The pre-sin way of influencing your surroundings, which still exists today on some level, is from above. Think about a teacher, a person in your life, a tzaddik who is so elevated. So beyond this world. That it's deeply inspiring to be around them. They never say any lashon hara. They're always doing chesed. They're always learning. They're always davening. They're always saying tehillim. And they almost, in a certain sense, seem to like hover above creation. They're in it, but they're beyond it. And it could be very inspiring to be around those people. Now it's like we're drawn to them in a certain way.

12:09 And we want because we see their righteousness, because we see their light. In a certain way, we want to leave our stuff behind and just live a life that emulates theirs. A certain type of thing. Another way of thinking about this, not just on an individual level, would be on a national level. In this regard, we would think about Eretz Yisrael as a pure and pristine place that's only run according to absolute halacha and Torah values. And the light inside of Eretz Yisrael will be so bright and so strong, because it will be such a state of a pristine environment that the entire world will change as a result of the light emanating from Eretz Yisrael. It will be such a beacon to the world of what it looks like to lead a godly life that everybody in the entire world will change. That's what we're going to call pre sin leadership from above.

13:07 There is, however, A Another modality of leadership, we're going to call this and I'll explain why afterwards. Post sin After Adam and Chava sinned, there's another type of leadership. This leadership is not from beyond, but it's from within. The difference from above and within. This would be like the equivalent Of the teacher that you had in your life Or the NCSY advisor. Or the NCSY director. I don't know exactly who these people are today. They don't just lead these perfect lives that are beyond you and you look up to them. They're with you in your struggles and they see you grappling with your struggles and they talk about your struggles with you. They're very intimately involved in the day to day darkness and coarseness of the world. They're not just beyond. They're within. Like that rabbi that goes to the bar to be mikkar of the guys. I'm saying he goes to shalvata. I'm saying, let's say I heard there's such a place. The he goes to the place where they sell fruits and vegetables in the morning, but he goes at night. I'm saying there's a place like that. And he's the cool rabbi who's sitting with the guys and he's playing guitar and they're having this super deep conversation about what's the meaning of life. You know what I'm talking about? You know that person.

14:34 That's leadership from within. On a national level, remember, before we spoke about Eretz Yisrael, it is like this pristine kedusha environment that lights up the entire world. In post sin It's the opposite. We go out into galus. We're sent out from Eretz Yisrael, and we find ourselves in Russia, in Spain, in Iran, in Iraq, in Portugal, in all the places, Germany and Italy, in all the places that Jews have been expelled throughout the entire nature of our history, and what did we do there? We went, so to speak, into the darkness, and we, in a certain way, became American or Russian or Spanish. Et cetera. But we were Jews there. And in being Jews there, we changed a little bit of the culture there. We elevated it. So we were not above We were within, and we created massive shifts. Pre-sin, I'll explain why this isn't a moment. Pre-sin, what's leadership? From above, pristine, kadosh, beautiful, and it draws people in. It's magnetic.

15:49 Post-sin, what's leadership? Leadership as I go with you. I'm living with your struggles, grappling with your struggles. I'm one of you. But I'm also acting in an elevated way, and the change comes from within. Why is it this way? Why do we describe these two modalities of leadership as pre sin and post sin? So listen to an unbelievable tirade, and I think you mentioned this a moment ago, and I cut you off. I cut you off because I didn't want you to get ahead of yourself, but now's your moment. I mentioned one before other marishon sinned. Evil existed in the state of the Nachash Karmani. There was a serpent that represented evil. But it was not a part of Adam Yisrael. It was an external voice that says sin. So that's the nature of evil. Evil did not actually exist within man himself. Which means, what was the state of Adam and Chava before they sinned? Absolute purity.

16:52 Absolute kedusha. Totally pristine. How were they meant to change the world? Because obviously the goal of creation is to reveal Hashem within the world. That was the whole point. Nesava haTadash Baruch Hu, Leo Slo Yisbarach, Dirah B'Tachtonim. What did God create the world for? Because He desired to have a dwelling place in this world. So Hashem said, I'm going to create another manchava and another manchava. What was that? It's a medrash. It's a medrash, medrash and parsha. Naso, Nesava, Kadosh Baruch Hu lios lo yisbarach dirb p'tachtonim. Kadosh Baruch Hu desires to have a dwelling place in the world down below. The world down below needs to be transferred, needs to be transformed into a godly place. How were Adam and Chava going to do that? The answer is from above. They were going to live in Gan Eden, and Gan Eden was going to be a purely holy place. In fact, what was Adam told? The pasuk says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Avraham, 'Called Avraham Rishon, your job is la avda ule shamra. Your job is to work Gan Eden and to watch over it.' What was Avraham Rishon doing?

18:02 The answer is his job was to make sure that nothing unholy penetrated Gan Eden. If you want to be a light that's going to be magnetic, that's going to change the entire world, it needs to be absolute holiness. You know what that means, girls? It's like a sterile room. You know where they have these labs with sterile rooms. Not even a speck of dust can go into these rooms because if even one speck of dust falls on the machine, then the machine itself could become totally discalibrated. So they have these rooms where you walk into them and they spray you down and air goes all over you and they take off all foreign elements. You go in these special suits that don't have anything from the outside, no contaminants. The job of other marishon was to keep all the contaminants out. And the nachash hakadmoni The serpent, the evil serpent, existed within the world of Gan Eden, but remember, girls, he was an external force. He had not yet become a part of Gan Eden. He was just an external power.

19:08 Question. So you're saying there wasn't any evil in Gan Eden. The Nachash Kanmoni was an external force to Gan Eden, not an internal force. He wasn't part of it. Nothing about Gan Eden was anything but holy. It was all perfectly holy. What happens And why do other Marishon choose to sin? When we were growing up and we heard that Adam sinned, we heard it in a very pathetic way. And then Adam sinned. Adam Marishon was an incredible being. Every neshama that ever would come into the world came from Adam Marisha. The Gemara tells us that if Adam Marisha would stand up, his feet would be on the ground. His head would be all the way in Shamayim. He was massive. And remember, he was meant to live forever. The Malachim, when they saw Adam Marisha, were nespaled. They said, "We can't even believe that such a being exists."

20:04 So Adam Marisha sinned. He must have thought something. He must have said something about this not being good enough. Something about this needs to change. Maybe he made a mistake. But he had a thought process. What was Marishon's other thought process? Other Marishon said as follows: I choose a life of struggle over tranquility. I choose a life of involvement over perfection. Explain what I mean. Anything that we've done great in our lives. We did great because we struggled and achieved. That is a result of Adam and Eve's sin. Before Adam sinned, there was no notion of struggle. We'll explain why soon. But there's value in struggle. Don't you appreciate your struggles, girls? Let's say La Mashal. A person is, let's say a person is born eight feet tall And they go to play basketball and they dunk the basketball. Is it gishmak? Is it fun?

21:10 It's not fun. If you ever see, they have those little types baskets. And there's always that video you see of the three year old kid who's waddling around, and the seven year old who's dunking on his three year old little brother. It's not fun to play a game that has no competition. Perfection is not valuable, other Marishon says. Other Marishon says, I'm perfect. There's no struggle. There's no involvement. All there is just the state of the world without any tension, without any friction. But life demands friction. If we want to change the world, as on the marishon, we can't do it from sitting above in our ivory towers being perfect. In order to change the world, what do we need to do? We need to leave Gan Eden. We need to live in a state of impurity in order to have value to purity. That's an unbelievable thing that other Marishan did, and maybe it was a mistake.

22:10 But he had a chesed. So when other Marishan sinned I need to just roll for a little bit. Let me cook, as the boys say. I got to cook. Super relevant. I got some bars to drop. Let me do my thing. Of course. I'm a grandfather. I know how ridiculous this sounds. I'm glad you do too. I just hope you're laughing with me. So once other Marishon sinned, what happened? He said the sin was by design. The sin was on purpose. He said, "I'm going to take this evil force, this Nachash Admoni. That's an external force. And what am I going to do? By eating from the Eitz Hadas, by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, what do I do? I bring it inside of me. That's what food is. We bring it inside of ourselves. It's not just Stam eating an Esterog or whatever it was. By the way, it wasn't an apple. That's Christian. There's seven different options of what it was in the Gemara, and none of them are an apple. But whatever it was that he ingested, it certainly wasn't something that was now external to him."

23:25 We ingest something. We bring it inside of ourselves. Other Marishon took the advice from the Nachash Hakhamoni, ate from the Eitz Hadas, and he brings knowledge. That's what the word das means—the integration of knowledge. He brings it inside of himself. Now it becomes a fabric, becomes a part of the fabric of who he is. Listen, girls. Remember, we used the Moshe before of that clean room, totally sterile, not even one drop of dust. Now we can start to explain something very deep. Why does Other Marishon get expelled from Gan Eden? Because he is the piece of dust now. He's the contaminated element. And as a result, what's the first thing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Adam and Chava? We got to get you out of here. Because the nature of Gan Eden is what? Pure, pristine. Nothing comes into this space. Nothing evil belongs here. Because if Gan Eden is going to have an impact on the rest of the world, what does it need to be?

24:20 Absolutely pure. The light needs to be 100% bright. And if other Marishon remains there, it diminishes the light of Gan Eden, and therefore you have to leave. Now we start to understand the consequence of other Marishon's action. You want to go, and you want to lead from within, and you want to be someone who changes the world from within. You want to struggle. You don't just want perfection. You don't just want tranquility. You want to get involved. That's fine, but you can't be here anymore. That's a priest in existence, and you are in a post in existence. Let's take it the next. Once Adam Harishon brings evil into himself, he changes the nature of our relationship to life. Hashem is life. Hashem is called in Kabbalah, Chay Hachayim. He is the life of all life. Before Adam Harishon brought evil inside of himself, you know what he was?

25:12 One thousand percent connected to life. Imagine a wire. That's not just plugged in to your wall, but the wire is plugged in to the source of all electricity. That lamp In theory Would never go out because it's plugged into the source. But once the Marishon brings Nachash Kadmoni's advice, brings the Eight Sadas inside of himself, what does he create? A separation between him and life. So now it's not that he won't live at all, but what will happen now? What's a part of it? Death now becomes a part of life. Because you separated, you severed yourself from the pristine nature of Gan Eden, where life was eternal. Does that make sense? So now we've explained two of the consequences. Number one, by bringing evil inside of himself, he can't be in the pristine place. Number two, by bringing evil inside of himself, he's no longer attached to life itself in the way that he was before he sinned.

26:09 Let's take another one. In Gan Eden, do other Marisho need to work? No. Then the nature of Gan Eden is that it gives you all of its abundance. You don't have to work for it. But Othmarishon says, "What? I don't want to live a life of tranquility. I want to live a life of toil." Girls, what happens outside of Gan Eden? What is that? That's a life of toil. Othmarishon, you want not to have perfection. You want not to have tranquility. You want to struggle for your achievement. That's fine. But then when you go out now into the world outside of Gan Eden, you're living in a world where you're not 100% connected in Gan Eden. Everything is connected, so everything operates exactly as it should. Everything is just available for you whenever you want it. You wanted to be disconnected. Remember, R' Avraham, you chose this. You want to be disconnected, no problem. But now you're going to have to struggle.

27:00 And finally Let's talk about children. Let's talk about the punishment for Chavah or the consequence for Chavah. What happens? Children are brought into the world. There's love. There's the pain of childbirth. A woman has a nida cycle. There's a separation between husband and wife until she goes to mikvah. She goes to mikvah and now she can join together again with her husband. What is the nature of dam nida? What is this halacha of dam nida? What is the Torah trying to communicate to us? Blood is life. Blood is your passion, right? Blood is what you're excited about. That's why you say, you get your juices flowing, right? That's the blood. That's the life. It's life's passions. But now, other marishon The life blood that's in other marishon, in a certain way, it's tainted. It's tainted. Why? Because you decided to go out into the world.

28:05 Which means we can now explain the deep thing. Before other marishon sinned, was there anything called the halachas of nida? Didn't exist. It didn't exist because there was nothing impure that was inside of ourselves. There was nothing impure inside of ourselves. Our passions were pristine. But once Adamarishon sins, our blood, in a certain sense, becomes tainted. Our life's passions are no longer just about what's pure and what's holy in life. Sometimes we desire things that are impure. An unbelievable thing to know is that in the world to come, in Olam Habah When evil is completely annihilated There are no halachos of nida. It's an unbelievable thing. The halachos of nida are only for this world. But in Olam Habah, when we restore the world to its previous state, where ganedem, now we've achieved a state of ganedem, and we're once again living in that pre-sin modality where everything is pure.

29:09 Of course, our passions will be absolutely pure. Our blood will not need to have any discharge. There's still an obvious question. I think it's the question you're going to ask. That's why I told you to hold off for a second. Why only women? I'm hoping it's your question. Let's say it's your question anyway, because it's a really good question. Why do women have this need to cycle and men don't? It's just an unbelievable thing. Not just simply because it's Chava's fault. The same way that we were expelled from Gan Eden Because Gan Eden was pure And Adam was impure, and the impure cannot live in the state of the pure. Chava, more than Adam or Ishon, retains her purity. Even after the sin Her body is like Gan Eden. A woman's body is much more kadosh than a man's. That was your misogynist question from before. I'm answering it now. A woman's body, the female species, is much more kadosh.

30:15 So there has to be the expulsion of anything that's impure. So a woman, after the sin of Adam Harishon After the sin of Adam Harishon, a woman has to release any impure forces. That's the nature of the sin of Adam Harishon. We brought impurity inside of ourselves. But impurity cannot remain. That's why, when we go to mikvah We tovel in the mikvah. You ever heard that word before? Tovel in the mikvah. Tovel is the same letters as bittol. When a person stands before Hashem, nullified before Hashem, recognizing their place in the world, aligned with Hashem Then all of the impurities are wiped away. And you live in a state of total alignment with Hashem. Once again, you're in a complete state of purity. Now watch this. If you followed everything we said until now, this is going to be unbelievable. Earlier, I told you. We very first thing we said. Remember, we had three questions in the very beginning.

31:23 We said if you're going to go back, let's review those questions real quickly. Number one, we said these are the halachos of man. This is the Torah of man. This week's parsha. This is the Torah of man. That a woman becomes tamei until seven days after her baby boy is born, and then they give the boy a bris on the eighth day. Why is that the Torah of man? We said, why does this create a state of impurity, a separation between husband and wife? Childbirth is the most beautiful thing; it shouldn't create impurity. And finally, why are we repeating the halachas of bris mila? Listen to this: There's a targum Yonasan ben Uziel A translation of the Torah from Rav Yonasan ben Uziel. He adds that without the targum Yonasan ben Uzziel we would never have known it. I'll read it to you in Aramaic and then I'll translate it. Remember, the pasuk said uva yomah shmini and on the eighth day yimol b'sarah lasso the baby boy should get a bris mila. Listen to the targum Yonasan ben Uzziel. See if you can figure out what he adds. He says uva yomna timnai and on the eighth day tishtere the woman shall become. Muteras shall become permissible.

32:32 Ubara yizgazar b'sar olasei, and now we will have a bris for the child that was born. What did the Targum Yonasan ben Uziel add on? He said something unbelievable. He said tishtere. Tishtere means that on the eighth day Who? What happens? The woman becomes permitted to her husband. He added a word that wasn't there in the Torah as an explanation, which means now that the pasuk changes its entire meaning. Who is the pasuk about? The pasuk is no longer about the baby boy being circumcised on the eighth day. It's about her becoming permissible to her husband on the eighth day. So now, let's read it again. On the eighth day, she should become permitted, and the child will be circumcised. What's the value in this? Now we understand the answer to the Arachaim's question. Girls, when do we get the mitzvah for bris mila? You said it all before.

33:35 Is the Torah repeating it here? No. The Torah is not repeating it here. What's the pasuk speaking about here? Not the baby boy being circumcised. What's it speaking about? She becomes muteress. She's no longer tumin. So we answered the question of the Arachaim. Let's see. Wait. So is a mother giving birth to a boy like getting rid of that impurity? No. Chas v'shalom. The boy is. That would be a terrible shmoos to give. The boys are the impurity that the mother gets rid of. This would be like a terrible shidduch crisis moment where all the girls in Bnei Meraim don't want to get married to these guys. They represent impurity in the world. That's not what I'm saying. No. We also understand another thing Which is the entire Torah of man. Why? Because remember Our job is to rectify, to be metakin, to fix the sin of Adam Hanhava.

34:40 So the impurity that was brought into the world, that was brought into Adam Marishon via the sin, which is tangibly expressed in the women's nida cycle, and of course, as we'll soon see in a moment, in bris milah, because Avraham Rishon was born with a bris milah; he didn't need to have one, he was born already circumcised. So now we understand what's happening in this parsha. An unbelievable thing is happening. We need to make an effort to purify, to rectify the sin of Avraham Rishon. A woman gives birth to a baby. What happened? You give birth to a child. Remember, there's pain in that childbirth. What happens? You give birth to that baby. There's tumma. What's the tumma? The nature of tumma is the expulsion, not chashvasholam, of the male. That's not what we're talking about. We're speaking about again. This is a deep idea. We're speaking about the expulsion of impurity.

35:48 So it's not chas v'shalom that the birth of a child is what creates the impurity. It's not the child But it's the expulsion of impurity. There's a seven-day expulsion period, but it's not speaking about the tumma. What's this Torah really speaking about? We said it a moment ago. It's not about her being tameh. What is it about? Her becoming tahor. It's not about the tumma. It's about the tahara. It's about purity achieved. Remember, what did Adam Rishon want? He didn't just want to stay in his pristine palace and illuminate the world from above. What did he want? He wanted to be from within. He wants to change the world from within. Chava says, 'We're going to change the world from within.' So when she has an expulsion of this blood, she's releasing any tuma. But what happens? Eight days later, what is she? She's in a state of purity. She's gone to mikva. She's aligned herself with Hashem. Where? In her state of imperfection, this is what Rashi is saying.

36:49 This is the Torah of all of man. The Torah of all of man is not to be pure, but to achieve purity, to expel impurity from yourself, and to actually work for purity. And then, what does she do on the eighth day, in her state of tahara, in her state of connection to her husband? What does she do? She says, "We're going to give our baby boy a bris milah." Other Marishon didn't need one, but our child, we're going to bring him into the world and we're going to give him a Bris Mila. He will have achieved his Mila, not like other Marishon who was born with it. Why is this so important? This, if you understood these ideas, it reframes all of our falls and our failures in Judaism. Every time we do something that we're not proud of Every time we enter into a state of Tuma, every time our passions boil for something that's inappropriate, every time we make a mistake and we feel like we're no longer aligned with Hashem.

37:48 So there's two approaches. One approach to say I'm a terrible person. I wasted my time in Ber Meryam. I came for my Shana Aleph. I was supposed to be perfect at the end. Remember? Remember when you were in twelfth grade and you imagined that by the time you were done with Ber Meryam of your Shana Aleph everything would be perfect. Remember that? I'm sure nobody here made any mistakes over Pesach Bayin Azmanim. I'm sure nobody went any places that they shouldn't have gone, or spoke to anyone that they shouldn't have spoken to, or did whatever they did. I have a rebbe who says. I'm not saying. I'm just saying. If you know what I'm saying. I think you girls might have him too. That rebbe. I know him too. He's a good friend. You don't have to say the name out loud. He who shall not be named.

38:36 College, The you made a mistake. Made a mistake. You went to a place you shouldn't. So you could say, "I wasted my entire year in Bera Miriam. I thought I was going to come to Shalayim Eretz Yisrael, and that was going to be perfect. I was never going to do an avirah again." Girls, your failures and your flaws and your falls and the mistakes that you made—it's not a bug; it's a feature. We're meant to make mistakes. The whole thing that Adam and Chava wanted was not that we should live in a state of perfection, but that perfection should be something that we achieve. That we're oriented towards falling down and getting back up, that we expel the tuma that we brought inside of ourselves, and ultimately achieve a state of tahara. The union between a husband and wife is beautiful because you have to fight for it. If you don't have to fight for your marriage, what type of marriage do you have?

39:31 The love that's Organic is beautiful But the love that's achieved—that's something phenomenal. When we think about our failures, you could say I'm a terrible person, or you could understand that this is what Adam and Chava wanted. This Torah of Adam. This is what we are meant to do in this world. This is our entire Torah. It's not to never fall. Of course, we're going to fall. That's why we go into gullus. We become a part of the culture that we live in, and hopefully we elevate it. But in order to elevate something, especially if you're within, that means you have to be down below. There's an unbelievable muster here for us. You made a mistake. Welcome to the game. The game is that it's supposed to be not just muvan me'ilav. It's not supposed to be obvious. The game is that it's hard. The game is that there are struggles, but the game is that we never give up.

40:26 You could be in a state of tuma, but tuma is just the state you're in before your state of tahara. It's not impressive to be born circumcised. It's not impressive to be born on top of the mountain. It's impressive to climb the mountain. Nobody would look at somebody born on Mount Everest and say, "Wow, what an achievement!" We celebrate the people that are able to hike up to the summit of Mount Everest because that seems almost impossible, and yet somehow someone did it. That's an incredible achievement. Blessed Hashem Especially in these yomim of Sefiras Haomer, where there's a lot of work being done on ourselves. Sometimes we slip, sometimes we fall, sometimes we're imperfect. Blessed Hashem, imperfect is just the state that we're in before we achieve our ultimate completion. Girls have a wonderful Shabbos.