Thursday, March 24, 2016

Toras Purim 5776: Ritzpas Bahat Vo'Sheish v'Dar v'Sochores


The remazim in this line are incredible!

Ritzpas - A ritzpa is a floor that has been smoothed - think retzef - which is kindred to tziruf - refinement. And we are about to see how nitnu ha'mitzvos l'tzaref es ha'berios!

Bahat vo'shesh - Hat  is 14 in gematria and Vo'shesh is 606 = 620 mitzvos d'orysa and d'rabbanan by which the tziruf takes place! (See the Tiferes Yisroel  on the last mishnah  in Shas on shai olomos.)

But there's more...

According to RSRH, bahat means something that is compacted or made more dense - related, of course, to ba'at - to kick. (In this case, alabaster or compacted gypsum.) And according to the Etymological Dictionary its cognate meaning is "to act positively/negatively."

Shesh is something that is six-layered (in this case, striated marble).

The tziruf is the avodah of the six days of the week, corresponding to the six days of creation, corresponding to the six millenia of this cycle of existence, in which we are built up - molded, compacted - by our positive and negative acts. Ha'yom la'asosam.

Where must we engage in this tziruf. Everywhere! As we say in Shma: b'shivtecha b'beisecha u'b'lechtecha ba'derech. Which is, of course, dar - in your dirah, your abode; and in your sochores - your perambulations and travels, wherever you turn to engage in your mis'char!

(BTW, I don't yet know what to do with this, but dar+sochores in gematriya - 878 - is Shem, Cham, Yafes and Eitz HaChaim v'Eitz HaDa'as!)

Just rashei perakim. Yishma chochom v'yosif lekach!

1 comment: