T82 PNC - Silent Bearers/Klipot/Klipat Nogah/Milah (2 segs)

The Talmud (Shabbat 88b) teaches: 'Those who are insulted and do not insult back, those who hear their own reproach and do not reply' — these are a special category of people who bear personal suffering without retaliation or response. They absorb insults in silence, without fighting back.

About such people, the verse says: 'And His lovers like the going forth of the sun in its might' (Judges 5:31). There are three klipot (spiritual husks/shells) that Ezekiel saw in his vision (Ezekiel 1:4): ruach se'arah (stormy wind), anan gadol (great cloud), and aysh mislakachat (consuming fire). Between these three klipot and holiness stands Klipat Nogah (the luminous husk) — sometimes it falls toward the side of the klipot, and sometimes it is elevated toward the side of holiness. This Klipat Nogah is the aspect of 'nishmat ha'ashukim' — the souls of those who are oppressed (see Saba Mishpatim 113a). This corresponds to the order of creation: the three years of orlah (the forbidden fruit of a tree's first three years) correspond to the three klipot. The fourth year corresponds to Nogah, which is an aspect of chashmal (divine fiery brilliance, Ezekiel 1:4). Sometimes it is included among the lights of the circumcision (ma'al). This is the secret of milah (circumcision): the act of milah breaks through the three klipot and reaches the Nogah-light.