T51 (Tinyana) PNC - Avnei Shayish Tahor / Al Tomru Mayim Mayim — Sheker Damages Eyes and Hashgachah

Rabbi Akiva said to the four who entered the Pardes: 'When you reach the stones of pure marble, do not say water-water,' as the verse says, 'a speaker of falsehoods will not stand before My eyes' (Psalms 101:7). Sheker damages the eyes — physically and spiritually — as in 'eyes that lie' (Isaiah 3:16): when eyes dim they 'lie,' showing things not as they are — making the great seem small or one seem two, the opposite of truth. The eyes dim from tears: 'and the clouds returned after the rain' (Shabbos 151b) — vision follows weeping. Tears are excess of marah-shechorah which the body expels through the eyes. Marah-shechorah draws from impure blood, and impure blood comes from speaking sheker — for it is impossible to speak sheker without first muddying one's blood, and impossible to speak truth without first refining the blood. Speech is the nefesh ('my soul went out as he spoke' — Song of Songs 5:6), and nefesh is the blood ('for the blood is the nefesh' — Leviticus 17:11). So sheker → blood-impurity → marah-shechorah → tears → dim eyes. 'הקטפים מלוח עלי שיח' (Job 30:4) — 'malu'ach' (salt) is the salty waters of tears, brought through 'siach' (speech). 'Al tomru mayim mayim' is therefore a warning against sheker (R. Akiva closes there with 'a speaker of falsehoods'). Sheker is 'mayim mayim' — salty waters: ordinary water quenches thirst, but salty water doesn't quench, only adds thirst upon thirst, until one needs other water to extinguish it. So is sheker called 'mayim mayim.'

The very emergence of sheker — which is ra and tumah — is from distance from the One. Ra is opposition; whatever opposes a person's will is ra. In the One, no opposition applies — only good. The Sages teach (Pesachim 50a): 'On that day Hashem will be one and His Name one — kulo ha-tov ve-ha-meitiv,' for in the One ra has no place. Therefore le-asid lavo: 'a lip of truth will be established forever' (Proverbs 12:19) — for then all will be one, all good. Truth is one — say of a silver vessel that it is a kli kesef and you are right; say it is a kli zahav and you lie. Truth is one alone — only kli kesef, no more. But sheker is many: gold, copper, any name — 'they sought many calculations' (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Le-asid the ra will be nullified, opposition nullified, tears nullified — 'they will not harm' (Isaiah 11:9 — bittul ha-ra), 'and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard with the kid' (Isaiah 11:6 — bittul ha-hisnagdus), 'and Hashem Elokim will wipe away tears from every face' (Isaiah 25:8 — bittul ha-dema'os, which are sheker). 'Then Hashem will be one and His Name one' — kulo tov, kulo emes. So tumah will pass: 'and the spirit of impurity I will remove from the earth' (Zechariah 13:2). For all will be one — 'who can produce the pure from the impure? Not one' (Job 14:4): the very anchor of taharah and tumah is from the bechinah of distance from the One.

Before creation, when Creation was still potential, kulo Echad — kulo emes, kulo tov, kulo kodesh. Even the term 'tahor' did not yet apply, for tahor only applies where tumah exists ('and you shall be tahor from all your tumah'). When all is Echad, no 'cheshbonos rabim' apply, which is the root of ra and tumah. Taharah is the mediating point between kodesh and tumah, through which tumah is rectified — bechinas ha-bechirah, the choice that mediates between two. Before creation no bechirah applied — in Echad, no bechirah. When the Holy One brought Creation from potential to actual, taharah immediately came into being — for now there were two: ha-Echad and ha-Beriah; bechirah, taharah, became applicable. Taharah is close to Echad and has not yet reached cheshbonos rabim, which is ra/tumah; yet it is a hint, a sign, of the chain that will reach all the way down to tumah. So the Zohar says: ikar achizas ha-tumah is from sitra de-smola — taharah hints at the existence of tumah and signals its eventual unfolding. Therefore one can rectify tumah back to taharah — for it itself unfolded from taharah. Taharah is bechinas smol, bechinas Levi: 've-tihartah es Bnei Levi' — and Levi is bechinas smol. After Creation: through Hashem's hashgachah, even after creation everything is in unity with Him. Ra suckles from 'achorei kasfa' — distant from the One. Through emes — Hashem's hashgachah is upon him: 'My eyes are upon the faithful of the land' (Psalms 101:6); through sheker — He removes hashgachah: 'a speaker of falsehoods will not stand before My eyes' (101:7) — ein chiyuso ela me-achorei kasfa. So R. Akiva said: 'when you reach avnei shayish tahor' — yesh, post-emergence, where 'tahor' applies — 'al tomru mayim mayim': do not utter sheker, which removes hashgachah. Want av u-ven k'echad? Through emes, Hashem's hashgachah is upon you, and all is Echad as before creation.

And so sheker damages the eyes specifically — for through sheker one removes the hashgachah of Hashem's eyes; the eyes are bechinas hashgachah. Sheker is drawn from richuk-me-Echad, the very root of tumah, ra. Sheker pogems hashgachah and removes Hashem's hashgachah from one. Through hashgachah, all is Echad — after creation as before creation; through sheker, one pogems in Echad — sheker is rachok mi-Echad. So sheker mesalek hashgachah, and separates (chas ve-shalom) achar-ha-beriah from kodem-ha-beriah, the very anchor of tumah. But through emes — kulo Echad, kulo tov — one draws Hashem's hashgachah, and all is Echad, after creation included in before creation. This is what R. Akiva said: 'al tomru mayim mayim' — and through emes you reach 'avnei shayish tahor' as 'av u-ven ke-Echad,' and the maamar links its beginning to its end and its end to its beginning — understand well.