T85 (Tinyana) PNC - Egoizim Nikra'im Luzim — Leah, the Oref, the Luz Bone, and Shabbos Nachamu

**"Egoizim ha-nikra'im 'luzim' romzim li-bechinas Leah she-hi ba-oref, she-hi nik-be'is rishonah."** Hazelnuts called *luzim* hint to **Leah**, who is in the *oref* (the back of the neck), and who is *taken first*. Only afterwards does one enter the **Beis ha-Mikdash** — bechinas **"Yaakov kara'o Beis Eil"** (Pesachim 88a). And Rash"i tells us (Shoftim 1) that **derech Luz nichnasin l'Beis Eil** — the road to Beis Eil literally passes through Luz. The *back of the neck* is the *gateway from behind* — the place where galus quietly delivers a person to the Mikdosh. **"Nachamu nachamu"** (Yeshayahu 40:1): two times *nachamu* is gematria **קדקד** — *kodkod* — which is the **oref**, by which one enters Beis Eil. **Three weeks of bein ha-metzarim = 21 days = the Luz tree's time**: a hen takes 21 days to give birth (Bechoros 5; see Tos. there); the egg ripens in 21 days; the *luz* tree corresponds. **And so Klal Yisrael's minhag** to eat an egg at the seudah ha-mafsekes erev Tisha B'Av: 21-day egg = 21-day mourning = luz-tree. The very mourning is the *gestation* of consolation — *as today*.

**The bone that does not die.** *V'zehu ha-etzem 'luz' she-yeish ba-oref ha-adam, she-yisha'er achar kelyon ha-guf, u-mimenu yischadeish binyan ha-guf bi-she'as techiyas ha-meisim.* The mefurshim teach that there is a tiny bone in the back of the neck called *luz* that does not decay — and from it the body will be rebuilt at techiyas ha-meisim. **And THAT,** says Rabbeinu, **is ikar nechamoseinu** — the very heart of "nachamu nachamu." The mourning of the three weeks is not tragedy that ends in tragedy; it is the *21-day gestation of the luz-bone* of Klal Yisrael, the indestructible nucleus from which the whole guf will be rebuilt. The *etzem* ("bone") is also *etzem* (essence) — what cannot be destroyed. **Rus 3:13: "shichvi ad ha-boker"** — *lie until morning* — is said about the *body*, of which the morning is *eis ha-techiyah*. **"V'hineh va-boker, v'hineh hi Leah"** (Bereishis 29:25): the morning of techiyah opens, and *behold she is Leah* — that is the *etzem ha-luz*, the seed-of-rebuilding, the bechinah of *Leah-in-the-oref* by which the guf is reconstituted.

**Yaakov, Rachel, and the kodkod.** All of Yaakov's avodah was *for Rachel's sake* — yet entry comes *through Leah first*. Therefore, in the brachos of Rachel's sons it is written: **"u-le-kodkod nezir echav"** (Bereishis 49:26, of Yosef), and of Binyamin: **"u-vein keseifav shachen"** (Devarim 33:12). *Kodkod* and *bein keseifav* — these are the *oref*, the bechinas luz. The remez: *al-yedei bechinas Leah she-hi rishonah, yachol lavoi li-bechinas Rachel*. Rachel — the gilui ha-pnimi, the giluy panim — is reached only by way of the *oref*, the achorayim, the Leah-place that goes first. **And the cap-stone**: **עורף = ש"ן = ר"ת שבת נחמו** — *oref* in gematria is *shin-nun* (350), and *shin-nun* are the *roshei teivos* of **Shabbos Nachamu**. The *back-of-the-neck* IS *Shabbos Nachamu* in cipher: the place where mourning turns to comfort, where Leah delivers the soul to Beis Eil, where the egoiz-luz cracks open and the indestructible bone of techiyah is revealed. *Be-emes — kol ha-omer Leah, omer Nachamu Nachamu.*