G-d told Moshe, "Tell the Children of Israel that if a woman conceives and gives birth to a male, then she will be ritually unclean for seven days, as if she had menstruated and became impure. On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin will be circumcised." (Vayikra 12:1-3)
What's wrong with this picture? What seems to be wrong is that the Torah is combining together matters that seem better off on their own.
First, the Torah begins with the law of spiritual impurity that results from giving birth to a son, even comparing it to the laws of general menstruation. This fits in perfectly with the laws of impurity that will follow when the Torah shifts gears and begins a long section about the Metzora, the person who is physically afflicted with leprosy as a result of a spiritual "illness."
Yet, almost just "by the way," the Torah inserts the all-important, seminal, and highly-representative mitzvah of Bris Milah before continuing on with the law of impurity for a woman who gives birth to a girl. It's not like there are not many other BETTER places to discuss the law of Bris Milah than at this point in the Torah.
Therefore, we must assume, this somewhat radical insertion here obviously comes to allude to a deeper meaning to this parshah than we might otherwise have overlooked. The question is, what is that deeper meaning? Or better yet, the question is, what does the Arizal say about this?
In Sefer HaLikutim, the Arizal explains that it is Bris Milah that reduces the power of spiritual impurity over us, and, reduces the chances of our becoming involved with it. The orlah, or, foreskin, represents the spiritual encasement that acts as a barrier between us and holiness, and, the removal of it through the mitzvah of Bris Milah opens the door of opportunity to become more spiritually inclined.
Elsewhere, in the classic Kabbalistic work, the "Aitz Chaim," the Arizal reveals even deep secrets of Milah. The letters of "Milah" (mem-yud-lamed-heh) can be re-arranged to spell "mem-lamed, yud-heh," which alludes to the spiritual incision made in the Sefiros on the level that is referred to by the letters "yud-heh," paving the way for a high-level revelation of light.
However, it is "Priyah," the ritual peeling back and removal of the foreskin during the actual Bris Milah, that "frees" the lights and allows them to come down and spiritually chase away spiritual impurity and the Negative Forces in creation from the child.
In fact, explains the Arizal, there are seventy such lights that are waiting to be released through each Bris Milah, alluded to by the "mem-lamed," which has the numerical value of seventy. Seventy, of course, is the number of wisdom and redemption (see "Redemption to Redemption, Part One: Purim," for more detail).
"Priyah," like "Milah," can also be arranged to spell "peh-raish-ayin, yud-heh," to refer to the "peeling back" of the barrier that allows the seventy lights to emanate downward. And, in case you didn't recognize it in the English, "peh-raish-ayin" is the root of the word "Paroah," the leader of Mitzrayim, or, Egypt.
And, as we have discussed on a number of occasions, the Hebrew word for Egypt is made up of two words: "metzer" (mem-tzaddi-raish) and "yumm" (yud-mem), with the latter set of letters totaling fifty, to allude to the "Fifty Gates of Understanding," the same level of light that Milah reveals. "Metzer," on the other hand, means "constriction," because, the philosophy of Egypt confined the Fifty Gates of Understanding.
Paroah exemplified this spiritually confining outlook, and "Priyah" came to free the Jewish people from it. And thus, the allusion to Bris Milah here, in this week's parshah, when discussing the power base of Paroah: spiritual impurity. www.torah.org.
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