Matos: 5786 - The Kohen shall see the mark: Rashi: "There is a day when you, the Kohen, see marks, and there is a day when you do not see it." The power of the Kohen's statement determines reality. Also: the power of…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:03 Speaker 2 The weekly parsha, Parshas Nega’im. The Torah says: “And on the day that living flesh appears in it, he shall be impure.” What does “on the day that it appears in it” mean? Rashi explains there: There are days when you examine it and days when you do not. In other words, there are days when the kohen does not come to examine the affliction. A groom, for example, is given until the end of the seven days of his wedding celebration. Similarly, during the seven days of the festival, the kohen does not come to examine it. As long as the kohen himself has not declared it impure or pure, the person is not impure. The kohen’s declaration is what brings about impurity or purity. That is why the whole process of examining afflictions has two parts: there is the halachic authority, someone expert in afflictions who knows exactly which affliction is impure and which is pure, and there is the kohen’s declaration. The kohen himself can even be a minor who is not yet obligated in mitzvos. He can even be someone lacking sound judgment, but he must say “impure” or “pure.” The expert examines it. He is knowledgeable about afflictions, and he tells the kohen, “Say ‘impure,’” or “Say ‘pure.’” In other words, the kohen’s actual declaration is what brings about impurity or purity. So as long as the kohen has not said “impure,” the person is not impure. That is why a groom is given the seven days of his wedding celebration. The same applies to the seven days of the festival, and also to an afflicted house: the kohen waits until all the belongings have been taken out of the house. The kohen’s declaration itself brings about impurity and purity. Why? The expert, the rabbi, knows all the halachos and understands that this affliction is impure or that one is pure, but that alone does not accomplish anything.

02:08 Speaker 2 The kohen’s declaration itself is what makes it happen. This is a decree of the Torah. And why specifically a kohen? As the Rebbe explains, it is because the kohen is a man of kindness, someone who loves every Jew. That is why, in the priestly blessing, the kohen is commanded to bless His people Israel with love. Only someone who is a man of kindness can declare a person impure or pure. If he is not a man of kindness, he is not a kohen in this sense. Otherwise, he might have some personal motive, some other reason for doing it. So it is specifically the kohen’s declaration of “impure” or “pure” that brings about impurity or purity. The Midrash says that King David prayed to Hakadosh Boruch Hu about the book of Tehillim he had written. He asked that reciting chapters of Tehillim should have an effect like studying Nega’im and Ohalos. That was King David’s request. So the question is: Why did he ask specifically for it to be like Nega’im and Ohalos? Why not like monetary law? It says that someone who wants to become wise should study monetary law, or there are other halachos. Why specifically Nega’im and Ohalos? This is the explanation: With afflictions, the kohen’s very declaration brings about impurity or purity. King David’s request was that the very recitation of chapters of Tehillim should have an effect Above—even when someone does not know what he is saying. He does not understand the words; he does not understand what he is saying at all. He just says those words, and it has an effect. As we learned in Hayom Yom, the Rebbe says: If we knew the value of chapters of Tehillim, we would say them much more often, because the very recitation of those chapters accomplishes tremendous things in Heaven. Let’s finish with a story. The wife of the Tzemach Tzedek was named Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. She used to say

04:28 Speaker 2 a great deal of Tehillim. Once, she complained to her son, “I say so much Tehillim. How is it that I still don’t know it by heart? By now, I should know it by heart.” Her son said to her, with a bit of a jab, “Because each time you make different mistakes, so you don’t learn it by heart.” She was very hurt. She went to the Tzemach Tzedek and asked him, “Perhaps I should stop saying Tehillim?” The Tzemach Tzedek told her, “No, keep saying Tehillim.” And when he met his son, he scolded him for what he had said to his mother. He told him, “You should know that what I was able to accomplish in Petersburg at the conference of rabbis—where I went with mesirus nefesh and was arrested twenty times during that conference—my success in Petersburg came from her Tehillim, mistakes and all. That is what made it happen. That is why I succeeded.” So let’s keep saying chapters of Tehillim, with Hashem’s help, and may we merit the true and complete Geulah. We are on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Iyar: “I am Hashem, your Healer.” May there be healing for all the Jewish people.

05:34 Speaker 3 Amen, selah.