Finer Degrees

25 Adar II 5782

“If a man has a lesion of tzara’ath, he shall be brought to the kohen.” (Vayikra 13:9)

Why does tzara’ath affect a person? It affects somebody who is guilty of unintentional, spontaneous injurious gossip or slander. Because slander is an imperfection in a person’s external behavior, tzara’ath also affects a person’s outermost organ, his skin. However, tzara’ath presupposes a certain degree of holiness in the world that was only present when the Mishkan, and later the Beis HaMikdash, stood.

Nowadays, when we lack the open sign of tzara’ath, we must still be aware of imperfections in our external, spontaneous behavior. Our occasional slips of the tongue, in the form of unpremeditated gossip in casual conversation, point to deeper flaws in our subconscious nature. We should use them as cues to refine our innermost selves, ridding them of any remaining negativity.

(Likutei Torah 2:22b; Likutei Sichot, vol. 22, pp. 65–69, 74–75)

“They, too (the mitzvos and their kavanah), are differentiated into four levels.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 38)

The Alter Rebbe teaches us that mitzvos are subdivided into four levels. The mitzvos of real action, such as charity, and those consisting of thought and speech, such as Torah study, make up the lower two levels. The kavanos of the mitzvos, according to the degree of the person’s understanding, comprise the higher two levels.

We see here that the mitzvos have different levels and each mitzvah is further subdivided into different levels of kavanos. To perfect all these mitzvos to the best of our ability requires constant self-refinement and attention to detail.

“You have commanded Your precepts to be observed diligently.” (Tehillim 119:4)

All this must be done with the knowledge that nobody is perfect, and ridding ourselves of successively finer degrees of negativity while climbing to successively higher levels of spiritual sensitivity is exactly our mission in life and the central point of our avodah.