Tazria - Nesivos Shaom - Seven Days/Shabbos is the Life Breath of the World (Full translation of whole piece)

In these portions the unit of seven days comes up repeatedly. 

Someone with tzaraat - a spiritual disease - on their body - was closed off for seven days, as it says, “And the kohein saw the negah - blemish, and then the kohein closed the blemished person off for seven days.  And then the kohein sees him on the seventh day, and if he assesses that the negah is still there, then he closes the person off for seven more days.” And at the start of the parsha, in regard to the impurity that comes with giving birth: “If a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a male, she will be tamei - impure for seven days, and if she gives birth to a female she will be impure - tamei for two weeks.” We also find that seven days is key in regard to other matters of tumah - impurity, such as tumat meit - impurity caused by a dead body, regarding which we’re told “and he will be impure for seven days.”

In a similar vein, we find that matters of holiness are connected to units of seven days: Shabbos is the seventh day, and Sukkot and Pesach are seven days long, and Shavuot is the culmination of seven groups of seven, as it says, “It will be seven complete weeks.”

What is the idea behind seven? The Rabbis - Chazal say, “All sevens are beloved” (Vayikrah Rabbah 29:11), and it is worthy of understanding a- that G-d loves sevens, and b- what this comes to teach us.

We can explain this idea of sevens using what the Beis Avraham (may his merit protect us) wrote in regard to the text that states, “And the land will rest - veshavtah haaretz, a resting for G-d - Shabbat KaHashem.” He says that there is an aspect of Shabbos in every level of creation. “The land,” besides its literal meaning, represents the lowest level of creation, and we are told that it too will rest and have a Shabbos for G-d. Every Jewish person, even someone at the lowest of levels, the level of “the land,” has a Shabbos for G-d, at least once in every seven years! 

This can be explained via The Zohar (Book 2, page 205), which states that “Shabbos is completely the day of the soul and not at all the day of the body.” That is to say that The Holy Shabbos is the neshamah - soul, breath of life of the entire world. G-d created everything in such a way that it has a body, a physical aspect made up of materiality, and a nefesh - physical form, ruach - spirit/breath, and a neshamah - living, breathing soul. This is the structure of seven days that all is built on: the six days, six extensions, of creation, and Shabbos - the day of the soul, the realm of the breathing soul that sustains every element of creation. 

This relates to what the holy Ohr HaChaim wrote, that every Shabbos gives new sustainability to all of creation for six more days, until the next Shabbos! It’s similar to a person who has a guf - body, a nefesh - physical form, and a ruach - spirit, but aside from all of these, his life comes, more than anything else, from his soul.  Even though the soul is invisible to the eye, it gives life to the body and without it there is no sustainable life.  So too, Shabbos is the Neshamah of the world, and from it life flows to all creation, even the lowest elements, the “land” elements, and this is what is meant by “and the land will rest and have a Shabbos to G-d.”

This is the idea behind, “G-d loves sevens.” The concept of seven alludes to Shabbos. G-d loves sevens because Shabbos is the life force of all of creation. The point of all of the instances of seven days mentioned in this portion is Shabbos, the soul and sustainer of all of creation. The idea is that through Shabbos all of creation gets elevated. 

“G-d records as he registers the peoples” -”הּ’ יספר בּכתב עמים” (Yehillim 87:6). The holy books - sefarim explain that what is referred to here is the accountancy of the nations of the world. When you write many zeros you have a number with no value.  But if you write any number in front of those zeroes then you get a number of great value. This is how it is in the service of G-d: a Jew can say many prayers that are of a low value, but then when he or she davens one tefilah - prayer properly, it elevates all of the other prayers, even those that were valued at zero. The point for our purposes, is that the holy Shabbos has a power that is along these lines, in that it elevates all of creation. Like the 1 before all the zeroes. 

The world is a world of falsehood, and G-d gave Shabbos - the day of the soul - which elevates all of creation.  The time for elevation for all aspects of creation, from the highest to the lowest, is Shabbos.  All matters of purity and impurity, the impurity from a dead body and all other impurities, have a timeframe of seven days. This is because through the power of Shabbos all of even the lowest realms are elevated.  

Furthermore, all matters of impurity, which belong to the negative part of creation, leave their realm of impurity due to the power of Shabbos. There is good and bad in creation, and impurities flow from the Sitra Achrah - Dark Side - negative forces of creation. These forces get elevated through Shabbos, the endpoint of the passing of seven days. The Sitrah Achra’s negative energy can not endure for more than seven days, due to the fact that every seven day unit contains a Shabbos which causes these forces to flee.  This fits with what the Zohar states regarding how these forces flee from Shabbos, based on the line in Yishayahu which describes how they run away due to the awe of G-d, and His grandeur and glory. So, impurity is all about seven days, maximum, because Shabbos causes the impurity to leave and the person who is impure becomes pure once again.

Shabbos not only removes and purifies all aspects of impurity, it is also the source of all holiness, as per the verse: “And G-d blessed the seventh day and it made it holy.” Shabbos contains both blessing and holiness.  The blessing is in the realm of sur mirah - turn away from the negative, meaning that via Shabbos’ blessing a Jew is cleansed and purified from impurity.  Holiness, on the ot is in the realm of asei tov - do that which is good. Thus, on Shabbos we rise up through turning from bad and from doing good.  This aligns with what the Mesilat Yesharim writes, that “purity leads to holiness.” A person can achieve holiness on his own, but high levels of holiness akin to becoming like a Sanctuary or an altar and having all of your actions be holy like korbanot - sacrifices, can only be achieved on one’s own.  When it comes to holiness a person can just try, and then what starts out as human effort eventually turns into a gift from G-d. This is the deep meaning of the words in the Torah: “And G-d make it holy,” that all gifts of holiness are channeled exclusively through Shabbos. The book Reishit Chochmah puts it this way: the springs of all matters of holiness flow from Shabbos.”

Pesach and Sukkkot are seven days long because all matters of keduashah - holiness flow by way of Shabbos.  They take their energy from the power of the seventh day, Shabbos, the day of the soul.  And Shavuot is the culmination of seven weeks because in order to reach the high holiness of the receiving of the Torah there needs to first be a preparation of “seven complete - tamim Shabboses.” This is why G-d said to the Jewish People before the receiving of the Torah, “And you will be to be a royalty of priests and a holy nation,” because this process involves the level of holiness, achieved via seven complete Shabboses.  To reach the level of Holy Nation the power of Shabbos is needed. And this is tied into Shmitah and Yovel as well, as explained by the Beis Avraham.

This is in alignment with what The Rabbis say (Mishnat Rebi Eliezer, Chapter 20): “We see the greatness of Shabbos through the fact that there is no Torah holiday that does not have a Shabbos in it.  Pesach is seven days, which must include a Shabbos.  And even greater than this is Shavuot,  because you can’t have 50 days that don’t have seven Shabboses in them.  We see clearly that Shabbos is greater than all of the holidays!” They say in that same place,” Shabbos is great because the zav - man who has an impure emission, zavah- woman who has an impure emission (not of blood), yoledet - woman who gives birth and tamei meit - someone who became impure via contact with a dead body all merit purity only by going through a Shabbos, based on the verse, “And the kohein closes them off for seven days.”

Based on all of the above we can better understand the idea behind being closed off for one or two weeks.  The Divrei Shmuel elaborates on the concept that the essence of the metzorah being closed off for seven days is Shabbos.  The idea behind the closed off time period is that he thinks about his situation and removes himself from being embedded in this world, and through the Holy Shabbos he comes to do Teshuvah. And if one Shabbos does not help enough, then the kohein closes him off for seven more days, meaning one more Shabbos.

We need to better understand the idea of the second Shabbos. If the first one didn’t help, why would the second one work? This can be understood based on the concept of there being 2 types of Shabboses: Shabbos before sin, and Shabbos after sin.  Shabbos, before a person has sinned, approaches with asei tov - do good, feeling the light of Shabbos, feeling close to G-d through the power of Shabbos.  This fits with the Medrash, Devarim Rabbah 3:1, which says, “You might think that I gave you Shabbos for bad to come to you, you should know that I only gave you Shabbos for good to come to you.”

The above Medrash needs explaining; how could we have thought that G-d gave us Shabbos to do bad to us? The Beis Avraham explains that it is saying that we should not think that Shabbos is designated mainly to uproot the bad from us. G-d says that He gave us Shabbos to give us good, meaning its main purpose is to enroot goodness in us and to enlighten us with the light of G-d.  

The Shabbos described in the Medrash, as explained by the Beis Avraham, is the Shabbos before one has sinned, the Shabbos whose purpose is asei tov - doing good.  The idea is that during the six days of creation, what we call the weekdays, a Jew is on a low level, and on Shabbos we are lifted up to the highest level. 

Then there is the Shabbos of after sinning, and that Shabbos has a dual purpose. First comes sur mirah -  using the power of Shabbos to leave the bad behind. Then comes asei tov -  implanting the good in us, and enlightening us with the light of Shabbos. 

The above is alluded to by the verse, “A woman who conceives and gives birth to a zachar - male will be impure for seven days.” Zachar alludes to asei tov, and for this situation seven days suffices, because regarding the realm of before the sin one Shabbos is enough.  This is because one Shabbos has the strength to enlighten a Jew with its blessed light in all matters of asei tov - doing good.  But, “if she gives birth to a nekeivah - a female, then she is impure for two weeks. This is because nekeivah represents the element of yir’ah - fear.  When it says “A woman who fears G-d..,      ” it doesn’t just mean that a woman fears G-d but that the feminine realm is the realm of the fear of G-d. This is the category of sur mirah - keep from doing bad, the realm of after a sin has been committed.  During this time two Shabboses are needed, one for sur mirah, to take a person away from doing bad, and the other for asei tov, to elevate a person to the highest levels of the Holy Shabbos.  

This all can also explain a contradiction in the sayings of The rabbis.  In one place they say that if only The Jews would keep one Shabbos they would be immediately redeemed.  And in another place they say that if only The Jews would keep two Shabboses they would be immediately redeemed (see Shabbos 118, and Yerushalmi Taanit 1:1). The Beis Avraham would speak often of this contradiction and addressed the meaning of one Shabbos versus the meaning of two Shabboses.  He also addressed the question of how a second Shabbos could be effective when the first one wasn’t.  

The answer to the question of one Shabbos versus two is provided by what we have previously explained: Someone who observes properly through sur mirah, and is not lacking anything in this service, and is in the realm of Shabbos before having sinned, needing only to achieve more holiness, needs only one Shabbos! This person’s Shabbos is in the realm of “And G-d made it holy,” and once a person keeps this one Shabbos they are immediately redeemed.  However, a person who is steeped in rah - evil and is unable to purify himself, needs two Shabboses, one for sur mirah and one for asei tov.  This fits with the statement that “G-d blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” This teaches us that through the power of Shabbos a Jew is elevated both in the realm of sur mirah and in the realm of asei tov. And this ties in with the pasuk telling us that “the land will rest a Shabbos for Hashem,” meaning that even in the lowest realm (the realm of land/dirt) Shabbos can still elevate a person and return him to his roots, which is what is meant by “they will immediately be redeemed.”

This all fits with the powerful statement of Chazal - The Rabbis that if someone keeps Shabbos according to its halachot, even if they commited avodah zarah - idol worship like the generation of Enosh, they will be forgiven by G-d.  How can this be, given that Avodah Zarah is the most chamur - worst possible sin in the Torah? The answer is that through the power of the Holy Shabbos G-d gives a Jew the opportunity to rise up from even the lowest possible situation.  This is because Shabbos is the life force/breath and sustainer of all of creation, through which everything is elevated. This is why purification from matters of impurity as well as attainment of holiness all happens through the power of Shabbos. 

This also explains why the preparation for receiving the Torah was seven times seven, the power of seven complete and pure Shabboses (shevah Shabbatot Temimot). This is also why at Musaf on Yom Tov seven sacrifices are offered, both on Shavuot and on Pesach (and on Sukkot it's fourteen, which is two times seven). The unit of seven days means the realm of Shabbos and it is the power of Shabbos that elevates all korbanot. On Shabbos itself seven sacrifices need not be offered, because it is Shabbos itself, and doesn’t need the allusion to Shabbos via the seven sacrifices.

And this all goes back to what the Beis Avraham said regarding “Seven whole weeks it shall be,” that at least you will have these whole Shabboses during this time. And Rav Noach of Lechovitch said along these lines "The week was as the week was, at least Shabbos…" (Meaning that no matter how the weekdays were spiritually, Shabbos, at least, is better."

And this is alluded to by the line in Metzorah that speaks of “the impure day and the pure day.” The pure day is Shabbos.  And the Torah teaches us the way to go out from the impure day. We leave the impure day by way of the pure day, meaning that when Shabbos comes all the powers of the Sitrah Achrah, The Dark Side, are removed, and then a Jew is mesugal - enjoys the serendipity of returning to his roots. 

This is all about Shabbos being the soul of all of creation and through it every level of creation is elevated, from the highest to the lowest. It’s all because Shabbos is the day of the soul and not a day of the body at all.