Tumas mes is when our heart monitor reads a straight line.
The Sages say that nowadays we are all in some way or another tamei mes (contaminated from a human corpse). Of course this is true on a physical level, but this tumah exists on a spiritual level as well. It is the numbness that we feel to kedusha. It is the emptiness that we feel in our heart. It is our lack of inspiration in avodas Hashem. It is our inability to get out of bed in the morning and the lifelessness we experience throughout the day.
As the 17th of Tammuz approaches, marking the beginning of our mourning for the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash and the suffering of the Jewish people, we deeply yearn to awaken some feeling in our heart. We wish that we had the ability to cry over the loss of the Temple and the pain of exile. Similarly, on Shabbos, Yom Tov, weddings, and other times of celebration, we greatly long to be able to experience true joy and happiness, even without the assistance of a "le'chaim" or two.
But instead, our heart monitor reads a steady straight line -- no ups and no downs. This is our spiritual tumas mes.
By disconnecting himself from his emunah in Hashem, it was decreed that Adam had to die.
What is its source? Just like the source of all death, our tumas mes goes back to the Sin of Adam. Hashem gave Adam one mitzvah - not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Hashem didn't tell Adam the reason for this mitzvah, He just asked him to listen to what He said. Thus, in essence, what Hashem was asking from Adam was to have pure emunah. Adam was supposed to do what Hashem wanted and not to try to understand why He gave him this mitzvah. If Adam had been able to hold on to his faith for just a few hours, he would have fulfilled the mitzvah. Then, he would have been able to eat from the Tree of Life and live forever in the perfection of Gan Eden.
However, the snake was able to trick him into taking a bite from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. In other words, he was able to convince Adam to leave his simple faith and try to search for the knowledge of good and evil - i.e. the understanding of why Hashem gave him this mitzvah. It wasn't enough for him just to believe that following Hashem's instruction was the right thing to do, rather he also had to know the reason behind it. The punishment for this sin was that Hashem decreed that he and all human beings that came after him wouldn't be able to live forever and would have to die.
The question is: what's the connection between the sin of trying to understand Hashem's ways and the punishment of death? The answer is that when Adam left his emunah in his search for knowledge, he immediately disconnected himself from the Source of all life - HaKadosh Baruch Hu! The minute that he questioned Hashem, he was already attached to the spiritual aspect of death. Thus, the natural punishment was that he would have to die a physical death as well.
With pure emunah, we can find comfort no matter what we're going through, and open our heart to feel close to Hashem.
This is why Rebbe Nachman says that the difference between life and death is emunah. With true emunah, we can clear our heart of all doubts and questions about Hashem's ways. We can bypass all of the darkness and suffering of this world and attach ourselves to the Master of the Universe. No matter what we're going through we can find a way to be happy. No matter what challenges we're being faced with, we can accept them with love and joy. We can live with the awareness that everything Hashem does is only for the best. With the faith that everything we're going through is coming only from Hashem Who loves and cares deeply for us, we can find comfort knowing that everything He does is purely for our benefit.
Then, once our heart is not being blocked by all the difficulties of our life that cause us to be upset with Hashem, we are able to feel real emotion. We can cry over the brokenness of the Jewish people as we sit on the ground on Tisha Be'Av. We can experience true comfort and inspiration the following Shabbos when we hear the words, "Nachamu, Nachamu." We can shake off all of the thick clouds of depression that hover over our mind. We can find unbelievable strength to daven and serve Hashem. We can begin to really live every single day of our lives, and use every moment we have to serve Hashem.
This is why emunah is the foundation for the entire Torah, like the Sages say, "Chabakuk came and place the entire Torah on one [principle], 'A tsaddik lives with emunah!'" Similarly, Dovid HaMelech says, "All of Your mitzvos are emunah. The deeper meaning of this is that it is only through emunah that we can truly connect ourselves to Hashem. The Creator is way beyond our ability to understand. There is no way for finite beings like us to truly grasp the essence of the Infinite Light of Hashem. Therefore, even though we have a big mitzvah to learn Torah and expand our knowledge of Hashem and His creation, ultimately, the main way for us to really connect ourselves to the Source of all Life and receive an abundance of spiritual and physical sustenance is through emunah. This is the main reason for our existence. This gives us a sense of completion and satisfaction with our lives.
Without emunah, we will always be lacking. On the other hand, without emunah we are always lacking. We could have incredible wealth, a wonderful, healthy family, and even a strong connection to Torah and mitzvos, but nonetheless, we will constantly feel unhappy and unsatisfied. The nature of this world is that no one gets a free ride. Every single day there are countless small things that don't go our way - the coffee isn't right, there's unexpected traffic, it's too hot in shul, etc. Without the emunah and awareness that these disturbances are all coming from Hashem, they easily make us upset and close our heart to connecting to the joy of avodas Hashem. All the more so is this true when we are faced with more serious problems regarding our health, our family, or our income, G-d forbid.
Without emunah there is simply no way to find comfort. There is no way to truly live a good life in this world. We find ourselves constantly asking "Why? Why me? Why do I have to go through such challenges and suffering?" This disconnects us from Hashem. This is what clogs the spiritual arteries of our heart and stops us from having any inspiration in our davening. This is the tumas mes that makes us feel almost dead when we come to do a mitzvah.
The ultimate purity comes from the Parah Adumah - by following Hashem with simple faith.
The purification for tumas mes is done through the Parah Adumah (Red Cow). On the first verse of this week's parsha Rashi says that the Parah Adumah is called a "chok - decree" since it is a mitzvah that is beyond our understanding. Even though all the mitzvos of the Torah have unbelievably deep meaning that is far beyond our ability to grasp, nonetheless, many of them also make sense to us on a surface level - such as the mitzvah of honoring our father and mother, and the prohibitions not to kill, steal, etc.
However, when it comes to the mitzvah of Para Adumah there is no way for us to grasp why it is metaher tameim and metameh tehorim - purify one who is contaminated, and contaminate one who is pure. This apparent contradiction is itself the difficulty we have with the suffering of this world. Why is it that "tsaddik ve'rah lo and rasha ve'tov lo" - bad things happen to a tsaddik (metameh tehorim), while good things happen to the wicked (metaher tameim)?
The answer is that there are certain mitzvos that we're not meant to understand. Similarly, there are certain things that we have to go through that we're not meant to understand. Instead, our job is just to accept them with complete faith. Our job is to strengthen our emunah that in Hashem's profound compassion for us He gave us these mitzvos and these struggles. This is how we can purify ourselves from all forms of spiritual tumas mes. This is how we can go all the way back to the beginning of creation and fix the mistake of Adam. By letting go of our need for answers and immersing ourselves in pure faith, we are essentially choosing to listen to Hashem and not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge.
All of this is hinted to in the beginning of this week's parsha which says, "And you shall take a parah adumah - a red cow." The sefarim hakadoshim explain that the redness of the Para Adumah is an aspect of Midas HaDin - judgement and suffering. However, the next word in the verse says that it must also be "temimah." This word comes from the root of "temimus - simplicity." Therefore, the Torah is really telling us that the tikkun for our suffering is by following Hashem with simplicity and not asking, "Why do I have to suffer?"
The verse continues, "Asher ein bah mum - that doesn't have any blemish." This teaches us that through our simplicity we can live a life in which everything is complete and we're not lacking at all. On the outside, it could seem like things are falling apart, but on the inside there is nothing wrong. By knowing that Hashem is with us and connecting ourselves to Him with emunah, we don't feel as if there are any "blemishes" in our life.
Similarly, this also refers to the completion we achieve in our avodas Hashem. Although we may be lacking in our Torah and mitzvos, by attaching ourselves to Hashem with simple faith we are connected to His perfection. This itself brings the ultimate completion to everything we do to serve Him (see Likutei Mohoran I, 31).
Lastly, the verse finishes, "Asher lo aleiha ol - that never had a yoke placed on it." The Zohar HaKadosh explains that this refers to the pure emunah of a Jew.
After we "soften" the din, we can taste true sweetness in our lives through our tefillos and avodas Hashem.
Additionally, the Zohar HaKadosh says on this verse, "'Adumah' - da dina kashya, 'temimah' - da dina rafya." This means that when we're really going through a difficult time that is referred to as "dina kashya - a hard judgement" and it seems as if we're drowning in a stormy sea of suffering, the Torah tells us just to hold on to our peshitus and temimus - our simple faith - until we come to safety. It may be that the storm will continue and things won't work out right away, but if we hold strongly onto our temimus, we no longer have to worry about sinking into the depths of the water. We know that Hashem is with us, so we no longer feel like there's no hope to reach the shore. This is called "dina rafya - a softened judgement." Although our problems haven't gone away yet, nevertheless, we're able to see that underneath it all is Hashem's pure love and compassion for us.
Then, once we have this foundation of emunah, we can find the strength to call out to Hashem in tefillah. With our hope revived, we can open our heart and daven with all of our soul for Hashem to save us from our physical and spiritual tumas mes. The Sages say that the heartfelt prayer of a poor man has the power to bypass all of the obstacles in the higher worlds and reach the crown on top of Hashem's head. This means that Hashem hears his tefillah and immediately begins to help him by "sweetening" and removing his suffering. Reb Nosson explains that this applies not only to someone who is poor in the physical world, but also to a spiritually poor man.
From this we see that we all have an unbelievable power to sweeten all of the judgements and suffering that we're going through with our tefillos. The only problem is that when we're lost in "dina kashya - the pain of despair" - we can't even open our mouths to daven. Therefore, the first step is to soften the din by attaching ourselves to simple faith. Through this we can escape the tumas mes of our "kashes" (questions) about what we're going through and find the courage to daven and serve Hashem despite our difficulties. This avoda in turn sweetens the din entirely and takes us out of our suffering altogether.
Through this we can find that our heart of stone can transform into a heart of flesh. We can begin to feel the brokenness of the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash and our personal exile, as well as the immense joy of each mitzvah, and word of Torah and tefillah. We can feel truly comforted by Hashem, no matter what we're going through. And we can breathe new life into our avodas Hashem!