Now, this verse specifically connects the Mashiach to the famous statement that he is designated as “the metzora of the House of Rebbe” (רַ בִּ י דְּ בֵי חִ ו ָּרָ א) referring to the royal house of Rabbi Yehudah the Prince, because the value of metzora (מצרע), one who is afflicted with tzara’at is the same as “one who prospers” (ילִכְּׂשַמ) or, one who has intellectual or thoughtful success, akin to the first ascent of Mashiach, “My servant shall prosper [in thoughtfulness]” (ְ כִּילׂיַש).
One of the most famous instances of “one who prospers [in thoughtfulness]” (ְ כִּ ילׂמַ ש) can be found in the verse, “Happy is one who is thoughtful of the impoverished” (ְ כִּ ילׂמַ ש ְ רֵ יׁאַ ש אֶ ל דָּ ל) In parashat Metzora, in the third reading, we find the first usage of the word “impoverished” (דָּ ל) in the Pentateuch, in its simplest noun form. This is in the verse, “If he is impoverished and without sufficient means” (וְאִ ם דַּ ל הוּא וְאֵ יןֹיָדו ֶּ גֶתׂמַ ש). Let us explore these connections further.
There is another beautiful numerical allusion associated with this link. The initials of the words, “thoughtful of the impoverished” (ַמְ כִּ ילׂשֶאלָדּל ) spell “very” (דֹאְמ), where “very” is the final word in the verse about Mashiach we started with.
Thinking About the Impoverished
The word “impoverished” (דָּ ל) has two different meanings. It either means someone who is “poor,” or it refers to someone who is “ill.” In all, we will see that there are five different explanations of the words, “one who is thoughtful of the impoverished” (ְ רֵ יׁאַ ש ְ כִּ ילׂמַ ש אֶ ל דָּ ל). Each time the word “thoughtful” (ְ כִּ ילׂמַ ש) is understood differently. There are three explanations for what thoughtfulness is when it comes to the poor, and there are two explanations of its meaning when the object of the thoughtfulness (ְ כִּ ילׂמַ ש) is someone who is ill.
What is important to note is that the fact that the Mashiach is described as the true and absolute “one who is thoughtful of the poor,” means that all five interpretations are relevant to the Mashiach. There are private individuals who are impoverished, but there are also an entire people that are impoverished, specifically regarding Torah study. That is why the first thing we learn about the Mashiach from Maimonides is that he studies Torah diligently, like his forefather David. This is what gives him the power to pleasantly coerce all of Israel to follow the Torah and to ensure its wholeness.
The people thirst for the word of God. At the same time the people are impoverished when it comes to Torah in general and knowledge of God more specifically (the product of engaging in learning the Torah’s inner dimension) and the Mashiach comes and is thoughtful of their impoverished state and remedies it.
Thinking About the “Impoverished” Poor
The first explanation is that to be thoughtful of the impoverished is to have compassion for the poor. He thinks, meaning anticipates, being compassionate with him. This contrasts with those who ignore the poor, who turn and look the other way because they find it difficult to part with their money. They know that if they do see the impoverished, they will feel compassion for him.
A second explanation, which is a bit deeper, states that not only does the one who is thoughtful have compassion for the impoverished—which is the foundation of the matter—but he also is thoughtful of the way in which he will give the impoverished charity so that the poor individual is not embarrassed. So, the first element of having a “Jewish head” is to be compassionate. Without compassion, even if you are a very wise person, you are ultimately evil. But beyond that is when someone uses their thoughtfulness to figure out how best to give the poor charity, in a way that they will not be embarrassed.
A third explanation for “thoughtfulness” when considering the poor is that it means to consider the life of the impoverished and to realize that it is full of God’s Providence. The story of a poor person’s life is one that powerfully illustrates Divine Providence. Whatever happens with the impoverished is miraculous. The corollary is that if one is wealthy, one’s wealth masks Divine Providence. The Divine Providence explicit in the impoverished individual’s life is referred to in the continuation of the verse, “on a bad day, God will keep him from harm” (םֹבְּיו רָ עָ ה יְמַלְּטֵהוּ הוי').
This type of attitude seemingly makes the one who is thoughtful of the impoverished into an observer, someone who is watching but is not involved. But a Jew cannot merely remain an observer, he must be a participant. How then can I, who am watching the impoverished’s life, contribute to it? There is a well-known anecdote from Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s disciple, that when you see someone who is impoverished, you need to in a sense, disregard your reliance on God, and feed them yourself; you cannot substitute your responsibility to help them with your reliance on God. This is a positive and even holy manifestation of “disbelief”—not having faith that God will support the poor, rather that is my duty.
These two points come together. When I realize how much personal Divine Providence can be seen in the impoverished individual’s life, I realize that God, as it were, is going out of His way to help him. I too should mimic God and follow His ways by ensuring that everyone sees that this poor individual is being taken care of.
The Kabbalistic Structure
The impoverished as someone who is poor is associated with the sefirah of kingdom, about which it says that “it has nothing of its own.” The one who is thoughtful of it corresponds to the sefirah of beauty (tiferet). Beauty has three parts to it: its intellectual third, its emotional third, and its habitual third. These correspond to the three types of thoughtfulness we have just seen.
The habitual third means that whenever I see someone impoverished, I should support him, lend him a hand. To be even more supportive means to think about how not to embarrass him or her when I give them what they need. But the deepest thought that “beauty” has is to realize how much God is at this very moment revealing His Divine Providence through this impoverished fellow. It means to see how much God loves this poor individual and to use that realization to help him myself.
Thinking About the “Impoverished” Ill
Now we turn to look at two explanations for being “thoughtful” (ְ כִּ ילׂמַ ש) when the impoverished refers to someone who is ill.
When someone is ill it indicates a state of poverty in knowledge, poverty specifically in understanding. The value of “ill” (הֶלֹחו) is 49, one less than 50, indicating that he is missing the 50th Gate of Understanding. This is a surprising, but well-established idea that someone who is ill is missing something in his Torah learning.
There is another verse that connects between being impoverished and the lack of spiritual understanding. This verse states, “Why are you thus impoverished” (דַּ ל כָּכָה אַ תּ ָ ה מַ דּוּעַ ). The word translated as, “thus” (הָכָּכּ) is an acronym for “the crown of all crowns” (ֶּכתֶ רָכּלַהכְּ תָ רִ ים), according to the Ba’al Shem Tov. It refers to the inner aspect of the crown, the splendor of splendor (דֹהו דֶֹ בְּהוׁש). The Arizal explains that this is the verse to have in mind when visiting the sick.
Like the person afflicted with tzara’at, the Torah’s archetypal malady, the sick individual corresponds to the sefirah of understanding that is missing some aspect of wisdom that is then remedied by visiting him. The Arizal points out that the words “bed of sickness” (ׂשֶרֶע יַוְדּ) can be permuted to spell “ten” (רֶׂשֶע) and yud (דֹיו), whose value is 10, both clear allusion to the sefirah of wisdom, which is what the individual visiting the sick can give them.
To properly visit the sick, one needs far more thoughtfulness than when thinking about those who are materially impoverished. When I see a poor individual, I can simply give him a monetary gift that allows him to provide for himself. But when it comes to someone who is sick, if I am the doctor, then perhaps I can use my thoughts to prescribe some medicine that will help them.
But if I am not a doctor, I need a lot of wisdom, not just emotional sympathy. This is the essence of the mitzvah of visiting the sick. It goes beyond just loving them and having compassion for them. I really need to apply myself to think about what I can do to help the sick individual. Wisdom appears like a sudden inspiration. Giving charity to someone who is poor does not require inspiration, but providing someone who is sick with what can really help them does.
A second explanation of what thoughtfulness means when considering someone who is ill, stems from an alternate meaning of the words “visiting the ill” (בִּ קּ וּר לִ יםֹחו). This meaning at first sounds harsh, but “visiting” also means, to conduct a deep review of the situation (רֶ תֹבִּ קּ).
The question that one should be thoughtful of regarding the impoverished ill is, why did you become sick? Every illness begins with some improper decision made by the individual and every person who is ill bears some responsibility for their situation. “God made man upright,” but because man has many machinations, he becomes sick. As the sages say, “there is no illness, no suffering, without sin.”
So, the wise man who visits the sick has a critical eye, all out of compassion of course, and seeks to reach the root of the issue, the spiritual cause of the sickness. In the physical dimension, the sick individual consults a physician, hoping to find the cause of his illness. Likewise, a Jew who has faith, seeks to consult with a rebbe who will hopefully see the spiritual root of his disease.
This conduct this deep spiritual review is a very lofty wisdom, which really does require a rebbe. The context of the verse quoted above “Why are you thus impoverished” (מַ דּוּעַ אַ תּ ָ ה כָּכָה דַּ ל) is that Amnon, one of King David’s sons yearned to be with Tamar, one of his daughters. He had a friend Yonadav who saw his lovesickness and acted as his wise advisor. Of course, he was the embodiment of “they are wise to do evil” (לְ הָ רַ ע הֵ מּ ָ ה חֲכָמִ ים), but his advice worked. He suggested that feign illness and would use it as a pretext to invite Tamar into his quarters to take care of him.
Still, sometimes this type of deep review of the illness is true. The sick person needs to be told that his illness is psychosomatic and is caused by a hidden, concealed craving for something that you have not been able to obtain, like the abominable yearning of Amnon for his sister. Obviously, this analysis needs to be considered in more depth.
The Kabbalistic Structure
The two explanations of “thoughtfulness” about the impoverished in the context of someone who is ill correspond to the aspects of the Father Principle (Abba) known as its aspects of loving-kindness (חֲ סָ דִ ים דְּ אַ בָּא) and its aspects of judgment (תֹגְּבוּרו דְּ אַ בָּא). Thinking about how to help the sick corresponds to the former and conducting a deep review of the reason for the malady corresponds to the latter.
We can envision all five explanations of “being thoughtful of the impoverished” in one Kabbalistic model. The first three interpretations govern the relationship between the vav in Havayah and the lower hei in Havayah. The impoverished person as a poor person is symbolized by the lower hei, which corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom that has nothing of its own. The vav, which corresponds with beauty (tiferet), fills its needs, as we saw, in three different ways corresponding to the three thirds of tiferet.
The final two interpretations of “being thoughtful of the impoverished” reflect that relationship between the yud in Havayah, wisdom, and the first hei in Havayah, corresponding to understanding. Here the influence of wisdom on understanding is either with its aspects of loving-kindness or its aspects of judgment.
(from the Lag Ba’Omer Farbrengen of 5768)
