And on the eighth day, he shall circumcise the flesh of his foreskin. (Vayikra 12:3)
Five Times Techiyas Hameisim
Bris Milah sets the foundation for all of life. How so?
Atah Gibor, the second blessing of the Amidah, mentions Techiyas Hameisim no less than five times. It says: ברחמים רביםמחיה מתים אתה וגו’ מחיה מתים, ברוךלהחיות מתים וגו’ ונאמן אתה ממית ומחיה וגו’ מלך מחיה המתיםאתה ה’.
What is this all about? Five times in one berachah?
It says in the Seforim Hakedoshim that there are five parts to a person’s soul. They are nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah and yechidah.
There are pesukim that serve as a source for all these names of the soul. But they are not just five names for the same thing. They represent the five different levels of the soul.
Accordingly, we could say that the five times that Techiyas Hameisim is mentioned correspond to the five levels of the soul. We will explain.
Five Stages in Life
A person’s life divides into five periods.
From the moment of birth until about the age of three, a person is completely exempt from fulfilling the Torah. He has no connection to doing mitzvos. At this stage in life, he doesn’t understand what is going on. He doesn’t know what he is doing.
He doesn’t have to keep Shabbos, he doesn’t need to recite the pasuk of תורה צוה לנו משה, which is the first little bit of Torah that a child is taught. He doesn’t need to do anything Torahdik. Similarly, nothing he does is considered an aveirah. This is the first period in a person’s life.
The second period begins when the child reaches the age of chinuch, the age at which he can be educated. This is approximately the age of three, and it continues until the age of thirteen (for boys).
Chazal describe a child at this stage by saying הבל שאין בו חטא – “The breath coming out of his mouth is untainted by sin.” Any deeds he does cannot be considered sinful, but on the other hand, due to the mitzvah of chinuch, he is required to perform certain mitzvos, and his father teaches him Torah.
The third period is from the thirteen to twenty. At this stage, a person has an obligation to fulfill the mitzvos of the Torah, but he is not subject to full punishment at the hands of Heaven for failure to do so. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will not apply the term rasha to him. As far as the Sanhedrin is concerned, if he would desecrate Shabbos deliberately, in front of witnesses, he would be liable for the death penalty, because he is fully obligated to keep mitzvos. But Heaven will not decree death upon him at this stage in life.
After the age of twenty, a person stands firmly on his own two feet. If he does aveiros, he is fully culpable, and could be subject to the Heavenly punishment of kareis. And if he does mitzvos, he will be blessed with longevity. This is the fourth period in life.
The fifth period, which not everyone merits coming to, is as follows. He fully rectifies his soul and transforms himself into a tzaddik, into a holy and pure person with great Torah knowledge and understanding.
These are the five stages in life in brief. Now we will go a little more into depth.
