Garments of skin and the inner light

בפסוק אדם כי יהי' בעור בשרו כו'.

On the pasuk: "A person, when there will be on the skin of his flesh [a se'eis or sappachas or baheres], etc." (Vayikra 13:2).

The Sefas Emes will read the tzara'as that appears on the skin in light of the deeper nature of the "skin" given to man after the sin.

ע"פ המד' אחור וקדם צרתני.

Based on the Midrash on "Back and front You have formed me" (Tehillim 139:5).

Man is formed of two aspects — a "front," which is prior and inner, and a "back," which is later and outer.

כי נשמה חלק אלקי ממעל והיא בחי' קדם שקדמה לעולם.

For the neshamah is a portion of the Divine from above, and it is the aspect of "front" (kedem), which preceded the world.

The soul is a literal piece of the Divine and belongs to "before" — it predates the physical world.

ולכן כ' ויטע כו' גן בעדן מקדם וישם שם כו' האדם כו'.

Therefore it is written, "And He planted … a garden in Eden, from the east/before (mikedem), and He placed there … the man, etc." (Bereishis 2:8).

The Torah's word "mikedem" hints that man's true place is in the "front," the inner Edenic dimension that precedes the world.

ובאמת באדם הראשון כן הי' שנברא באחרונה אחור לכל המעשים ומיד הניחהו בג"ע מקדם.

And indeed with Adam HaRishon it was so: he was created last, "after" (achor) all the works of creation, and immediately He placed him in Gan Eden, in the "front" (mikedem).

Adam embodied both aspects — created last in the physical order ("back"), yet at once set in the inner garden ("front").

ואחר החטא כ' ויעש כו' כתנות עור.

And after the sin it is written, "And He made … garments of skin (kosnos or, spelled with an ayin)" (Bereishis 3:21).

The sin clothed man in a covering of physical "skin" that he did not have before.

ואיתא בתורתו של ר"מ כ' אור.

And it is brought that in the Torah scroll of Rabbi Meir it was written "kosnos or" with an aleph — garments of light.

Originally these "garments" were garments of light (or with an aleph), not garments of skin (or with an ayin).

דמקודם הי' כתנות אור ממש.

For beforehand they were literally garments of light.

Before the sin, man's very covering was luminous, a garment of holy light.

ואח"כ נעשה לו מלבוש חיצון אשר א"י האור להתגלות רק באמצעות כתנות העור הגשמיי.

And afterward an outer garment was made for him, through which the light cannot be revealed except by means of the physical garment of skin.

After the sin the body became an outer, opaque "skin," so that the inner light can now shine only through the medium of physical flesh.

וצריכין עתה לתקן זה העור לזכות לאור הנפש שמבפנים.

And now we must rectify this skin in order to merit the light of the soul that is within.

The avodah now is to refine the physical body so that the inner light of the neshamah can shine out through it.

ואאע"ה זכה לברית מילה אז נפתח פתח בזה העור כמ"ש ואחר עורי נקפו זאת.

And Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him, merited the bris milah; then an opening was made in this skin, as it is written, "And after my skin is stripped away, this [shall be]" (Iyov 19:26).

Through milah Avraham opened a "doorway" in the covering of skin, allowing the inner light to break through the physical barrier.

וכל הצרעת וסגירו היא בזה העור.

And all of tzara'as and its "shutting up" (the quarantine, sgiro) is in this skin.

Tzara'as is precisely a defect of the outer skin — a closing-off of the body so that the inner light is sealed in.

ולכן איתא כי נגע היפוך ענג שבת דהיא בחי' "עדן "נהר "גן שבשבת נפתח הפתח והיא נחלה בלי מצרים.

Therefore it is brought that nega (affliction) is the reverse of oneg (delight) of Shabbos, which is the aspect of "Eden, river, garden" (the initials spelling ענ"ג) — for on Shabbos the opening is opened, and it is "an inheritance without boundaries."

The letters of nega (affliction) reversed spell oneg (delight): tzara'as seals the skin shut, while the oneg of Shabbos — Eden, river, garden — opens the doorway and grants a boundless flow of inner light.

שמכל אלה יש רמז בנפש האדם ולכן הושם בגן.

For of all these there is a hint in the soul of man, and therefore he was placed in the garden.

Eden, river, and garden are not only places but inner dimensions within the human soul, which is why Adam was set within the garden.

וישם שם שסידר כל האדם כפי מעשה הגן.

"And He placed him there" (vayasem sham) — that He arranged the whole of man according to the structure of the garden.

Man's inner makeup was patterned after the garden, with corresponding levels built into his soul.

והם הג' היום וג' סעודות שבשבת קודש שהם מול הג' מדרגות הנ"ל.

And these are the three [mentions of] "today" and the three seudos of the holy Shabbos, which correspond to the three levels mentioned above.

The three "hayom"s and the three Shabbos meals align with the three inner levels — Eden, river, and garden.

וכתי' וקראת לשבת ענג שצריך איש ישראל לקרוא ולעורר ג' בחי' הנ"ל בכח השבת.

And it is written, "And you shall call Shabbos a delight (oneg)" (Yeshayahu 58:13) — for a Yisrael must call forth and awaken the three aspects mentioned above through the power of Shabbos.

To "call Shabbos oneg" is to actively arouse those three inner levels of Eden, river, and garden, opening the doorway of light through Shabbos.

ומול אלו הג' פתיחות שערים. יש ג' סגירות שאת ספחת בהרת.

And corresponding to these three openings of gates, there are three "closings": se'eis, sappachas, baheres.

The three types of tzara'as are the negative counterpart — three "shuttings" of the gates that the three openings of Shabbos would unlock.

וכן בפתח הברית מילה יש ג' מילה פריעה ואטופי דדמא:

And likewise in the opening of the bris milah there are three: milah, peri'ah, and the drawing-off of the blood (atufei d'dama).

Bris milah too has three stages of "opening" — milah, peri'ah, and metzitzas hadam — paralleling the three gates, the threefold doorway through which the inner light of the soul shines out.

Summary: Man is "back and front" — an outer body and an inner Divine soul that precedes the world. Before the sin man wore garments of light (or with an aleph); after the sin these became garments of skin (or with an ayin), an opaque covering through which the soul's light must now shine. Our avodah is to refine that skin — Avraham did so through bris milah, opening a doorway in it. Tzara'as is the opposite: a sealing of the skin (nega, the reverse of oneg). Shabbos, the oneg of Eden-river-garden, opens three gates of inner light — paralleled by the three Shabbos meals and the three stages of milah — while the three forms of tzara'as are the three closings.