Kabbalah/Chassidut

"Deeds of Kindness with Added Mystical Intentions"

Part 3: "Circumcision"

translated and edited from

***Tomer* (the Palm Tree of) *Devorah***

of Rabbi Moshe Cordevero (the 'Ramak')

by Rabbi Moshe Miller

Caring for a newborn
Circumcision
Visiting the sick
Giving charity
Hosting Strangers
Attending to the dead
Providing for a bride
Peace-making

Circumcising the child, i.e., fulfilling the commandments perfectly, circumcising every aspect of "husk" or "foreskin" that attaches itself to yesod.

One should pursue all those who cause the foreskin to grow on yesod, bringing them back in repentance in such a way that, by circumcising the foreskins of their hearts, he renders the Supernal Tzadik "without a foreskin". He must maintain a firm stance in rectifying all those things that bring about the foreskin there.

For this reason, by circumcising the foreskin of the Jewish people, Pinchas became worthy of the priesthood, for he did kindness to his Creator according to the mystical explanation of circumcision - by removing the foreskin from yesod, he became worthy of the quality of chesed. From this, one can learn all the other qualities of chesed.

Next installment: Visiting the sick

Previous Installment: Caring for a newborn

First Installment: Preface

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rabbi Moshe-Leib Miller, a guest teacher at Ascent when he lived in Israel, was born in South Africa and received his yeshiva education in Israel and America. He is a prolific author and translator, with some twenty books to his name on a wide variety of topics, including a new, authoritative, annotated translation of the Zohar. He currently lives in Chicago.