בס"ד
The book “Kedushas Levi” is the principle work of the Hasidic master Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev (1740–1809). He was the founder of the Hasidic dynasty which is called “Boston” today. Their main synagogue in Israel today is located in the Jerusalem neighborhood, Har Nof. It’s a book of essays organized according to the readings of the Torah in synagogue.
For parshas Ki Thisa (כי תשא) there is an essay on the “Four Parshot” (ד' פרשיות) that are collectively referred to by the Hebrew acronym שזפ"ה. It means “tanned” and is a rarely used word that is found in the Song of Songs. The Four Parshiot are sign posts for Passover and Purim. The Kiddushas Levy uses them to teach the secrets of Torah that they hint to. Secrets in this case means a discourse involving Jewish mysticism which is also called Kabbalah.
He starts by pairing the four letters of שזפ"ה with הוה"י which is one of the 12 permutations of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton. These correspond to the four faces (פַּרצוּפִין). So to speak each letter has a face or more precisely a personality. They are a wise father, understanding mother, a manly son, and a helpful daughter.
The mother and the daughter constitute a man’s household because they bear children and take care of his physical house. They therefore are reckoned as a kingdom (מַלכוּת) and the daughter or more literally female (נוּקבָא) is given that appellation. This is matched with the reading for the ש or שקלים (from שזפ"ה) which deals with contributions for the building of the Tabernacle. The item of importance here is the silver bases for the posts of the Temple which were called אֲדָנִים. This is a variant of the word for Lord or master or king and is an allusion to kingdom.
The boy is more precisely referred to as male. In Hebrew this would be זכַר which is a variant of זָכוֹר, the name of the second of the four parshas. Mother in Hebrew אִמָא corresponds to פָרָה which means cow and is the third of the parshas; the connection is both are feminine. The fourth of the parshas is הַחוֹדֶשׁ, literally the month. This is close to the word חָדָשׁ or new. This is compared to the Holy One, blessed be He, who is the ultimate father, who renews the world constantly by means of His wisdom.
As you can see this is a real intellectual exercise that strengthens a person’s grasp of the Jewish calendar, mysticism, and scripture. There are other things in the essay as well. It concludes by saying that this analysis can be applied to the four cups of wine drunk on the Pesach Seder. There is a footnote referring the heroic student to the appropriate section of the Zohar for further study.
לע"נ האמא מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז ניסן תשנ"ח
העלון ניתן לקבל בדואר אלקטרוני וגם באתר
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