Tehillim 51 - Tikkun Evarim (Organs)
Tehillim 51:12בְּרָא־לִ֣י אֱלֹהִ֑ים לֵ֣ב טָ֭הוֹר
- “Lev Tahor Bara Li-Elokim” - (Create a pure heart within me, O G-d). The mikveh is one of the most mysterious creations with which G-d has blessed us. It contains part of the secret of birth. Just as a child is immersed in a womb filled with water before birth, so too a Jew immerses in the mikveh (a water-filled womb for an adult), emerging renewed and ready to begin life anew. Water has always possessed the power of purification. The mikveh of the Ari HaKadosh (may his merit protect us) is a small pool 1.30 meters deep, filled with water from an underground spring. An outlet on the opposite side of the pool allows the water to flow freely out of the mikveh. A tradition related with great pleasure by the mikveh's current attendant, Dovid, makes the Ari's mikveh a destination for tens of thousands of Jews from around the world: “Before his death, the Ari HaKadosh instructed his close disciples that after his passing they should bring his body to the mikveh and place it in the water—and then he would take care of everything himself. After the Ari passed away, his disciples followed his instructions, brought his body to the mikveh, and placed it in the water, which reached up to his head. At that point, his foremost disciple, Rabbi Chaim Vital, said to his teacher: ‘We have done everything you asked. Now you do what you must.’ With these words, the Ari lowered his head into the water, completing the full immersion of his body. His disciples then continued with the burial a few meters from the mikveh. This story was recorded by Rabbi Chaim Vital himself, and that is why his disciples named this mikveh the Ari's mikveh,” Dovid concludes. Men who have visited the Ari's mikveh relate that before immersing, one can recite the following pasuk from Tehillim 51: “Lev Tahor Bara Li-Elokim.” Chazal teach: “Do not read ברא ‘bara’ (create), but rather read אבר ‘eiver’ (organ),” for everyone who immerses in the mikveh is, as it were, performing a “Tikkun Evarim” (rectification of the organs). The gematria of the phrase לב טהור - “lev tahor” (a pure heart) is 252. We know from the Torah that men have 248 organs, while women have 252—four more, all of them reproductive. This is precisely why a Jewish woman immerses in the mikveh: to conceive Jewish children in purity. Thus, we read this pasuk as follows: “Lev tahor (252) bara (organs) for me, Elokim (G-d) [rectify].” We now see that in the mikveh, a Jewish woman truly undergoes a “Tikkun Evarim”—the rectification of the 252 female organs. (A Sila Tehilim chiddush)Gaon Rav Yaniv Assuri (shlita) explains that according to the Ari HaKadosh, the letters of this verse reveal the secret of the mikveh. The first letters of the first three words, לב טהור ברא (lev tahor bara), are ל ט ב. These three letters form two words that are fundamental to the purpose of the mikveh.
Immersion in a mikveh is called “tevilah,” from the root “taval” טבל—to immerse in a mikveh. Rearranging these letters gives us the word “batel” בטל, meaning “nullification” (the nullification of all sins, mistakes, and problems). Furthermore, if we take the final letters of the first three words of the verse, לב טהור ברא, we obtain the word “bara” ברא (create)—the Ari HaKadosh explains that after immersing in the mikveh, a person is, as it were, created anew.
In a single verse of Tehillim, the secret of the mikveh is revealed: through immersion, one can undergo a process of purification, nullify everything negative, and then be created anew in purity.
Segulot of the Ari's Mikveh 1. A well-known segula is that all who immerse in the mikveh merit repentance before death. 2. There is a segula involving seven immersions in the Ari's Mikveh, followed by certain rituals at the Ari's kever (grave), in order to attain “Yishuv HaDa'at”—clarity of mind. Other Segulot Involving the Mikveh 1. The mikveh calms anger, because the word “mikveh” has the gematria 151, which is one more than 150, the gematria of the word “ka'as” (anger). 2. “Tikkun HaKa'as”—a very powerful tikkun for anger—is to immerse in the Shmaya and Avtalyon mikveh 151 times. This is very important, because when a person becomes angry, he loses all his merits and becomes vulnerable to the entry of the forces of the Sitra Achra. (Mekubal Gaon Yaniv Assuri, Rosh Yeshivah of “Yodea Binah,” during a private conversation)
