2 Aspects of Breast Milk and Its Rectification through Tehillim
Tehillim 109:22 – the milk of a modest woman
- “Ki ani ve-evyon anokhi, ve-libi halal be-kirbi” – (for I am weak and humble, and my heart is empty within me).
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov derives from this verse in Tehillim that the breast milk with which a mother nurses her infant has a profound effect on the child's innocence and purity later in life.
The first letters of this verse:
- “ve-libi halal be-kirbi” – form the word “chalav” (milk) – לבי חלל בקרבי – (my heart is empty within me).
When a woman is modest and pure, the milk she gives her child has a positive influence on him.
The infant's heart is “empty” and ready to become a vessel for fulfilling G-d's commandments.
Tehillim 39:4 – the milk of an immodest woman
- “Cham libi be-kirbi ba-hagigi tiv'ar esh dibarti bilshoni” – (my heart grew hot within me; a fire burned in my thoughts; I spoke with my tongue).
The second aspect of milk is revealed in the following verse from Tehillim (39:4), in which the first letters likewise form the word “chalav” (milk):
חם לבי בקרבי – “cham libi be-kirbi” – (my heart grew hot within me).
This refers to the milk of an immodest woman, which kindles the fire of passion for adultery in the heart. Such a child will be more susceptible to sexual temptation later in life.
Tehillim 81:4 – rectifying the milk
- “Tiku va-chodesh shofar, ba-keseh le-yom chagenu” – (Sound the shofar at the New Moon, when the moon is concealed, on the day of our festival) – what was concealed on Rosh Hashanah is revealed during Sukkot.
The first letters of “Tiku va-chodesh shofar” – תקעו בחדש שופר – (sound the shofar at the New Moon) – spell the word “Shabbat” when read in reverse order.
The first letters of “Ba-keseh le-yom chagenu” – בכסה ליום חגנו – (on the day of our festival) – spell the word “chalav” (milk) when read in reverse order, yielding: “drink hot water with milk on Shabbat morning.”
In any event, there is a rectification of “chalav” during “ba-keseh le-yom chagenu.”
(From Rabbi Nachman's book Likutei Moharan – II, 1:4, based on a lesson by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh)
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