Someone might assume the crux of all this unsolicited exegetical/etymological information shines such a bright light on the nature of Messiah's conception and birth that the prophet Zechariah threatens to bollix it all up by not using the strangely propitious Hebrew word nazar (or netzer) to speak of the Messiah from Nazar-eth? Why doesn't Zechariah authenticate all Isaiah's profoundly insightful etymological information by simply saying: Behold the man whose name is Nazar-ene, instead of, Behold the man whose name is Tsemach? How can saying, Behold the man whose name is Tsemach, possibly do anything but confuse the issue come from the stump of Jesse by means of the word "nazar" or "netzer"?
"When Israel went out of Egypt, they left their domain ---alien domain, the domain called hamets [חמץ], evil bread. That is why idolatry is called so, and this is mystery of the evil impulse, alien worship, also called שאור (se'or), leaven. This is the evil impulse, for so it functions in a person, like leaven in dough: entering one's innards little by little and then increasing until the whole body is permeated by it. This is idolatry, of which is written There shall be no alien god in you (Psalms 81:10) ----literally!"
Pritzker Edition The Zohar, Tetsavveh, 2:18a.
Chametz (or
hamets) is being compared to something contaminated with the "evil impulse," which "evil impulse" is the closest Judaism comes to the the Christian idea of "original sin."
Chametz חמץ is anything contaminated by leaven. Similarly, at least in the symbolism, anyone born after Adam's sin is flesh contaminated by semen laced with the leaven of Adam's sin-nature. Leaven שאר is the contaminant, while
chametz חמץ is that which is contaminated with, or by, leaven שאר.
And behold that the purpose of the creation is man; and Adam, the first man, was the dough for the tithe (eesah challah) of the world. But when he became corrupted and sinned, the pollution of the snake went into him, the snake being the Satan and the evil impulse. And that is the leavening in the dough. And then the dough became leavened and became a turbid body of a skin tunic; so he caused his own death. And that is the secret of (Exodus 12:20), “You shall not eat any machmetzet (leavened thing).” Chametz is in the middle and the letters [that spell] dead (met) are at the beginning (mem) and end (tav).
Shney Luchot HaBerit, Aseret HaDibrot, Pesachim, Torah Ohr 25.
According to Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, the Shelah, Adam was originally unleavened dough fit for offering to God. He explains that when the serpent went into Adam (Genesis 2:21) he contaminated Adam's body with the pollution of the snake, leaven, causing Adam's body to become
machmetzet (a "leavened thing"), and thereby subject to death. The Shelah notes that the word discussing this "leavened thing" (something contaminated by leaven), i.e., "
machmetzet" מחמצת, is the word for "
chametz," surrounded by the word "death" מת (
mot);
chametz being the in the genitals of the man making his genitals a "leavened thing,"
machmetzet; literally the organ through which leaven spreads to the next batch.
Ironically, the place where the leaven enters into the dough is called the "
miseret." It's the word for "leaven" שאר, surrounded by the word "death" מת (
mot). Whereas the "man's" genital organs are
machmetzet מחמצת (a "leavened thing"), a woman's womb is
miseret משארת, which is the word for leaven שאר surrounded by the word for death מת. A woman's womb is the place where "a leavened thing," the man's genitals, spreads leaven to the dough in the "miseret."
John
