A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parashat Tazria Metzora. We're going to talk about a pasuk, a din in פרשת מצורע. At the end of פרשת מצורע, it talks about kelim, vessels, becoming tamei if a person who is tamei or any other tumah touches it. And the pasuk talks about a כלי חרס, earthenware, and as Rashi brings from the Torat Kohanim that earthenware does not become tamei when you touch it מאחוריו, from the back, which means from the outside, but literal translation is the back. So כלי חרס does not become tamei if you touch it from the back. Other כלים, כלי עץ, like wooden kelim or כלי מתכת, metal kelim, do become tamei if you touch it from the outside, from the back. Every halacha has a hora'ah in avodat Hashem, a lesson in avodat Hashem. So the Rebbe explains the lesson in avodat Hashem from this inyan, and he says like this. The inyan of כלי חרס, the inyan of earthenware made from sand is a remez, a hint for the person, because we know אדם יסודו מעפר, a person, his foundation is from sand. So כלי חרס, which is made from sand, represents a person. Now, in a person, there are two parts. There's the guf and the nefesh, there's the body and the soul. And there are things that you do which are connected to the soul, to the neshamah, which is Torah u'mitzvot, all good things, and then you have things that are connected to the body, bodily things, which is eating and drinking and sleeping, etc., etc. Now, a person might think that when you're involved in these physical, materialistic things for the body, this could make you tamei. Since these are gashmiyusdike things, it could make you tamei, it could make you impure. So here we say that a כלי חרס does not become tamei from the back, because the body is referred to as the back. When you have a person with a guf and a neshamah, so the neshamah is called the inside, the penimiyut, and the body is the outside, the secondary thing, מאחוריו. So when it says here a כלי חרס does not become טמא מאחוריו means in ruchniyut that if when you're involved in inyanim of אחוריו, in inyanim which are connected to the body, you don't become tamei. But we have to remember, when is that? Only if you remain a כלי חרס, earthenware. The inyan of cheres, which comes from afar, from sand, represents the inyan of anavah, humility, bitul. כלי עץ, wood, grows, becomes bigger. That shows for yeshut and ga'avah. But כלי חרס shows for bitul. Even כלי מתכת, metal כלים, מתכת is strong, also shows that you're strongly involved in it. Then you could become tamei. If you're involved too much in the gashmiyut, you could become tamei. But if you constantly feel yourself as a כלי חרס, you feel yourself as earthenware, you have the proper bitul, that'll protect a person that even when he gets involved in bodily things, in the אחוריו, in the back, which is bodily, gashmiyusdike things, you don't become tamei. And you could add that this is the lashon in We have a lashon in the Machzor on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur that a person is compared משל כחרס הנשבר. It's a mashal of a broken piece of earthenware, of pottery. That certainly shows for bitul. Pottery itself shows for bitul because it's the inyan of sand, and sand shows for bitul, like we say in שמונה עשרה, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, I should be like sand to everybody, and that means I am battel, that's the inyan of anavah, the inyan of bitul. So that's כלי חרס בכלל. חרס הנשבר, a broken piece of pottery, that shows even more the inyan of bitul, like it says, לב נשבר ונדכה. A person should have a broken heart, should always feel, not chas v'shalom sad, but always feel a broken heart that he always should want to do more and never have the inyan of gaavah. And that's the lesson we take from here, that a כלי חרס, as long as you feel yourself as a כלי חרס, it cannot become tamei from מאחוריו, from getting involved in the gashmiyusdike things. But if you're involved, but if you have a the inyan of כלי עץ, like not bitul, then chas v'shalom, it could happen. But if you're a כלי חרס, then you will not get tamei from being involved in these gashmiyusdike things.