a holy remnant

Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 16) brings down something from the Midrash, that Rashi apparently quotes in his commentary on Bereishith: Man is the Challah of the world.

There is a mitzwah, whenever one makes dough, to take a portion of the dough and devote it to God. Were there a Beit HaMikdash at present, this dough would be given to the Kohanim, in our days we burn it till it is inedible so that no one else will benefit inappropriately from this Holy dough.

The Rabbis teach that Man's creation was HaShem separating Challah from the world. The earth and the water were mixed into a dough, and from that dough, Challah was taken, and into that Challah, HaShem blew a divine soul.

We are a portion of the world, set aside in Holiness by HaShem, since the time of its creation.

healing our fathers

Someone asked me recently, though I can't seem to remember the context, (perhaps I dreamed it?) if we could explain a practical reason we don't eat Gid HaNasheh, the sciatic nerve, beyond the explanation given in the Torah that it was where the angel injured Yaakov Avinu.

I think perhaps there is a basis to say that through not eating the Gid HaNasheh, we are actually strengthing and healing Yaakov Avinu's leg. This particular mitzwah is associated with this part of the body, and through performing this mitzwah we are returning our collective soul to this part of the collective body from whence it was driven out.

This is mentioned by-the-way in the beginning of Parashath Hukath by the Noam Elimelech. There he goes on to explain (according to Rashi according to Rabeinu Mosheh haDarshan) that the reason the parah adumah is considered a hok, generally a law with no known reason, is because it is the only mitzwah that does not correspond to a particular part of the the body, neither the 248 limbs nor the 365 sinews. Why doesn't it correspond to a part of the body? Because its sole purpose was to educate the masses about the reality of Teshuvah. In this explanation even the sin of the golden calf only came about in order to create a situation that the mitzwah of the Red Heifer would be revealed such that we all could reveal the great mitzwah of Teshuvah.

a taste of death

Here's a little pshat in Rashi that occurred to me this morning:
When Yosef is reunited with his (our) father Yaakov Avinu, he does all the action, and we don't see Yaakov Avinu respond until the next passuk, Rashi explains this: Yaakov Avinu was saying Shema at the time, so he couldn't stop in the middle to greet Yosef, his long lost son.

I asked myself this morning, why was Yaakov Avinu saying Shema Yisrael right then? The answer is actually in the very next passuk. Yaakov Avinu was fairly certain he was about to die, and so he was saying his final Keriath Shema before he passed away. Once he finished and realized he was still alive, he explained to Yosef why he hadn't stopped to greet him properly.