"Ki sivneh bayis chadash ve'asisa maakeh le'gagecha, ve'lo sasim damim be'baisecha ki yipol hanofel mimenu."
"When you build a new house, create a fence around its roof, for blood may befall on your house lest someone falls from your roof." Deuteronomy 22:8
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The Jew is referred to as "Adam" or man in the Torah. When he sins, he
splits this word "adam" into aleph and "dam," blood. Chazal teach that Adam
brought blood and death into the world because by sinning, he shore off the
aleph from his name, leaving blood in its wake. The shape of the letter aleph
is that of the Hebrew letters vav with two attached yudim; therefore the aleph
shares the same gematria as the word "gagecha," your
roof (26). When one repents properly it is very similar to him building a new
house because his body and soul are considered newly formed. And much as a
roof protects a physical house, one's mind protects his "spiritual house." To
summarize, the knowledge of one's sins and awareness of Hashem are excellent
deterrents to sinning. Both the aleph and the word gagecha share the same
gematria as the four letter name for Hashem, the
tetragrammaton. Man must therefore strive not to sin because sinning
separates the aleph from adam which brings death (sin) into the world and
removes himself from his Maker. Furthermore, there are four traits that are termed "mayim" (water) that a baal teshuvah must keep himself distant from. These traits are arrogance, anger, argumentativeness and lust. Arrogance is called water because the verse states the waters on high which separate. Argumentation stands for the waters of argument. The third, anger, is represented in the Book of Nahum as waters of anger and lust is symbolized by water as Proverbs teaches that stolen waters are sweet. When we return to Hashem properly, we recreate ourselves. To armor ourselves, we are enjoined not to place "damim" in our house. "Damim" is the combination of dalet and the word mayim, "four waters." This verse subtlely teaches us to avoid those four character traits which may distance ourselves from Hashem.
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