From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 1:10 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Shemos, 5764



                                                   Riding High

                 By Rabbi Joshua (stubbornly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


   Moshe, after receiving permission from his father-in-law Yisro to take leave of his home in Midian, takes his wife and children with him and heads for Egypt, to fulfill his divine mission. The Torah tells us that he took his wife and children and 'mounted them on the donkey' (Shemos 4:20). Rashi, noting the reference to the donkey, written with a 'heh hayediah', cites the midrash as saying it was a special donkey, the same one that Avrohom used on his way to the akeidah, and the same one that the moshiach will appear on in the future. What is the common denominator among these three historical occurrences? Maharal of Prague, in his super-commentary to Rashi, Gur Aryeh, and, at greater length, in his work Gevuros Hashem, chapter 29, explains that all three of these individuals were elevated above the mundane, and this was symbolized by riding atop a donkey The riding itself, he says, is an indication of their elevation, and, moreover, the donkey - chamor in Hebrew, similar to the word chomer, meaning material - represents the animal most representative of the material side of the world. Maharal proceeds to discuss the special nature of the material aspect of the world represented by the donkey, but space does not permit a presentation of that aspect of his presentation. These three Biblical characters, then, argues the Maharal, were all elevated above the merely physical. This explanation, however, does not account for the significance of the specific times in which these three characters demonstrated their elevation above others.

 Reb Zadok HaKohein of Lublin, in his commentary Peri Tzadik, offers a somewhat different explanation. He also says that the donkey represents the physical, or, more specifically, the evil inclination. In all three cases, the characters mentioned as riding on the donkey were harnessing the physical and the evil inclination in order to attain holiness. Thus, when Avrohom went to offer his son as a sacrifice, following God's bidding, he overcame the objections of the evil inclination trying to prevent him from carrying out this act. Moshe, on his way to Egypt, wanted to make sure that his wife and children would participate in the giving of the Torah, and therefore wanted to train them in overcoming the evil inclination. The moshiach, at the end of time, will teach the Jewish people to overcome the evil inclination, and actually eradicate it. I would like to offer a variation of Reb Zadok's explanation, based on the teachings of Rav Kook.

 Rav Kook writes that one of the purposes of the akeidah was to infuse enthusiasm into Avrohom's service of God. Idolaters are full of excitement when they perform their service, because what they basically do is worship forces within themselves. They thus utilize their evil inclination for bad purposes. When Avrohom introduced the belief in the one God, who is both transcendent and imminent, that feeling of proximity and consequent enthusiasm in worship was lowered. Through the akeidah, and Avrohom's enthusiasm and alacrity in fulfilling God's command to bring his son to the mountain, this element was introduced into the worship of the one God. Thus, through the akeidah, Avrohom used the enthusiasm of the evil inclination for a positive goal (see Netvort to Chayei Soroh, 5763, available at Torahheights.com, for more on this topic).

  Moshe, as he prepared to go to Egypt, wanted to do the same thing that Avrohom did through the akeidah. The rabbis tell us that the mitzvoh of re-telling the story of the Exodus must be done in a way that begins with the degraded state of the nation and ends with its elevated state. There are two opinions regarding what constituted the degraded state. One opinion is that it was the nation's state of slavery, and the other opinion is that it was the nation's worship of idolatry. What is the purpose of re-telling the story in this way? Rav Kook explained that we need to recognize that the degraded state actually helped generate the elevated state. In regard to the opinion that the degraded state was that of slavery, we can understand that becoming habituated to doing service to a human being could prepare the people to transfer that service to God. However, in what way could the worship of idols serve a positive purpose? Here, again, Rav Kook explains that the enthusiasm used to serve idols was later transferred to the service of God. Thus, when Moshe mounted his wife and children onto the donkey to take them with him to Egypt, he was, in a symbolic way, preparing to infuse the nation with enthusiasm in their eventual service of God. Coming from the house of Yisro, who had originally worshipped idols and then rejected them, Moshe was in a unique position to accomplish this goal.  

 We mentioned above that, according to Reb Zadok, that one of the tasks of moshiach will be to eradicate the evil inclination. Perhaps, following our application  of Rav Kook's ideas, we can explain that by using the enthusiasm displayed by the evil inclination for doing evil in a positive way, to serve God with enthusiasm, the evil aspect has been transformed, and, thus, in a sense, eradicated. Thus, the chamor, that was symbolically by ridden by Avrohom and Moshe, will, ultimately, be used by the moshiach as he leads the Jewish people to their final redemption.



Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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