The mule is saying, "All the kings of earth shall acknowledge You, G-d, for they have
heard the sayings of Your mouth." (Psalms 138:4)
Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh would say: Be very, very humble, for the hope of mortal man is
worms.
Netzach shebeHod (victory
and endurance within the context of glory and gratefulness)
In week thirty-two, the second week
of the month of Iyar, in Perek Shirah, the mule declares that all
the kings of the earth will acknowledge the words of Hashem. (Psalm 138:4) This week is still connected to the miracles
of Israel’s independence. (See
Appendix 2) It was during this time that the right of the Jewish People to the
Land of Israel was clearly recognized by the leaders of the world and the
United Nations. A verse of the Psalms states, "Do not be like the horse or
like the mule, without understanding."[1]
It took the nations of the world a long time to understand the right of the
Jewish People to the Land of Israel, but at least during this brief moment in
history, the world recognized this right.
There is an interesting contrast
between this week’s animal, the mule, closely related to the gentile prophet
Bilaam (whose mule spoke to him), and the animal of the following week, the
donkey, which is connected to Abraham, as well as to Moshe and Mashiach. There is a very strong
parallel between some of the main events in Abraham’s life and those in the
life of Bilaam. Pirkei Avot teaches
that Abraham and Bilaam are polar opposites. While Abraham was humble and the
greatest source of blessing, Bilaam was arrogant and the greatest source of
curse. Rashi also makes a comparison
between when Abraham gets up early in the morning to saddle his donkey, in
order to perform the sacrifice of Isaac, and later, when Bilaam gets up early
in the morning to saddle his mule, in order to meet Balak, perform sacrifices,
and attempt to curse the Jewish people. Abraham and his descendants were
promised the Land of Israel, while Balak and Bilaam did everything in their
power to take away the Land from the Jewish people. In the end, Bilaam was
forced not only to recognize the glory of Israel, but to praise it and bless it
tremendously. Both Bilaam and Balak were later defeated by the conquering
Israelites.
As explained earlier, the month of Iyar is connected to the tribe of
Issachar, who in the Torah is called a “strong-boned donkey.” The mule is the
product of the breeding a donkey with a horse. The mule also represents an
aspect of physical deficiency and the need for healing connected to this month:
the mule is physically incapable of procreating.
The number thirty-two is a reference
to the thirty-two paths of wisdom (chochmah)
mentioned in Kabbalah. There are three opinions regarding Bilaam’s connection
to Laban. Bilaam was either Laban himself, Laban’s son, or his grandson.
Laban’s name, Lamed Beit Nun,
represents the 32 paths of wisdom (lamed
beit) and the fifty gates of understanding (nun). (See Week 23) Had Laban nullified himself before Yaakov, the
tzadik of the generation, the evil in
him would have been nullified, and all these levels would be revealed in him.[2]
Thirty-two is formed by the letters lamed and beit, which together form the word lev, which means heart. Sometimes we can understand something with
our intellect, but it is still hard to make our heart also understand. Despite
the stubbornness of our heart, ultimately we will all fully acknowledge Hashem, as the song of the mule so
clearly states. Perhaps a way to speed this process along is to focus on the
famous expression of our sages in the Talmud, which was often quoted by the
Lubavitcher Rebbe: “Words that come from the heart [certainly] enter the heart.”
The word lev does not only describe the physical heart, but is also used
metaphorically. When we use the expression "heart of something," we
are referring to the essence of it. The Torah, which is the essence of Hashem, ends with the letter lamed and begins with the letter beit, forming the word lev. Similarly, the Land of Israel is
the heart of our people, and Jerusalem is “the heart of our heart.”[3]
In the episode of the spies, the only
one other than Joshua that strongly stood for our ability to conquer the Land
of Israel was called Kalev. The very name of Kalev shows his strong
connection to our heart, the Land of Israel.
In the Pirkei Avot for this week, Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh appears to focus
on the potentially negative part of our hearts, the yetzer harah. He teaches us to be extremely humble in spirit, for
man’s hope is [to be fed to the] worms. (IV: 4) Rabbi Levitas reminds us that
if we focus on our physical side (the word he uses for man is enosh, the lowest of all names for a
human being), our only hope is to be food for worms. However, if instead we
focus on our soul, the divine aspects within us, then we will know how to
better to use our hearts, and will be able to truly love our neighbor as
ourselves. This is also the lesson found in Chapter 32, the lev (heart) of the Tanya. (See also next
week)
Rabbi Levitas’ words closely resemble
the phrase for which perhaps Abraham is most famous: "I am like dust and
ashes." Dust, because man comes from dust and returns to it; and ashes
because Abraham and Sarah were sterile and could not have children, just like
the mule. However, G-d is capable of anything ... giving children to Abraham
and Sarah, making a mule speak, making the kings of the nations recognize his
words, and even making Bilaam bless Israel!
This week’s sefirah combination results in netzach
shebehod. It takes great persistence to get through to our hearts and
achieve higher levels in the service of Hashem.
The mule itself exemplifies this aspect of persistence and stubbornness. This
week is also the yahrzeit of Eli the High Priest (10th
of Iyar). Besides being the Kohen
Gadol, he was also leader of the generation. He therefore perfectly represented
the combination of these two sefirot, netzach
and hod (interestingly, Samuel the
Prophet, Eli’s disciple, also represents both netzach and hod, as the
Book of Psalms equates him to both Moses and Aaron). Eli’s death, in which he
fell backwards and broke his neck after hearing about the fate of the Mishkan, has a close association with the donkey, next week’s animal. The
Torah commands that if an owner does not intend to redeem a firstborn donkey
with a sacrifice, he must break the donkey’s neck. In Kabbalah, the neck is the
part of the body most associated with the Holy Temple and the Mishkan. Another animal that has a
commandment related to the breaking of a neck is a female calf. This is in the
case of an unexplained murder. The mule is closely associated with donkey and
is female like the calf.
A lesson to be drawn from the song of
the mule is that even kings, those that are rich and powerful, have to
understand that they are ultimately completely subjugated to Hashem. Hashem controls everything and everyone, without distinction. If
anything, a king’s behavior is even more subjugated than others, as is stated
in Proverbs: “A king's heart is like rivulets of water in the Lord's hand;
wherever He wishes, He turns it.”[4]
[1] Psalm 32:9
[3] Elie Wiesel, open
letter to the President. Available at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137057
[4] Ch. 21:1
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