Parshas Bechukosa (next week’s parsha) begins with the berachos the Hashem promises if we will keep the Torah. One of the berachos is: והשבתי חיה רעה מן הארץ – “I will cause wild beasts to withdraw from the land” (Vayikra 26:6). There is a machlokes in the Yalkut Shimoni regarding the promise that Hashem will cause wild beasts to withdraw from the land. Rabbi Yehudah says it means that these wild beasts will be withdrawn from the world entirely. Wild animals will cease to exist: No lions, no leopards, and no cougars – all these animals of prey will become extinct! Rabbi Shimon interprets this blessing to mean that the animals will still exist, but they will become pacified so that they do not attack. The lions, leopards, cougars, etc. will become tame and domesticated, but they will still be around. According to Rabbi Shimon, this promise of “withdrawing the wild animals” is akin to the promise of Yeshaya (11:6) that the wolf will live in peace with the sheep in Messianic times. The wolf will still be around, but its nature will change.
The Gilyonei HaShas (Pesochim 21b) discusses if one can nullify chometz before Pesach, by mixing it with a majority of non-chometzdika items, and fulfill the mitzvah of tashbisu [destroying chometz] by doing so. He suggests that it depends on the above dispute: According to R’ Yehudah who understands that tashbisu means to remove something from the world entirely, simply mixing it and nullifying it won’t help. According to R’ Shimon, however, tashbisu simply means to remove the bad nature of the item, however, the item can still be in existence. Accordingly, one would be able to fulfill the mitzvah of tashbisu by mixing chometz with non-chometz, as by doing so, one removes the bad nature of the item.
