The donkey replied to Bilaam: Am I not the very same donkey that you have been riding on all your life until this very day? Was it ever my habit to do this to you?
This is the peak of materialism! Avraham without Torah, Bilaam without Torah. Both received the same donkey to ride on. A donkey created on Erev Shabbat at twilight – the power of a material object with a spiritual force. Both men could do the same thing. Avraham detaches from materialism, content with little; Bilaam wants more and chases after materialism.
Our Ba’alei Mussar take this issue and show us what a person looks like when he is a donkey without Torah. When Lot was taken captive, the Torah says: And the fugitive came and told Avram the Hebrew. Who is this fugitive? Rashi says, it was Og Melech HaBashan, after he escaped the war. Og comes and informs Avraham Avinu, "Know that Lot has been taken captive!" Og is in charge of prisoner exchanges on behalf of the Red Cross; he heard there’s a captive and now wants to exchange prisoners. Really commendable! But Chazal reveal something entirely different. Og, the king of Bashan, comes to inform Avraham that Lot was taken captive, and since Avraham had promised Lot that he would protect him, he immediately arms his men – three hundred and eighteen in number – and pursues Lot’s captors. Avraham goes out to a hopeless battle against millions of soldiers! Og thought to himself, "Avraham will go out to this battle and surely die, and Sarah will then become a widow! Who is more suitable for her than me?!"
Rav Yaakov Galinsky asks how we know this, and says it is very simple: a donkey wants food! The Navi Yeshayahu says (1:3): The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's trough. A donkey has no intention or concept that it’s doing someone a favor by working for the Red Cross and exchanging prisoners. A donkey just wants something material. If it performs an action, just look for where there’s a coupon to clip and look at what it’s taking home. There’s no such thing as a benevolent donkey that performs favors! If you see someone doing a favor and he has no spiritual aspect within him, know that he’s merely looking to gain from it. Therefore, when Og seeks to save Lot, he was looking for food – and Sarah Imeinu was the food for him!
Let's go to another parable brought by Chazal. Yaakov Avinu spent 14 years in the house of Shem and Ever. He arrives in Charan as a Ben Torah, but he arrives with nothing – no money, no jewelry, no assets. Eliphaz, the son of Eisav, had just taken everything from him so he’d be considered dead. Rachel sees him and runs home to tell Lavan. The Torah says Lavan heard all about Yaakov, his nephew, so he ran out to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Rashi says, he thought Yaakov was loaded with money because the servant (Eliezer) had recently arrived with ten camels! When he saw that Yaakov came empty-handed, he embraced him, to check if he was hiding gold coins somewhere on his body. He then kissed him, to see if perhaps he was hiding pearls in his mouth.
Rabbotai, how did Chazal know all this? How did they know the intrusive search Lavan put Yaakov through? Once again, according to what we learned, the answer is very simple! A donkey does not kiss. A donkey looks for a trough – if it has nothing to gain, it has nothing to look for. That is a donkey!
When Yaakov Avinu parted from Lavan after twenty years, after working for him with immense dedication, he fled because he feared what Lavan might do. Lavan caught up with Yaakov after seven days and shouted at him, "Why did you flee secretly and steal from me? Why did you not tell me so that I might send you away with joy and with songs? Why did you not allow me to kiss my sons and daughters goodbye? You have done foolishly!" The Torah then says Lavan rose up early in the morning, kissed his sons and daughters, blessed them, and departed. He got up in the morning and kissed everyone. Everyone except for Yaakov, that is. Why not kiss his son-in-law, the father of his eleven grandchildren?! It’s very simple – Yakov had nothing on him and Lavan had nothing to gain from him, so why kiss him.
I once heard a beautiful explanation as to why Lavan had to get up early in the morning and why the Torah provides us with this seemingly extra detail. Someone told me, do you know when he kissed them?! At 4:30 in the morning when everyone was asleep! Why? Because he was afraid someone would wake up and ask him, “Zaidy, can you give me a few dollars for the road?" A donkey does not understand anything else, unless it has a trough! Let's look at another source.
And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed. For two years, Chazal say, he dreamed the same dream! Pharaoh is already going crazy, taking pills – nothing calms him down. The magicians tell him, “You will conquer seven countries, you will bury seven daughters” – they drive him crazy until the man loses his sanity! At every parliamentary session, he opens with "Gentlemen, I’m dreaming dreams..." and everyone sits there helpless – the chief butler, the chief baker, the minister of transportation, the attorney general, etc. "Gentlemen, I’m going crazy with these dreams that come to me at night!" His cabinet eventually tells him, "So, sleep less and you’ll dream less!" Chazal say, the chief butler finally came to him one day and started telling him about Yosef, who had solved his own dream. But why did he suddenly wake up and remember? Why did he not inform Pharoah of this remedy long before?
The Midrash says (Bereshit Rabbah 89:7), when the chief butler saw that Pharaoh's soul was so troubled that if his dream was not interpreted, he would die, he thought to himself, "If this Pharaoh dies and another king arises, I don’t know if he will keep me in my position or not." Therefore, he decided to tell Pharaoh about Yosef to maintain his position and his benefits. For two years, Pharaoh had been troubled by these dreams, and the chief butler did not care! As long as he didn’t personally benefit, he didn’t care if the other person was troubled or even died. When did he start caring? Only when it affected him. Only when his food was taken away – the donkey woke up!
Now, let's move on to the main topic. We opened Sefer Shemot with the question of the Alsheich HaKadosh, and this question appears in several sefarim:
When Hakadosh Baruch Hu was about to destroy Sedom, He said to Avraham Avinu, "Listen, the people of Sedom are very wicked and sinful against Me." Avraham stood there and pleaded, "Ribbono Shel Olam, perhaps there are forty... thirty... twenty... or even ten in whose merit the city and its inhabitants can be spared?" Hakadosh Baruch Hu replied, "There is nothing!" In contrast, at Brit Bein HaBetarim, Avraham heard that his descendants would go into exile and be afflicted in a foreign land for four hundred years. They would suffer afflictions, yet Avraham Avinu did not plead for mercy for them as he did for the people of Sedom. He didn’t ask for a pardon nor for a commutation. Why not?
Contrast this with Moshe Rabbeinu, who saw their suffering and asked Why did You bring harm upon this people? Chazal say (Shemot Rabbah 5:22), Moshe said before Hakadosh Baruch Hu: “I took Sefer Bereshit and read it. I saw the deeds of the Dor HaMabul and how they were judged; I saw the deeds of the Dor Hapalaga and how they were judged; I saw the deeds of Sedom and how they were judged. What did Bnei Yisrael do that they were punished more than all those prior generations? And if it is because Avraham Avinu asked how will I know that I will inherit it, and You responded that his children would be exiled to a foreign land, etc. if so, why do only Bnei Yisrael suffer because of his question? Eisav and Yishmael are his children too – why do they not share in the suffering?! Even so, it should have been the generation of Yitzchak or the generation of Yaakov that were afflicted, and not the people in my generation. And if You ask why it matters to me, then why did You send me?" This is what Chazal wrote, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not answer Moshe.
We brought the question of the Netivot Shalom – what benefit is there in having seventy pure souls go down to Egypt and come out with 600,000 men, all idol worshipers? Why were they put there?
The question intensifies. There is no place in the world more defiled than Egypt, as the Torah tells us explicitly (Vayikra 18:3): Like the deeds of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do. Rashi says, from here we know there was no other nation whose deeds were more abominable than the Egyptians, and there was no more abominable generation in Egypt than the one there during the enslavement. The land of Egypt is the most corrupt place! This is why Yosef said to his brothers upon their arrival: You have come to see the nakedness of the land. Egypt was ground zero for the impurity and filth of the world!
The question arises, why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu bring us specifically there? Why to Egypt? Is there no other place? If exile is needed – fine. But why not Switzerland or Sweden?!
The Gemara says (Berachot 3a): Rabbi Eliezer says: The night consists of three watches, and over each and every watch, Hakadosh Baruch Hu sits and roars like a lion in pain over the destruction of the Mikdash. As it is stated: “The Lord roars from on high, from His holy dwelling He makes His voice heard. He roars mightily over His dwelling place.” And signs of the transition between each watch in the upper world can be sensed in this world: In the first watch, the donkey brays; in the second, dogs bark; and in the third, a baby nurses from its mother’s breast and a wife converses with her husband.
There are three watches in the night and night represents exile. The first exile is the exile of the braying donkey, and the braying donkey is Egypt – the epitome of materialism! Yosef sends a hint to Yaakov Avinu: "Father, know that you are coming to Egypt, and you do not know what this is. It is not an ordinary donkey. It is a donkey with a lot of wine! This is why I’m not sending you ten ordinary donkeys. The ten tribes are now going down to Egypt, and the goodness of Egypt will be upon them." What is meant by the goodness of Egypt? The wine! Yosef is telling Yaakov Avinu that the wine which draws one to immorality will be upon them in Egypt!
What is the purpose of having them go down to Egypt? What is there to seek or gain there? Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin explains this all with good taste and understanding. In several places within Rav Tzadok’s writings, the following principle can be found: To establish Am Yisrael anew, one must descend to the lowest point and then grow upwards. When you want to plant wheat, what happens to the wheat? It first rots and then grows. The Gemara says (Shabbat 77b) says: He asked: Why do goats walk in front of the flock and then ewes follow? He said to him: It is just as it was in the creation of the world, which at first was dark and then light followed. Goats, which are typically black, precede the ewes, which are typically white. The whole principle is that light is created from darkness. Every light, every holy thing, says Rav Tzadok, is revealed from the darkness.
From whom did Avraham Avinu come? From Terach. Terach was an idol worshiper, a leading manufacturer of idols. From this house grew Avraham, the head of the believers! How can you bring the top believer out from the house of the top idol worshiper? As Iyov said: Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one! From the peak of decay, greatness sprouts! Rav Tzadok points to Chizkiyahu HaMelech who did not want to marry because he saw through divine inspiration that bad sons would come from him. The Navi Yeshayahu told him, “Don’t enter into the calculations of heaven!” Who was Chizkiyahu's father? Achaz. The one who closed all the yeshivot and didn’t allow anyone to learn Torah. From him the Mashiach emerges? From one who closes shuls and yeshivas emerges the greatest Rosh Yeshiva?! What kind of logic is this?! The Navi told him, “Know that light sprouts from darkness. This is the conduct of the Borei Olam!”
So, what is the conduct in Egypt? What were we looking for among a people of donkeys? Rav Tzadok says, to reach Matan Torah, one must be detached from desire. It isn’t possible to receive the Torah with desires and lusts. Torah will not enter the mind of a person who is filled with desires. The Gemara says: When the serpent came upon Chava in Gan Eden, he injected her with impurity (Shabbat 146a). He contaminated her, and the impurity passed to all her descendants. That impurity of the serpent is desire. Consequently, if desire and lust entered them, they cannot now receive the Torah – so what do we do? To receive the Torah, Rav Tzadok says, one must detach from materialism; detach from desires. How do we do this? Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s wisdom decreed that we must descend to the center of the world's desires – to Egypt! – because only there, from the darkness, the light will emerge!
210 years of attempts to lead Bnei Yisrael morally astray did not succeed. Bnei Yisrael left Egypt, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu testified about them: A locked garden, a sealed spring. Over 210 years, no woman sinned (except for Shlomit bat Divri), and no man sinned!
When Sarah Imeinu went down to Egypt, what was the first test she faced? She was taken to Pharaoh! When Yosef went down to Egypt, what was the first test he faced? He was introduced to Potiphar’s wife! This is the epicenter of the world's impurity, and they went down there. They stood the test for 210 years before reaching Yetziat Mitzrayim. A nation that managed to withstand the tests of Egypt for 210 years and emerged pure and clean can approach Matan Torah!
When Avraham Avinu was told his children would suffer in a foreign land for four hundred years, he didn’t ask for leniency. He didn’t contest it because he saw its reason – namely, to enable them to receive the Torah by purifying them from the contamination of the serpent and cleansing them from the impurity of desires and lusts. Moshe asked why this did not apply to Eisav and Yishmael, and the answer is simple: neither is connected to Matan Torah. The Gemara says (Shabbat 146a): When the Jewish people stood at Har Sinai, their contamination ceased, whereas gentiles did not stand at Har Sinai, and their contamination never ceased.
The impurity of the other nations did not cease because they were not subjected to the bondage of Egypt. The shevatim, however, went down to Egypt fully aware of what Egypt was and what awaited them there. And where did they go to look for Yosef? In the filth. Yosef said to them, "You’ve come to see the nakedness of the land." When they were then invited to Yosef’s house, they feared they would be enslaved and their donkeys taken. We asked why, of all things, they were concerned about their donkeys at this moment. The brothers said, “How much we worked on restraining ourselves from materialism! Are they going to take that from us too?!” They weren’t worried about their physical donkeys being taken; they were concerned all the self-discipline and restraint they had developed in overcoming materialism would be undone!
Now we understand why one must be circumcised to eat the Korban Pesach. Chazal say, Adam HaRishon was created whole, without a foreskin. How then did the foreskin come to his sons if he was created circumcised? The Gemara says (Sanhedrin 38b), Adam was one who drew his foreskin forward, so as to remove any indication that he was circumcised. What does this mean?
The Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh says that when the serpent injected impurity into Chava, the entire matter of desire became embedded in Bnei Yisrael. The foreskin is a symbol of desire, and therefore, when it is cut, it is taken and buried in the sand. Why specifically in the sand? Because the commentators explain that sand is the food of the serpent. By doing so, they symbolically tell the serpent, “Here, what you brought upon man – this you shall eat!” This is why the first mitzvah after leaving Egypt was Brit Milah. "You want to eat the Korban Pesach? Circumcise yourself! Detach from materialism! If you do not detach from materialism, you will remain here in Egypt!" Those who did not wish to do so died in the darkness of Makat Choshech. As for those who wanted to leave but feared circumcision, Hakadosh Baruch Hu infused the meat of the Korban Pesach with the scent of Gan Eden. The people came running, begging to partake in the tastes of Gan Eden. He told them, “First circumcise yourselves!” They performed Brit Milah, and only then were they able to leave Egypt – because they had detached from materialism. This is the yesod.
Except, after leaving Egypt and circumcising themselves, in next week's Parsha we read about Amalek coming and fighting with them. What did Amalek want? Chazal say, Amalek is the symbol of the serpent of Gan Eden. The Torah says: He attacked you from the rear, all the stragglers behind you. The Ba’al HaTurim says, He attacked you from the rear is the same numerical value as milah. Chazal say in the Midrash, Amalek would cut off the foreskins and throw them upwards, saying to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “Here, take what you have chosen!” What is this madness of throwing foreskins upwards? The serpent, Amalek, is not willing to accept anything holy. "You want holiness? No problem – it’s in the heavens! Down here in this world, let us live like donkeys, let us live like animals, let us live with our desires!"
Bnei Yisrael detached from materialism during Yetziat Mitzrayim and reached Har Sinai pure and clean, free from materialism. With these learnings, we can now understand the words of the Gemara which says the wine of Perugaita and water of the Deyomset deprived the nation of the ten lost tribes. Pleasures and Torah do not go together! The life of this world and the life of Olam Haba do not go together!
We must be careful in saying this, but the Gemara says it. Rabbi Elazar ben Arach came to a place called Deyomset, a place of pleasures. He was drawn in by the pleasures and forgot all his Torah, because a place of pleasures and Torah do not go together! What error did he then make? Instead of This month shall be for you the beginning of months, he read Have their hearts become deaf? We asked, why specifically this Pasuk? According to what we just learned, the answer is very simple. This is the first mitzvah given to Bnei Yisrael, towards detachment from materialism. Whoever will not detach from materialism will be called "Is their heart deaf?" Even for a great scholar like Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, who was said to be equal to all the sages combined, when desires enter the picture – everything is null and void!
The six first Parshiyot of Sefer Shemot which we’re in the midst of reading, based on their first letters, are called the Days of Shovavim (ימי השובבי"ם). It is written that these days are days of repentance, detachment from materialism and sins of materialism. I do not believe there has ever been a generation in the world with so many material advancements as this generation. Every day there’s a new invention! We have it all and there’s seemingly nothing left to invent. Something that took two minutes has been reduced to 90 seconds and by the time you plug it in it’ll be down to one minute. You’re going to wait a full two minutes for hot water? What’s wrong with you?! Everything is fast and then faster, loaded with all the gadgets and options imaginable. It’s all material though and we’re taught Mashiach will arrive when money vanishes from the pocket: until the coin is gone from the pocket.
Prices will soar – there’ll be no money! So, what happens next? A donkey only wants food, and if someone only wants money and cannot get it, they rise up against those around them! A child comes to their parent – if they have no concept of honoring parents and no spiritual component – and the parent is simply an ATM; and if they don’t spit out the money because there’s none left, the words of Michah play out: For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
This is all part of the deterioration because the donkey wants material. If it has nothing to eat, it kicks! The Mishna in Avot says (Avot 3:17): If there is no flour, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour. Without money, it’s difficult to learn – this is clear and understood. But why if there’s no Torah is there no flour? If there’s no livelihood, there’s no Torah; but know, if there’s no Torah, there’s no flour – instead, there’s barley! Because if there’s no Torah, you become a donkey again! Flour is the Shtei HaLechem. It is Matan Torah! If you don't have it, you return to being the flesh of donkeys! The Torah is the foundation that prevents you from becoming a donkey!
As we enter these special Parshiyot of faith in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, how did Moshe cling to the Shechinah? He detached from materialism and merited to be a G-dly man! The more you detach from materialism, the more you cling to the Shechinah! May we merit seeing the poor man riding on a donkey, and may we merit the Geula Shleima speedily! ◊
