After summarizing the main points from our past two shiurim, we can now approach the yesod of the matter. Rabbeinu Bachya, at the beginning of Sefer Bereshit, focuses on the words found in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 17:4) on the Pasuk: וְכֹל אֲשׁ ֶר יִקְרָא לוֹ הָאָדָם נֶפֶשׁ חַיָה הוּא שְׁמוֹ – And whatever man called each living creature, that was its name.
When Hakadosh Baruch Hu created man, He consulted with the angels, who questioned man's nature and were told that man's wisdom surpasses theirs. While they could not name each animal shown to them, Adam HaRishon could. Rabbotai, why is a donkey called חֲמוֹר? Rabbeinu Bachya says: “It seems to me the explanation of this Midrash is that man, in his wisdom and intellect, understood the nature of each animal and beast and called each one a name according to the nature and measure he recognized in it; and the letters he combined in their names were all according to their natures and measures. And so, in the name חֲמוֹר he recognized in his wisdom that it is foolish and heavy among all the animals, and follows after desires, and therefore he called its name חֲמוֹר from the word חוֹמֶ ר – material.”
There is no animal as foolish and materialistic as the donkey! It has no other desire except materialism! Every animal symbolizes a little something, such as nobility, logic, etc. Look around and you’ll never see an advertisement featuring a donkey! In the Peugeot ad, they put a lion; in the mattress ad, they put bears. The donkey, besides laziness, symbolizes nothing! The human body without Torah is a donkey! A person without Torah runs after desires. He is foolish, he is simple, he has nothing! To the extent that the Mishna tells us that the specific gravity of the human body is like that of a donkey.
The author of HaKtav VeHaKabalah asks a question. If this is what the donkey symbolizes, why does Yaakov Avinu praise Yissachar with: יִשָּׂשכָר חֲמֹר גָּרֶם – Yissachar is a strong-boned donkey? He says, the Torah refers to physical pleasures as donkey, and regarding those steeped in the desires of pleasures, it is said: אֲשׁ ֶר בְּ שַׂר חֲמוֹרִ ים בְּ שָׂרָ ם – whose flesh is the flesh of donkeys. And the name donkey was given to this animal because of the boiling of its blood, taken from מֵ עַי חֳמַ רְ מָ רוּ – My bowels are in turmoil (Eichah 1:20). And wine, which by nature boils the body of its drinkers, is for this reason called חֲמַ ר. And thus, the nation famous for being steeped in disgraceful desires – Egypt – is referred to as עַם הַדּוֹמֶה לַחֲמוֹר – a people like a donkey. And a person in the days of their youth, whose nature is to pursue pleasures, is referred to by Chazal (Berachot 3a) as a חֲמוֹר נוֹעָהּ – a wild donkey.
The commentators say, when a husband suspects his wife of infidelity, he takes her to the Kohen and gives her the Sotah water to drink; this woman brings a מִ נְ חַ ת קְ נָאו ֹת – a jealousy offering made of barley – but why specifically barley? Chazal say (Sotah 14a), just as her actions were the actions of an animal, so her offering is animal food. When they would warn the woman to ensure that the name would not be erased in the water, the Gemara says they would say to her: "My daughter, much wine causes much frivolity; much laughter causes much frivolity; much childishness causes much frivolity; and bad neighbors cause much frivolity. Act for the sake of His great name that is written in holiness, so that it will not be erased in the water." The nature of wine is to draw people, therefore, wine is called chamar, because wine draws a person to sin.
