At the beginning of our shiur, we mentioned that there’s a connection between the dove and Yavan, and the question is – how are they related? Noach sends the dove to check "if the waters had subsided from the face of the earth," and Chazal ask why he even sent it, for he couldn’t leave the ark until Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave him permission to leave. In that case, why bother sending a scout? Sefer Rinona Shel Torah writes, Noach sent the dove not to determine if the waters had subsided and whether he could disembark or not. Rather, if the waters had subsided and the earth had dried, it would prove that the world's tikkun (rectification) was complete, and both the material excess and desires that led to flood had ceased.
Therefore, Noach specifically sent the dove, as the Netziv in Ha'emek Davar asks – if Noach wanted to know the state of the waters, there are more mission-appropriate birds to enlist. Birds that can fly higher and reach more places than the dove. However, Noach was not interested in the drying of the earth itself, but in the tikkun of the sin, and therefore he sent the dove, which is the bird most restrained in matters of immorality (Eruvin 100b) and which symbolizes distancing oneself from desire. Initially, the dove did not find rest, meaning that the proper rest and complete tikkun had not yet been achieved, and the earth had not yet fully calmed from the influence of the Dor HaMabul (generation of the flood).
But the second time, when the dove returned with an olive leaf in its mouth, it hinted to Noach that the sustenance from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, even if bitter, is better than sweet sustenance from the hands of man. Thus, Noach knew that the world's tikkun was near, because the words of the dove were the complete opposite of the ways of the Dor HaMabul, who were influenced by material abundance and denied Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s hand. The dove was content with a thin, bitter olive leaf, as long as it was from the hands of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
The light that the dove brought, according to the Midrash, is the news that the spiritual defect caused by the Dor HaMabul had been corrected, and the world had merited to return to its roots and recognize the goodness bestowed upon it by Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and from this, to serve Him and walk in His ways. Instead of the disconnection that existed before the flood, there came a connection and longing to embrace Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to the extent that even the sweetest delicacies could not compare to a bitter olive leaf from His hands. The essence of the dove is light in two aspects: against the sin of immorality, and against the theft of what is not one’s own. The dove restrained itself from immorality and was content with little despite all that was permitted to it. The Gemara says (Eruvin 100b):
Rabbi Yochanan said: If the Torah had not been given, we’d have learned modesty from the cat, which does not defecate in front of people and covers its excrement; theft from the ant; immorality from the dove, for doves mate only with their partners; and proper behavior during relations from the rooster, which appeases its mate and then mates with her.
The dove is a symbol of faithfulness and Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu: "From this olive, they will light the Chanukah candles!" And why specifically from the olive? Based on what we’ve learned, the answer is very simple. The Yevanim wanted to defile Am Yisrael, so they would not have loyalty to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and His Torah. They wanted them to assimilate among the nations – the opposite of the olive, which does not accept grafting from any species, and the opposite of the dove with its morality in mating! Therefore, the Midrash brings an example specifically from the dove, which symbolizes the tikkun of the decrees of the Yevanim!
זַיִת רַעֲנָן יְפֵה פְ רִ י־תֹאַ ר קָ רָ א ה' שׁ ְ מ ֵ ך.
G-d named you: A green olive tree, fair with choice fruit.
The Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 36:1) asks, were Am Yisrael called only by this name of “olive tree” alone? Were they not called by all kinds of beautiful and praiseworthy trees? There are Pesukim referring to them as a grape vine, fig, palm, cedar, walnut, and pomegranate trees – so why does this Pasuk from Yirmiyahu (11:16) state they were named an olive tree?
Just as the olive is first picked from the tree, then taken down and beaten, after which it is brought to the olive press, ground in the mill, surrounded with ropes, and weighted with stones to produce its oil, so too is Am Yisrael. Idolaters come and oppress them, beating them from place to place, incarcerating them, binding them in chains, and surrounding them with troops. In their suffering, they repent, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu answers their prayers.
Rav Yaakov Galinsky once told a story about an atheist neighbor he had in Bnei Brak – a Jew who observed nothing! Rav Galinsky said to him, "Perhaps you’d put on tefillin each day – it only takes five minutes?" The man replied, "I don't put on tefillin. They’re just fine in the closet." No matter how much Rav Galinsky tried to talk to him, nothing helped. One day, the rav returned from shul and saw this neighbor wearing a tallis and with tefillin on his head, standing on the balcony – "I can't believe it!!!" He didn't want to disturb him in the middle of davening, so in the afternoon, he knocked on the door and asked, "Mr. Moshe, was that you this morning with the tefillin on the balcony?" "Yes." "What happened?" "Rabbi, I'll tell you the truth, for three days I've had terrible stomach pains, and I was terrified! I went to the doctor, he examined me and said he was worried... that it might be... – and I immediately started to worry too! He sent me to do a CT scan and said: 'If they don't see anything, you'll need to get an MRI too.' I was so scared that I said: The first thing I'll do is put on tefillin!" Rav Galinsky left his house and said: "Ribbono Shel Olam, there is no Jew in the world who doesn't love You! They just need a little stomachache!"
The Midrash adds, another reason Yirmiyahu compared our Avot to an olive tree is because all liquids mix with each other, but olive oil does not mix – it stands alone. So too, Am Yisrael does not mix with the nations of the world. Additionally, all liquids, when mixed, one cannot tell which is on top and which is on the bottom, but olive oil, even if you mix it with all liquids in the world, it will always rise to the top. So too, our ancestors, when they do the will of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they stand above all other nations. Someone once told me that this is the reason why Belz Chassidim light the Chanukah candles with half oil and half water, because the Yevanim wanted to mix us among them, so we show – "Look! We don’t mix with anyone!"
