And so let’s listen in to Adam’s words and maybe we’ll be able to understand a little better. Here’s what he said: He cried and he said, יƒרֹמוֲחַו יƒנֲ‡ „ָח∆‡ סּבו≈‡ּ¿ב לַכ‡ֹנ – “Shall I and my donkey eat from the same trough, from the same foodbox?”
It means that when Adam would go out to the backyard for breakfast and he would bend over to partake of the grass of the field he would hear somebody rustling nearby; he would look over his shoulder and he would see his donkey is doing the same thing as him, eating the same breakfast. His donkey is eating side by side with him!
“My donkey and I should eat the same breakfast?! If that’s the price then I don’t want it!” There was a very important principle involved here; it’s the principle of the dignity of man. Man was created b’tzelem Elokim, in the image of Hashem and if he’s going to eat side by side with his animals, the same diet, then it is a frontal attack on this foundational truth of the greatness of mankind.
Adam was fiercely protective of his peculiar status because he knew more than anybody else what it meant to be an Adam. “The image of Hashem” – we say the words, but we are very far from coming anywhere near appreciating the meaning. But Adam, the first one created at the Hands of the Creator, he understood what it meant.
