Sixth Reading: Rectifying the Snake and the Pig
The Talmud recounts that,
The first Sages were called “Those who count,” because they would count all the letters in the Torah, as they would say that the letter vav in the word “belly” is the midpoint of the letters in a Torah scroll.... Similarly, in the expression: “The boar out of the wood ravages it,” the ayin in the word "wood" is the midpoint of Psalms....
Thus, after the Talmud marks the letter vav of “belly” as the center of the Torah, it notes that the center of Psalms is the hanging letter ayin in the verse “the boar out of the wood ravages it”. There is no reference in the rabbinic literature to the centers of the other books of the Bible. We can thus deduce that there is an intrinsic connection between the center of the Torah and the center of Psalms.
The Pentateuch and Psalms
A hint to the close relationship between the Torah and Psalms can be found in their internal division—just as the Torah is divided into Five Books of Moses, so too is the Book of Psalms divided into five books. In the tradition of Israel, the books most familiar in the Bible, in which even the simple Jews were proficient, are the Torah and the Book of Psalms. Specifically, the relationship between the Torah and Psalms is like the relationship between Torah and prayer.
The Torah is an absolute Divine revelation, shining from above to below—from God to man. In contrast, the Book of Psalms is man’s call to God—filled with human emotion of “the prayers of David son of Jesse” from below to above—this is the 'prayer book' within the Bible. In other words: the Torah and Psalms encompass within them the entirety of the reciprocal relationships between the Jew and the Holy Blessed One—the instructions of God to man and man's prayers to God.
The Snake and the Boar
In relation to the central points of the Torah and Psalms, a fascinating matter arises—the center of the Torah is associated with a snake (as per the rabbinic interpretation that "it goes on its belly" refers to a snake, where it is said “upon your belly you shall go”), and the center of Psalms is related to a pig: “the boar out of the woods.” These two animals are symbols in the tradition of Israel for the source of all impurity and abomination—the ancient snake is the root of sin (which introduced death into the world, the father of all impurity), and the pig is a symbol of disgust and abomination, whose differentiation from it is a principal separation of Israel from the nations.
The appearance of the unique middle letters of the Torah and the Book of Psalms—the abundant vav and the hanging ayin—reveal to us about the power of Torah and prayer to stop the filth of the snake and weaken the strength of the pig. The relationship between the snake and the pig is like that between pride and boastfulness—the snake brought into the world exaggerated self-awareness, whereas the pig spreads its hooves and boasts, saying “I am pure.”
This utmost detestable pride, because it is the root of all evil (and a person full of ego arouses hatred), while boastfulness causes disgust (for what is more repulsive than someone who knows his own worthlessness yet pretends to be something he is not, with a superficial show). The revelation of Torah from heaven (from a supreme source that subdues man) diverts his attention from himself to the Torah of God—moving him from self-awareness to Divine awareness—and thereby breaks the snake’s essential blemish.
The work of prayer, in which a person acknowledges his inner emptiness and his need for God, overcomes pride, which tries to present an outward facade of confidence and self-sufficiency. Still, both the pig and the snake are destined to be elevated and rectified.
(from Ma’ayan Ganin, Vayikra, Shemini)
