Have you ever seen those kosher animals who have to stand on split hooves? It looks crazy! It looks like they’re all messed up, and can barely stand normally. Every step they take looks precarious! And they are Davka the kosher animals that we eat. Those Treife animals with closed hooves look solid; yet the Torah doesn’t want us to eat them.
Why do all people always have difficulties, with Parnasa, relationships, health, Chas V'shalom, etc.? When a person is frail and lacking somewhere, then he is humbled, and he needs to turn to Hashem and have Bitachon. Surely it is a Ma'ala to aim for a smooth and M'sudardik orderly life. However, the Chisaron of being inadequate is Min HaShamayim, and you have to work on appreciating your Chesronos, your inabilities, and your weaknesses.
A friend of mine once bought a German-made shed, and the company was called "Stolzfuss”, i.e., a solid footing. Indeed, German workmanship is usually done well and solid. They are very M'sudardik, orderly people, and very punctual with no nonsense. They are also very bright. This is the Sakana (danger) of everything going perfect. They turned out to be the cruelest form of humans that mankind ever produced!
Like Sedom, which was: כְגַן ה' a paradise, where everything is A-1. And look how rotten they became! So it’s time to be happy about our weaknesses, or when the weather is not so great. Your being disorganized (which you should try to improve on) can cause you a lifetime of aggravation, sometimes major and sometimes minor. But everything is L’tovah, and it also it gives you a certain humility and a Lev Nishbar.
Those shaky split-hoof animals have a great Ma'ala because of their inadequacies. Also, a: מַעֲלֶ ה גֵּרָה (animal that chews its cud) is a Siman (sign) of being kosher. Although “chewing its cud” means that the digested food comes back up the neck, we can suggest that it is a Remez. An “upward” neck (מַעֲלֶה גֵּרָה) can symbolize Shtoltz, when a human raises his neck. He is proud, upright, and confident.
In fact, humans stand straight, unlike animals. A human was meant to have a measure of Ga'ava. וַתְחַסְרֵּהוּ מְעַט מֵּאֱלֹקִים תהלים ח ו Man is “right under” Hashem. He is like a: מֶלֶךְ בְתַחְתוֹנִים (monarch of the “lower” worlds), and Hashem created him this way, so that he should aim upwards and become great. הָאֱלֹקִ ים עָשָה אֶת הָאָדָם יָשָׁר קהלת ז כט Hashem created Man upright. So “split hooves” and “digested food that comes back up the neck” symbolize a combination of being fragile (Anava) and being proud (וַיִגְבַהּ לִבוֹ בְדַרְ כֵּי ה' lifting your heart in the service of Hashem).
Every Yid needs both; if you have only Ga'ava, or only Anava, then you’re in trouble. Perhaps this is why the pig has only: מַפְרֶסֶת פַרְ סָה split hooves; it is a: שָׁ פֵּ ל Shafel’dike (lowly) animal who is total Olam HaZeh; full of fressing, a fragile split hoof. He has no: מַעֲלַת גֵּרָה food that comes back up the neck, i.e., he doesn’t raise himself at all, and he remains a lowly Baal Ta'ava’dik creature. All he does all day is looking at his food, food, and food; no greatness or looking upwards at all.
The feet (Anava) are the bottom, and the neck (Ga'ava) is the top. Every human needs a healthy balance between true Ga'ava and real Anava.
