The sages could have easily explained that Moshe had sufficient funds but wanted the donkey because it was a special donkey from Avraham Avinu – there’d be no way Talmai would understand or believe them.
Those elders changed another thing, also related to the donkey and Moshe Rabbeinu – this time from Parshat Korach. In Parshat Korach, Moshe Rabbeinu turns to Hakadosh Baruch Hu with a request not to answer the prayers of Korach and his assembly:
Moshe was extremely distressed and said to Hashem: “Do not turn to their offering; not a donkey did I sequester from any one of them nor have I done ill to any one of them.”
The elders changed it to: I have not coveted one of them. They removed reference to the donkey once more, and Rashi says, it was so that Talmai would not say, “He didn’t take a donkey but took another item.” From here, we can move on to two more layers in understanding this donkey. In Parshat Miketz, the Torah tells us that the Shevatim went down to Egypt for the second time together with Binyamin, and they were informed that they were invited to come to Yosef:
The men were afraid because they had been brought to Yosef’s house, and they said, “Because of the money that was returned in our bags previously are we being brought here; that he may turn on us and come down on us, and take us for slaves along with our donkeys.”
Rabbotai, is this really what they should be worried about? That their donkeys will be taken?! They are about to be sold into slavery, and they’re concerned with their donkeys?!
In Parshat Vayigash, we find yet more donkeys. After Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he sends them back to get their father, and they don’t go empty-handed:
To his father he sent the following: Ten male donkeys loaded with the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey.
Pay attention to the shipment: ten male donkeys loaded with the best of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with food. Have you asked yourselves why ten male donkeys and ten female donkeys? Why not send just twenty male donkeys or twenty female donkeys? Why pairs? What is this, Noah's Ark?! The Pasuk says the female donkeys were sent carrying grain and food whereas the male donkeys shlepped the best of Egypt – but what exactly is the best of Egypt? Withered cows? Princess of the Nile fish? Egyptian cotton? Rashi says, based on the Gemara (Megillah 16b), he sent Yaakov old wine that is pleasing to the elderly. Why does Yaakov need ten donkeys loaded with wine?! Was he opening the first branch of Carmel Mizrachi? And why do the male donkeys carry the wine, and the female donkeys carry the grain? Why not the opposite? Rabbotai, Yosef didn't just send him wine; there was a hint here! But we’ll talk about it later. Just a small point on the wine for now – in Aramaic, wine is called chamra. So not only did he send ten donkeys, but he loaded them up with chamra, or a double-donkey! There’s clearly a message here.
The Midrash (Lekach Tov, Vayigash) says, he gave each of the ten brothers the load of a male donkey and a female donkey, to bring a gift to their father. And from this we learn that Binyamin, the eleventh brother, was not returned with them to Yaakov, but remained with Yosef in Egypt, for if not, he would have given Binyamin the same. The Midrash then concludes:
And in this merit, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will save the tribes of Yisrael through a poor man riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Now you understand why he sent both male donkeys and female donkeys?! Because the Mashiach will come with a donkey, which is the offspring of the female donkey! He didn't settle for just donkeys – he sent a combination, and this combination will also connect us to the wine and the grain.
Let's move on to two more stages. We put on tefillin every day, except for Shabbat, and in our tefillin there are four Parshiot. In the second Parsha – וְהָיָה כִּי־יְבִאֲךָ – there is the mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn donkey (פֶּטֶר חֲמוֹר), a very rare mitzvah that is performed with an impure animal. The Gemara asks (Masechet Bechorot 5b):
What merit does the donkey have that it is sanctified from the womb? R’ Chanina said: I asked R’ Eliezer what distinguishes the firstborn donkeys from the firstborn horses and camels. He said to me, it is a decree of the text, and also because they assisted Bnei Yisrael at the time of their exodus from Egypt, for there was not one who did not have ninety Lubian donkeys loaded with the silver and gold of Egypt.
So, since the donkeys took part in the exodus from Egypt, they merited having sanctity. The dog that was silent during the exodus from Egypt merited that all meat thrown in the field would be his – because he just closed his mouth. But the donkey that carried the loads with its entire body merited that its entire body would be sanctified.
I saw in one of the commentaries on Perek Shira that this is why the donkey says לְךָ ה' הַגְּדֻלָּה. When did David HaMelech say this? When he brought all his spoils to the Beit Hamikdash. While the spoils of Yam Suf were given to the Golden Calf, the ninety Lubian donkeys full of the spoils of Egypt that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave at Yetziat Mitzrayim, from them the contributions to the Mishkan were given! So, just as David, when he gave the contributions to the Beit Hamikdash, said לְךָ ה' הַגְּדֻלָּה, so too the donkey, which carried the contributions to the Mishkan, says לְךָ ה' הַגְּדֻלָּה.
It is brought in the Maharal that the reason the donkey merited to be sanctified from the womb is because it was created first among the impure animals. Just as the firstborn among humans is sanctified, and the firstborn among pure animals is sanctified, so too among all impure animals, only the donkey is sanctified because it was created first among them!
Since we’re already dealing with the mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn donkey, we can close one initial point. The Midrash says (Bamidbar Rabbah 6:5), Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Bnei Yisrael: “For your sake, I changed the nature of the world. I wrote in My Torah: ‘A donkey should be redeemed with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, you shall break its neck.’ I did not do so, however; I did the opposite and redeemed a lamb with a donkey, for the Egyptians are compared to a donkey and Bnei Yisrael to a lamb. I killed the firstborn of the Egyptians and sanctified the firstborn of Yisrael.” Meaning, Hakadosh Baruch Hu redeemed a lamb with a donkey, and we are now to redeem the donkey with a lamb.
We find here an important yesod. Egypt is called donkeys: בְּשַׂר חֲמוֹרִים בְּשָׂרָם – whose flesh is the flesh of donkeys (Yechezkel 23:20). Where does this appear for the first time? At Akeidat Yitzchak, where it says: וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אֶל־נְעָרָיו שְׁבוּ־לָכֶם פֹּה עִם־הַחֲמוֹר. Avraham said to his servants: Remain here with the donkey.
It was from Yishmael, who took an Egyptian wife, that Egypt was born; and the essence of Egypt is a donkey. Bnei Yisrael went down to Egypt, into a nation of donkeys; and to go down to Egypt to redeem them, they now needed to take a special donkey – that first donkey Avraham Avinu took. Bnei Yisrael left Egypt by redeeming the lamb from the donkey, and now we understand that not only did Bnei Yisrael leave a nation of donkeys, but they were also with Pharaoh, who is himself called a donkey by Chazal. The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 182) brings this story about the Pasuk כָּבֵד לֵב פַּרְעֹה מֵאֵן לְשַׁלַּח הָעָם – Pharoah’s heart is heavy; He refuses to let the people go: The animals of the jungle went on a journey aboard a ship. The donkey stood at the entrance to the ship and collected entrance fees: "Anyone who wants a ride, 25 shekels." The fox sees this and says to the donkey: "Shame on you! The lion, king of the animals, is on the ship, and you’re collecting entrance fees?!" The donkey replied: "What are you complaining about? I’m not taking the money for myself! I collect taxes from everyone and give them to the king's treasury!" The fox went to the lion and said to him: "Listen, you have a partner on the ship – he took control of the deck!" The lion went and saw what the donkey was doing, gave him a bite, and killed him! The lion then said to the fox: "Mr. Fox, you’re now the pathologist! Perform an autopsy on him – lay out his organs! I want to see how there could be such an insolent donkey, collecting taxes on my ship!" The fox carried out the orders – the liver here, the intestines there, etc. Suddenly he sees the heart – so juicy! He couldn't resist and ate it! The fox then calls the lion back: "Here, Mr. Lion, the body is before you, you can come and check!" The lion looks around and asks: "Where is the donkey's heart?" The fox cunningly replies: "Mr. King, if he had a heart, would he behave like this?!?"
On this Midrash, there are wonderful explanations, but what we want to extract from it is just one thing. The Midrash says, Egypt are donkeys, and Pharaoh is the heartless donkey! If he had a heart, he would not have said to the King of Kings: "Pay me a fee!" Avraham Avinu goes to Akeidat Yitzchak with the donkey that was created on Erev Shabbat during twilight – this is the same donkey that Moshe Rabbeinu goes down with to Egypt into a nation of donkeys, and this is the donkey that Melech HaMashiach is destined to ride on.
There are additional donkeys related to this story – Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair has a donkey, Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa has a donkey, and Rabbi Yossi of Yokrat has a donkey – and all of them are connected to the donkey of Mashiach! And if Mashiach does not come by next week, B’ezrat Hashem, we will continue our topic then!
