After learning this principle, I’d like to dive into a sugya. Chazal say the gifts brought correspond to our forefathers. Gold is linked to Avraham Avinu, who was thrown into a fiery furnace. Silver is linked to Yitzchak Avinu, as he was on the altar at Akeidat Yitzchak. Bronze is linked to Yaacov Avinu, as Lavan said to him: בִּגְלָלֶך'נִחַשְׁתִּי וַיְבָרֲכֵנִי ה.
The Midrash says the precious metals correspond to our exiles. Gold – Bavel, based on a dream of Nevuchadnezzar that includes the statement of הוּא רֵאשָׁה דִּי דַהֲבָא אַנְתְּ (Daniel 2:38), Hakadosh Baruch Hu referring to him as the head of gold atop a monster of sorts, made up of body parts consisting of different materials and representing all the galuyot. The other body parts of this monster, and their composition, lead to linking the other exiles: Silver – Madai, based on the silver coins offered to Haman to eradicate the Jewish people; Bronze – Yavan, because they were chutzpanim and weakest of all, and נְחֹשֶׁת is a מַתֶכֶת נְחוּשָה; And finally, either Orot Eilim M’odamim or iron (בַּרזֶל) linked to Edom. Whoever is interested in additional details should read through this Midrashim (Tanchuma Teruma 1; Tanchuma Bubar Teruma 6:1).
Let’s now shift over to one more dream, that of Daniel (7:1-14). He dreamed of four mighty beasts that emerged from the sea: a lion with eagle wings; a bear with three fangs; a leopard with four heads and four wings; and a fearsome, dreadful, and powerful beast he could not identify. The interpretation of his dream included the beasts representing the exiles: the lion – Bavel; the bear – Madai, because only a bear can eat and drink for 120 straight days as they did (Megillat Esther); the leopard – Yavan, because it too is a chutzpan: עַז כַּנָּמֵר; and the final beast – Edom.
I’m no chemist, but I’m told that gold is the best metal for the purpose of conduction, and the worst is bronze. Many of our power lines are made from bronze or copper not because they are the best, but because they are cheapest. As we discussed earlier and last week, bronze is considered a מַתֶּכֶת חַצּוּפָה – a brazen metal. Why? I saw in a sefer on Daniel that it is because bronze pretends to be gold. When polished and shined it tries to imitate gold despite being not even remotely close to the real thing. There is an expression for one who lies repeatedly without getting confused: מְשַׁקֵּר בְּמֵצַח נְחוּשָה. Why do we involve bronze and not silver or gold, or iron, for this saying? Because bronze lies. What I would like to take away from this science experiment is that the leopard and bronze share two characteristics: they are brazen and they lie.
