A Visceral Reaction
Everyone knows that a snake is one of the most abhorred creatures; some people even feel like vomiting when they see a serpent. And the wolf and the lion are of course dangerous; they kill and eat other animals and even human beings sometimes. They certainly aren’t beloved creatures.
And yet, when we read about how Yaakov Avinu sat up in his deathbed in order to bless his sons and to guide them for the last time we note that it is to these animals that he compares the shevatim.
He said הָ„ּהו¿י ה≈י¿רַ‡ רּוּ‚ – Yehudah is a young lion (Bereishis 49:9). Now a lion is certainly not kind-hearted; it’s not humble either. And yet, Yaakov Avinu preferred to see Yehuda as a lion. Gur aryeh, he should be like a lion.
A Shidduch Ruiner
Then there’s Binyomin, the beloved shevet of Binyomin. What did Yaakov wish upon the shevet of Binyomin? ב≈‡¿ז יןƒמָי¿נƒּב – Binyomin should be a wolf (ibid. 27). A wolf is not a complimentary title, you know. If you inquire about a shidduch for your daughter, and you’re told that the boy is like a wolf, it means the shidduch is off before it even starts. A tzaddik should be like a wolf? We would never say such a thing.
But Yaakov did say that. He looked at Binyomin like a wolf. And not only a wolf but ףָר¿טƒי ב≈‡¿ז – a hungry wolf that tears at its prey (ibid.). Have you ever seen a wolf dissever its prey? It’s not done with tenderness and love.
And Don is a חַרֹ‡ י≈לֲﬠ ןֹיפƒפ¿ׁ ̆; he’s compared to a poisonous serpent lying on the road (ibid. 17). A snake?! If a man would describe his neighbor to you and say, “You know my neighbor Don? He’s a poisonous serpent!” so you’d get a certain picture of him in your head. A snake you could say on a traitor, on maybe a sinister fellow with hateful attributes.
Strength of Character
The Menagerie
And yet here we find the tzaddikim being praised with these models. Take a look there, inside the Chumash. They’re compared to wild, fierce animals. Yaakov never compares them to lambs, to sheep. Maybe a donkey of burden, yes; a swift deer, also. But not sheep.
Of course, we know that the Am Yisroel is compared to tzon, to sheep. יƒ ̇יƒע¿רַמ ן‡ֹˆ יƒנ‡ֹˆ ן≈ּ ַ̇‡¿ו – You are My flock (Yechezkel 34:31). Oh yes, all the good qualities of a sheep we have to have – quiet, humble, submissive. Absolutely, the Klal Yisroel has all the good middos. But that’s not enough; that’s not the only thing Yaakov Avinu was looking for in the shevatim. He wanted snakes and lions and wolves.
The truth is that even these wild animals, as much as we might be impressed by their strength and fierceness and courage, when they see a danger they prefer to hide. A lion will move over to the side; he won’t show himself. Snakes don’t want people to be in their path. They avoid people; they slither away. And the wolf certainly hides from people.
Only when you come too close to them, then their nature asserts itself. If you step on a snake, that is something else. If you’ll try to pet a lion or tickle a wolf, he'll defend himself. You’ll get bitten. But otherwise, even these powerful animals use their power selectively, judiciously. It means that they don’t become dangerous for nothing. It’s not rash and impetuous strength – by instinct these animals are discriminatingly dangerous.
Energetic Children
And so when we study these animals and we ask ourselves, what is the common denominator, the tzad hashaveh sh’bahen, it’s not so simple as saying ̃יƒּזַה¿ל ןָּכ¿רַּ„ ן≈ּכ∆ׁ ̆, that they are injurious. It wouldn’t be wrong but it’s superficial still; the question is why are they dangerous? What is it that makes them darkan l’hazik?
And the answer is because they have in them the quality of vigor, the middah of energy. They have within them a certain ability to rise to the occasion with courage. For things that are necessary, they have the energy to act.
And that quality of energy and verve is what Yaakov Avinu wanted to see in the future of his children, in the future of the nation. He understood that for the Bnei Yisroel to succeed, to remain true to its principles, they would have to have within them a certain ability to rise to the occasion and personify the qualities that he saw in these creatures. They would need the vibrance and vigor and power of action. Yaakov wanted a nation that would be strong and not weak. He wanted his descendants to be like lions; to be fearless when the moment calls for fearlessness.
Be a King!
The whole world is standing against you? No matter! Rise up like a lion! The lion is the king of the jungle. The Am Yisroel won’t cower in submission to the newfangled ideas and fads and attitudes of the world.
The nations of the world want to forbid you from keeping the Torah? So Yaakov wants his descendants to be like wolves, hungry wolves that tear at their prey. Yes, ovdei Hashem sometimes have to show anger and viciousness, like wolves. When the time comes to tear their prey, they do it. ָך∆ּב¿רƒּ ̃ƒמ עָרָה ָּ ̇¿רַﬠƒבּו – And you should destroy the wicked from your midst (Devarim 21:21). A servant of Hashem is not a weakling, a pushover; he’s a fighter.
Sometimes a Jew has to be a חַרֹ‡ י≈לֲﬠ ןֹיפƒפ¿ׁ ̆ – a sneaky snake on the path. It’s infrequent; it’s usually not so, but a frum Jew should have within himself, a certain eress, a poison, that he can use when it’s called for. It means a poison of courage, a poison of self-esteem and fearlessness. A poison of boldness to stand up for what’s right.
The Wolf in Telz
I’ll tell you a little story. Once there was the Telzer Rov, Rav Yosef Leib zichrono l’vrachah. Rav Yosef Leib was a kind-hearted tzaddik; he would give you his last piece of bread if you asked for it. That’s who he was; a man with a heart of gold. But he also had a heart of courage. Listen to this story.
In Telz not all the Jews were tzaddikim. And the powerful Jews, some of them, were Zionists, Hebraists. So when Achad Ha’am passed away – Achad Ha’am was a writer; he wasn’t a tzaddik, not at all, but he was a hero for the low people, the ignorant and the resha’im.
So the ‘leaders’ of the kehillah – it means the ‘mis’leaders – the ‘leaders’ of the kehillah got together and they came to R’ Yosef Leib and asked him to make a hesped. He should make a hesped on Achad Ha’am. So the Telzer Rav said, “I’ll make a hesped, yes, I’ll do it.”
The Hesped That Wasn’t
So he went out onto the balcony of his house with a Rambam and he read out loud from the Rambam’s Hilchos Avel as follows: ‘Any Jew who separates himself from the Jewish community by being ןָר‡ָּוַˆ לַﬠ≈מ ֹ̇וו¿ˆƒּמַה לֹע ̃≈רֹוּפ, by not fulfilling the mitzvos, so when they die their relatives do not practice any type of aveilus. They don’t mourn for them at all. יםƒח≈מ¿ׂ ּ̆ו יםƒ ֹ̇וׁ ̆¿ו יםƒל¿כֹו‡ ‡ָּל∆‡ – Instead they have to eat and drink and be merry; ל∆ׁ ̆ יוָ‡¿נֹוׂ ּ̆ו„¿בָ‡∆ׁ ̆‡ּהו¿ךּרוָּב ׁ ֹ̆ו„ָּ ַ̃ה – they celebrate the destruction of Hashem’s enemies, 'הָיך∆‡¿נַׂ ̆¿מ ‡ֹלֲה ר≈מֹו‡ בּו ָּ̇כַה ם∆יה≈לֲﬠַו ‡ָנ¿ׂ ̆∆‡ – and about them the possuk says ‘Those who hate You Hashem, I hate them’ (Hilchos Avel 1:10).
Done. He went back into the house. That was the hesped.
He was a gibor! He was like the shefifon, the poisonous serpent, because sometimes that’s what is needed! He wasn’t a little shepseleh, a little quiet sheep. He had power in him.
Enemies of the Truth
Same thing, Rav Aron Kotler and the old Satmerer Rebbe zichronom l’vrachah. They were people of great kindliness. It was to them that people in need turned; and nobody was ever turned down by these tzaddikim. And yet they both gained a number of enemies because they were outspoken. They were sweet like honey, but they weren’t sheep. Actually they were sheep, but they knew how to be lions as well.
Now people who don’t understand that tzaddikim also have to be lions and wolves and serpents, so they look at these great men askance. These people are weaklings who bend before every wind that blows and so when they see a gibor, they don’t understand. They don’t understand strength.
That’s how it could be such a thing, such an avlah, that a writer, a frum shomer Shabbos writer, once characterized the Satmerer Rebbe in a story. It was titled ‘The Rebbe and the Satan’; about how the Rebbe made a bris with the Satan. It’s because this person is a weakling. He doesn’t understand what Hashem wants in this world.
We Should be Lions
But Yaakov Avinu understood. He knew that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants lions! He wants you to be active, strong, confident, energetic, resolute and even poisonous. A servant of Hashem is a zariz, a mover, a doer. It doesn’t say ה∆ּׂ ַּ̆כ רֹוּבƒּ‚ י≈ו¡ה, be strong like a lamb, or ל∆‚≈ﬠָּכ, be like a calf – no, it doesn’t say that. םƒיַמָּׁ ַּ̆ב∆ׁ ָ̆יךƒבָ‡ ןֹוˆ¿ר ֹ̇וׂ ֲ̆ﬠַל יƒרֲ‡ָּכ רֹוּבƒּ‚ י≈ו¡ה – ‘Be strong like a lion,’ it says, ‘to fulfill the will of Hashem.’
And that’s what Yaakov was telling his children, that this is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants from the Bnei Yisroel; that they should be strong, courageous and energetic in the service of Hashem.
And so when the gays come from all over America, a few hundred thousand mushchasim, to march together, we are not impressed at all. What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want from us? That we should just sit back and observe?! That we should slink away like little quiet sheep?!
No! He wants us to be lions. At least among ourselves we have to tell the truth. “The gays?! Zullen zei gayn!” They are all going into the adamah soon! Most of them in a few years will be in the grave.
Whom He Chooses
When Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks over the sea of mankind and says “Who is the one who will serve Me best? Who is the one who will find the most favor in My eyes?” so it’s the energetic ones that find most favor in His eyes.
Now that’s not what we might have thought. We would have pointed at that quiet tzaddik in the corner, “Maybe that man, the nice quiet fellow. He’s mild and easygoing; people don’t suffer much from him. That’s Hashem’s man!”
But Hashem passes him over. “No, that’s not the man I’m looking for! I have a place for him in the World to Come, certainly. I will reward him for being noach labriyos, for getting along with everybody, of course. A kind-hearted man, a fine, quiet fellow. That’s wonderful. But he won’t become great however. He’s not the most successful one. I’m looking for people who will do something in this world, who will be energetic to accomplish! People who will stand strong for My principles, My ideals.”
That’s what He wants from us. Just to be a wishy-washy, a milquetoast, that’s nothing. He wants lions and serpents and wolves. He wants strength.
