THE SEVEN LAMBS OF AVROHOM
“(Avrohom said to Avimelech) You are going to take these seven lambs from my hand as a proof that I dug this well” (Bereshis 21,30)
The stay of the Ark of the Covenant among the Plishtim for SEVEN months was another* penalty for the SEVEN lambs that Avrohom had given King Avimelech (Bereishis Rabbah 54).
At the end of Eli haCohen’s life, the Ark of the Covenant was captured in battle by the Plishtim, who hold it for seven months. Initially they placed it in the temple of their idol. However, when they returned in the morning, the idol was lying on the ground before the Ark. The next morning the idol was not lying on the ground, but its head and limbs were broken off. They moved the Ark somewhere else, but wherever it was taken, the people were severely afflicted with hemorrhoids and other woes.
Upon realizing that G-d was punishing them for holding the His Ark, the Plishtim resolved to return it. They took two nursing cows that had never carried a yoke, confined their suckling calves at home and hitched the cows to a new wagon. Then they placed the Holy Ark on the wagon and pointed the cows towards the Israeli border, reasoning that if the cows abandoned their young and carried the Ark home, this would be a sign that G-d wished for the Ark to be returned. Indeed, the cows proceeded directly to the town of Bais Shemesh.
The story of the return of the Ark by the Plishtim to Bais Shemesh subtly contrasts the attitude of the Plishtim towards it with that of the Israelites who received it, serving as a reproof to the latter for failing to show the proper respect. (A similar lack of respect is often visible in present-day places of "worship".)
The Plishtim consult their priests and magician-diviners as to a fitting way to return the Ark that had created such havoc in their land (a terrible infestation of mice) and in their very innards (the hemorrhoids). (According to one Medrosh the mice jumped up into them and pulled out their innards, making this plague no less striking than those of Egypt.) The priests and magicians answered that the Plishtim must SHOW that they understand that the plague was from G-d by offering GOLDEN MICE and GOLDEN HEMORRHOIDS. "Then you shall be healed, and HE WILL BE KNOWN TO YOU – why would He then not turn his hand away from you" (Shmuel I 6,3).
Nevertheless, the Plishtim did not quite believe in G-d's supreme power. They believed in a variety of divine powers and knew of the wrath of the G-ds, which they sought to appease, but they also believed in luck and chance. This was why they set up the test of the cow-drawn wagon to see if the plague might not have been chance. "And you will see, if it goes up by way of his boundary to Bais Shemesh, He did this great evil to us, but if not, we shall know that it was not His hand that plagued us, it was a CHANCE that occurred to us" (Shmuel I 6,9).
The test was set up to be as difficult as possible. Two nursing cows were brought to draw the wagon laden with the heavy wooden gold-covered ark and its contents of stone together with the golden Cherubim together with the box of golden mice and golden hemorrhoids, while their suckling calves were held back in the house behind them. The last thing a nursing cow that has never had to work wants to do is to turn her back on her new-born calf and drag an exceedingly heavy wagon in the opposite direction.
* Note: The Medrash lists additional “penalties” for giving the seven lambs: seven-generation delay to entering Eretz Yisrael; death by the Plishtim of seven Tzadakim (Chofni, Pinchas, Shimshon, Shaul and his three sons); destruction of seven special places (Ohel Moed, Gilgal, Nov, Givon, Shiloh, two Bais haMikdashim)
VA-YISHAR-NAH HA-PAROS, "AND THE COWS SANG" (Shoftim 6,12)
Rashi on this verse states that the Hebrew word VA-YI-SHAR-NAH is "ANDROGYNOUS" i.e. a grammatical hybrid of masculine (the prefix –YI- indicating masculine 3rd person plural) and feminine (the suffix -NAH, indicating feminine 3rd person plural). Without Rashi's comment, the obvious pshat is that the word is not ANDROGYNOUS at all, but that the root is Yishar, as in "straight", and here we simply have the feminine 3rd person plural form, i.e. the two milking cows went straight. However, by telling us that the word is indeed ANDROGYNOUS, Rashi is pointing to the deeper drush, based on the root Shar – "sing". Not only did the two mother cows SING, but so did their MALE YOUNG, and this is why the grammatical form is both masculine and feminine!
The miracle of the singing cows is greatly celebrated in Torah lore (Avodah Zarah 24b), and – for Rabbi Nachman lovers – is alluded to in his story of the “Exchanged Children”, where the king's true son eventually gains possession of a vessel that when placed on an animal, causes it to sing.
The Raivid asks why the remarkable mouths of these cows were not included in the list of Ten Things that were created at the very end of the Sixth Day of Creation in the twilight just as the first Shabbos was beginning (Avos 5:8). The Ritva answered that it is because the mouths of the cows are INCLUDED in the MOUTH OF THE DONKEY which opened up its mouth to speak to Bilam (Bemidbar 22:28). There the ASON, wife of the CHAMOR, "donkey" representing HOMRIUS, material physicality, spoke out the letters of Aleph Beis from Aleph to Sav – A-S-oN (the long Nun, which stretches from the top of the line down way below the bottom, signifies the 50 Gates of Understanding). When the Plishtim returned the Ark, this HOLY VESSEL caused the very cows to SING DESPITE THEMSELVES – despite their longing for their young and not to have to drag this heavy wagon.
As discussed in the commentaries on the songs of Deborah (Shmuel 5) and Chana (Shmuel I 1-2), the level of SONG (BINAH) reveals that all creation is governed providentially by the One G-d, whose commandments to the world are engraved on the Stone Tablets contained in the Ark of Testimony. Just as the Ark miraculously carried those who carried it over the waters of the Yardein, so it compelled the very cows to sing songs of praise to G-d.
The idolatrous Plishtim captains walked after the cart watching in amazement, and they knew the power of G-d and His holy Ark, but the Israelite men of Bais Shemesh were too busy with their wheat harvest to pay more than casual attention to the passing spectacle. The Gemara (Sotah 35a) says that the men of Bais Shemesh were smitten because: (1) they kept harvesting even as they prostrated to the Ark in lieu of stopping everything in face of this miracle; and (2) they made up a scurrilous rhyme asking the Ark who made it angry and what came to reconcile it.
The rabbinic discussion (Sotah 35b) about the smitten men of Bais Shemesh discusses whether only 70 men died that were equivalent to 50,000, OR that 50,000 died who were the equivalent of the 70 members of the Sanhedrin. In any event the men of Bais Shemesh suffered an extremely painful blow that came to teach the true, terrible AWESOMENESS of the Ark of the Covenant, which signifies G-d's very presence among us. This is a double-edged sword, causing the righteous to rejoice while the wicked and rebellious suffer G-d's wrathful intolerance of evil.
So important was this KIDDUSH HASHEM, Sanctification of G-d's name, that – surprising as it may seem – the very BOX with the GOLDEN MICE and GOLDEN HEMMORHOIDS offered by the Plishtim was kept SIDE BY SIDE with the Ark of the Covenant in the Bais HaMikdash, throughout the period of the first Temple. They remained there until they were hidden together with the flask of Mahn made by Aharon in the Wilderness, the flask of the anointing oil, Aharon's staff and the flowering almond branch until they were hidden by King Yoshiah (Yoma 52b). As we prepare ourselves to see them again soon in our times, let us learn from this text a lesson in the proper attitude of respect and honor that we must show to G-d's holy Ark.
