WHEN THE ASS NOW SAW THE ANGEL OF THE

LORD,

SHE LAY DOWN UNDER BIL'AM;

AND BIL'AM WAS FURIOUS AND BEAT THE

ASS WITH HIS STICK.

THEN THE LORD OPENED THE ASS'S MOUTH, AND SHE SAID TO BIL'AM,

"WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU

THAT YOU HAVE BEATEN ME THESE THREE TIMES?"

BIL'AM SAID TO THE ASS, "YOU HAVE MADE A MOCKERY OF ME!

HAD I A SWORD WITH ME, I'D KILL YOU."

THE ASS SAID TO BIL'AM. "LOOK, I AM THE ASS

THAT YOU HAVE BEEN RIDING UPON ALL ALONG UNTIL THIS DAY! HAVE

I BEEN IN THE HABIT OF DOING THUS TO YOU?

AND HE ANSWERED "NO".

THEN THE LORD UNCOVERED BIL'AM'S

EYES,

AND HE SAW THE ANGEL OF THE LORD

STANDING IN THE WAY,

HIS DRAWN SWORD IN HIS HAND;

THEREUPON HE BOWED RIGHT DOWN TO THE

EARTH.

(Bemidbar 22:27-31)

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – From

the Torah

"Why have you beaten your ass?" – He said to

him: I have come argue the ass's case. [The purpose of this was] to teach him

the following: If this ass – who has neither right/merit/privilege nor the

covenant with the fathers – makes her rightful demand of you, then certainly

this nation which you plan to uproot [has a case against you]! Said Rabbi

Yochanan: "Prevention of animal suffering is a Torah injunction, as is

written "Why have you beaten your ass?"

 (Midrash

Hagadol, Bemidbar 22)

Their ruling that "Animal suffering is a Torah injunction" –

derived from "Why have you beaten your ass" – is

intended to bring us to perfection, so that our qualities not be those of

cruelty, that we not cause harm needlessly, without benefit. Our intentions

should be to pity and have mercy – even upon some animal which appears at random,

the urge to eat meat" – We will not slaughter cruelly or for sport.

 (Guide for the

Perplexed, Maimonides. 3:17)

Secular

Zionism has completed its function"…

(From the press)

"Rejoice greatly, Fair Zion; Raise a shout, Fair

Yerushalayim! Lo, your king is coming to you. He is victorious, triumphant, yet

humble, riding on an ass, on a donkey foaled by a she-ass." (Zechariah 9:9)

THE DONKEY OF THE MASHIACH

Chayim Rubenstein

I follow the boys, on the dusty path, my

glance skipping from rock to stone. My foot steps on crackling thorns,

squashing the hyssop alongside the trail. My donkey mind has no idea where the

path leads. Are the boys walking ito [= "with him"]

or are they walking imo [also "with him" – The Sages

taught that "ito" means simply to accompany

physically; "imo" implies accompaniment with

shared intent]. My horizon is blocked at the turn in the path, by the

fence of gathered rocks. My burden lies heavy upon me. I know not

what it is, only that its weight is oppressive. Is it the slaughter knife, or

perhaps the offering? Kindling for the offering, a small child, or gold and

silver to fill his house? My path is blocked, limited, my way is clear before

me, a little boy leads me. Step after step, my direction is forward, without

rest, without relaxing, steady. I am saddled, from early morning. Already the

heat of the Middle East is oppressive.

I am a donkey, from the land of the donkeys.

Land of physical matter and clay. (The letters het,

mem, and resh are the root letters of the Hebrew for donkey,

physical matter, and clay.) I am a donkey, mother to sons who carry the

bricks for building up the land. My ancestors came from the wild forest of

nations, and with hard labor, with clay and with bricks, with daily toil, in

the furnace of summer, enervated by long workdays, we carried baskets of soil,

and piles of blocks. Handbreadth after handbreadth, brick upon brick was it

built. Parched land, scorching sun, dunam after dunam.

Our donkey soul is not necessarily headed for

the Mount of Mor, my donkey soul sees it from afar. Our donkey soul sees one of

the mountains, for us to sit here. Our donkey soul loves the pounding of the

hooves and the hammers, but not the sharpening of slaughtering knives, the

glitter of swords.

Avram left me behind and went alone to cope

with the slaughter knife blade. He stood alone, on his feet, and the messenger

of God revealed before his eyes. Avraham, thus I read, lifted up his eyes.

Avraham called the place Hashem Yir'eh – meaning both "the

Lord will see" and "the Lord will fear".

* * *

The donkey-she ass accompanies the main

characters like a shadow. He is there – but is inconsequential. He sees but is

not seen. He participates in the story, but is not the star. The donkey was

near the Akeida; the ass carries Bil'am. Achsa alights from him when she

approaches Caleb, her father. The jawbone of the donkey was a weapon in the

hands of Samson. The concubine of Giv'ah was carried by the donkey. Shmuel and

Moshe remonstrate: Whose donkey did I confiscate? Yishai takes a donkey, bread

and a skin of wine, and sends it with David. Abigail rides on the donkey, and

behold, David and his men come down to meet her. And so on. A passive

participant, a minor actor. Without splendor, without elegance. His behavior is

earthy. He carries, is saddled, is reined. He represents simple earthiness.

Reality. In contrast to the splendor of kings, golden robes, marble and purple

– simplicity, routine, gray.

His look is somewhat sad, rather tired; he

represents the factory worker, the peddler, the working farmer who rises early

to his day's work and the seller who comes home after dark, bent beneath the

burden of desolate, routine life, the drab reality.

This ass is not blind. This ass is smarter

than its rider. The ass sees what is before it in all its clarity. Imagination

does not distort its perception. Visions do not appear before it mid-day, not

dreams in the dark of night. He does not speak with God. He is realistic. He

experiences the day to day happenings.

What differentiates between the donkey of

Avraham and the ass of Bil'am? The rider. The donkey is left with his earthy

attributes. Avraham understands his task. Avraham and his donkey act in

harmony. Bil'am is full of fury at his ass. His leg is crushed. Very

unpleasant. We did not settle in the heart. He does not see that which the

donkey's simplicity sees. Reality. Bil'am has an exalted task, and important

assignment. He is on a sacred mission. He climbs to mountain peaks. Inflated

with his own importance. His eyes cannot see. The ass has one task only – to

carry him.

I am not the donkey of Avraham. I am a

she-ass. Bil'am – "swallower of a nation" rides upon me, and his two

boys accompany him. His boys skip on the hills. My path is not to the peak of

Pe'or, not to Bamoth Ba'al. I did not aspire to the summit of Pisgah. Bil'am

prods me on. Towards the ever-turning sword.

What did we do to you that you beat us three

times? I see the drawn sword before me and the messenger of God confronting us.

On the path through the vineyards, fence on this side, fence on the other side.

His sword-wielding image stands clearly before us, like the sun at noon. The

sword's blade flashes in the sunlight. The path leads us to Saul's destiny. , "I

in the habit of doing thus to you?" Why you endanger me? And

why, when I swerved from the road, did you say "If I had a sword in my

hand…"

The time has come for the ass to open its

mouth. That mouth which exists from the time of creation. A mouth whose echo is

heard from one end of the world to the other. The time has come to open the eyes

of Bil'am. To see that which every ass sees. And perhaps the she-ass is not a

donkey, and Bil'am is not a magician. And the sword spins around. And perhaps

on the mountain stands an Ashera, a sacred post. ‘If he was riding his

donkey and the time for prayer arrived… in any case – let him remain seated

and pray, because he cannot concentrate [if he stands, because he fears someone

may steal his donkey]' (Berachot 30a) and

let him say: Please, O Lord, open his eyes, and perhaps he will bless: "How

goodly are your tents, O Yaakov, your dwelling places, O Israel".

"Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moshe"

– But among the nations such a one did arise. And who was that? It was

Bil'am son Be'or.

 (Sifrei, V'zot

Haberacha 357)

A great moral is to be inferred from these words. According to this,

what determines one's level is not his natural character traits, nor the

talents granted him from above, not even the gift of God, the greatest of all

gifts – prophecy – none of these can transform him into a tzaddik

against his will, or without his own effort. Man's desire to exploit his

attributes, his abilities, and even the power of prophecy granted him – his

will alone will determine whether he will employ all these for a blessing or –

Heaven forbid – for a curse. His free will alone will make him a tzaddik like

Moshe or a rasha like Bil'am.

 (From Studies In The Book Of Bemidbar,

Prof. Nechama Leibowitz z"l, p. 319)

Five things occurred to our ancestors on the 17^th of

Tammuz… On the 17^th of Tammuz the

sanctuary.

(Mishna Taanit 4:6)

"The tablets were God's work, and the writing was God's

writing, incised upon the tablets." (Shemot 32)

"Before the eyes of all Israel" – His

spirit moved him to smash the tablets before their eyes, as is written "I

smashed them before your eyes" and The Holy one, Blessed Be He,

assented, as is written (Shemot 34:a) "Which

smashing them.

(Rashi, Devarim 34:12)

… Do not imagine that the Mikdash and the Mishkan are – forbid – holy

in themselves. The Name, May He Be Blessed, dwells in the midst of his

children, and if they behave as one who has transgressed the covenant, all

holiness is removed from them, and they are like a vessel of sand which

ruffians have defiled; Titus entered the Holy of Holies with a harlot and yet

he was not harmed, because the holiness had been removed.

Yet more, the tablets are "the writing of the Lord";

they, too, are not inherently holy, but are such only for you, and when the

bride is unfaithful under the canopy, they are considered as an earthen pot

with no intrinsic sanctity, only for you who watch over them.

In summation: There is nothing holy in the world deserving of

service and submission, only the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is holy in his

inevitable existence, for him is glorious praise; all holinesses derive from

the commandment which the Creator commanded to build a mishkan to offer

sacrifices and offerings to The Name, Be He Blessed, alone.

 (Meshech

Chochma, Shemot 32:19)

Readers Write:

In reaction to Shammai Leibowitz's

interpretation:

"Love distorts the

line" – So do political leanings distort commentary. It is difficult to

attribute to the author of the "Meshech Chochma" your literal

interpretation to the effect there is no sanctity to land at all; there are

passages which explicity contradict such a position.

This forum does not permit lengthy exposition, so I will make do with

one explicit passage "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place

on which you stand is holy ground." (3:5), which, along with many other passages, indicates

attribution of sanctity to earth, persons, etc. The words of the Meshech

Chochma are to be understood as meaning that the sanctity of a place is "conditional

sanctity", meaning that the holiness can be profaned, just as a cohen can

‘profane' his descendents by improper behavior.

Similarly, the midrash about the first murder can be understood contrary

to your understanding. This holy place is worth one's sacrificing his life for

it because of its sanctity. True, murder is a most heinous act,

but all the same, it "can be understood" , just as we find that the

blood redeemer who accidentally kills the murderer is not subject to a death

penalty.

And finally, regarding your conclusions from the passage in Chronicles, "Much

to my name, for much blood have you spilt on the ground before me."

Perhaps your eye skipped over the words of the Pesikta D'Rav Kahana, loc.

cit., which say that were David have to have built the Beit Hamikdash, it

would never have been destroyed, because of David's great devotion and the

spilling of his blood. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, wanted, as it were, to have

the option of destroying the Temple, and therefore He prevented David from

building it. Thus, your political views led you to "coerce" the

passages to conform to you views

                                                                        Respectfully,

                                                                        Dr.

Aryeh Bachrach

                                                                        Beit

El

                                                                        Mobile

Post East Binyamin

                                                                        90631

Response to the reaction:

I thank Dr. Bachrach for his remarks, but it seems that he did not

understand what I was saying. In my article, I did not nullify the concepts of

sanctity of place and time, which are central to the world of Judaism, but I

demonstrated that it is necessary to totally separate between the idea of a

holy place and the idea of sovereign rule over that place; the latter is a

nationalistic-secular concept, which has no connection whatever to Jewish

holiness.

Yet more: Sanctity of place is, in many ways, the exact opposite of

nationalism. The holiness of such a place is expressed by the very prohibition

of entering such a place, and rule by us should not be maintained. Davka

the passage about the burning bush quoted by Dr. Bachrach offered

incontrovertible proof: The place where the bush burned was holy, and therefore

it was forbidden for Moshe to enter there; it remained outside his rule. And

similarly with Mt. Sinai – its holiness is expressed through the command: "Beware

of going up the mountain or touching the border of it." Because

the place is holy, no signs of sovereignty may be shown.

It seems to me that the tragedy of religious Judaism in the State of

Israel is the mixing up of the concepts of holiness and of nationalism, which

has caused desecration of the Name, has extinguished the light of religion, and

has caused needless spilling of blood. We have an obligation, first and

foremost, to make total separation between holiness and nationalism. Then we

will understand that what we really have here is a dispute over land, one which

rational people could have resolved long ago.

Shammai Leibowitz

Editorial

Board: Pinchas Leiser

(Editor), Miriam Fine

(Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and

Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation:

Kadish Goldberg

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