Parshas Shemos: Messiah’s Donkey

“So Moses took his wife and sons, mounted them on the donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt.” –Exodus 4:20

“ON THE DONKEY: The word “the” seems to imply that it’s referring to the particular donkey. It is the donkey that Abraham saddled for the binding of Isaac, and it is the one that Messiah, the King is destined to be revealed upon, as it says in reference to the Messiah, “a humble man, riding on a donkey.” –Rashi ibid quoting Midrashic work, Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer

The Greek King Ptolemy II (285-246 B.C.E.), wished to have the Torah translated into Greek. The work was called the "Septuagint," which means "70," because according to Jewish tradition (Talmud Megillah 9a), Ptolemy II had 72 rabbis put into separate rooms with the task of rendering the Torah into Greek. This way, Ptolemy II believed, he would be able to ascertain the veracity of his translated version. The Talmud relates that all versions were identical, and the rabbis even sterilized some verses which could potentially be misinterpreted by Ptolemy.

One of the sterilized verses was the verse describing the return of Moses and his family back to Egypt on a donkey. In its stead they used the term “mounted them on a carrier of humans. The commentary Tosafos explains that a donkey is a degrading animal to ride. Ptolemy would not have understood how Moses returned to free the Jews on the lowliest of animals. He should have traveled on a horse or camel. It was unbefitting of him.

Accordingly, why would the Midrash (Pirkei D’Rebbi Eliezer) glorify the fact that Abraham, Moses, and eventually the Messiah all share the same donkey? And could it possibly be that the donkey survived for over 3,500 years?

Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin (1823-1900) explains that unquestionably Abraham’s donkey did not live to see Moses. Rather the holiness of the action represented by the donkey, lived on. The Hebrew word for donkey is “chamor”, and the Hebrew word for the most simple and basic level of physicality is chomer. The two words share the same letters. The donkey represents the challenge that we all face in this world. That is, to overcome the base physical nature of our body that pulls us away from spirituality. Our job is to help our body discover our soul, and eventually to make our body into a spiritual entity. Once you have the more sophisticated animals such as a horse or a camel, the nature and lowliness of the physicality is dulled. Therefore Abraham took this donkey that represented everything we are meant to overcome in this world, and he saddled it to perform a mitzvah. He overpowered his evil inclination and he made a physical representation of that deed.

Moses as well did not wish to leave his family in the idolatrous nation of Median while the Jewish people were receiving the Torah. He therefore decided to show his family that their goal of returning to Egypt was to become more spiritual by virtue of suppressing their donkey trait of physicality. (Only Moses actually ended up entering Egypt, while the rest of his family returned to Median, because once Eliezer his son had a circumcision, they were able to withstand the impurity in Median.)

And finally Messiah will redeem us all from our challenges of the physical-spiritual struggle. He therefore will ride a donkey symbolizing the final slaughtering of the evil inclination.

Abraham founded our nation, Moses taught us Torah and redeemed us from slavery, and finally Messiah will grant us the ultimate redemption. They all transmitted an identical message: Identify the spiritual impediment and conquer it. Take the donkeys of our lives, and use it for spirituality. Each one of us knows our unique challenges. Let’s identify it, and let’s make it more spiritual. At least put the spark of spirituality into the donkey!

We begin this week the second book of the five books of Moses, Exodus. The Rabbis teach us that every week contains within it the spiritual spark of the week’s Torah portion. We all need the redemption right now. Between our brothers and sisters on the front lines in a physical war in Gaza and the surrounding communities, our family and friends struggling to put bread on their table globally, and the spiritual genocide of our nation, we really need an Exodus again.

Let’s take the message of this week’s Torah portion to heart, and we will hopefully merit experiencing Messiah riding in on his donkey (or on a cloud if we are all meritorious!) in the very near future. Amen.