{"id":62306,"date":"2019-09-05T10:50:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T15:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=62306"},"modified":"2019-09-05T18:47:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T23:47:01","slug":"opening-words-for-elul-zman-on-the-shloshim-of-dvir-sorek-hyd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/opening-words-for-elul-zman-on-the-shloshim-of-dvir-sorek-hyd\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Words for Elul Zman: On the Shloshim of Dvir Sorek H”YD"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, we were privileged to host the honorable President, Mr. Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin for Elul Zman at Ohr Torah Stone\u2019s Robert M. Beren Machanaim Hesder Yeshiva. Addressing the president and our students and faculty, I shared:<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. President, thank you for joining us at the opening of Elul Zman.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Today, standing here as a Jew, as an Israeli, as a new oleh<\/i> able to actualize the 2,000 year old dream of living in Israel, and as a citizen of the world, I would like state on behalf of Ohr Torah Stone’s Robert M. Beren Machanaim Hesder Yeshiva and all of our students:<\/span><\/p>\n

The terrorists tried to break our spirit.\u00a0Despite this, we stand here today to begin Elul Zman, our ineffable spirit undaunted.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the People of Israel have done throughout all of our history, we state clearly and resoundly that the enemy will not triumph.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While we mourn deeply our brothers and sisters who have been attacked or murdered, we stand here as proof that the Nation of Israel is eternal.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as such, we continue to study Torah; we continue to raise the banner of ethics and morality among the nations of the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

We continue to act out of a prism of love for all of humanity,\u00a0rather than from one of hate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And we will continue to maintain our belief that there is goodness in the world,\u00a0and that we have the potential and the responsibility to bring that goodness into being. <\/span><\/p>\n

The following true story is known among the students in our beit<\/i> midrash<\/i>. During the course of the past school year, Dvir came across a wounded donkey belonging to a resident of one of the nearby villages.\u00a0Dvir paid handsomely for the donkey, nurtured it back to health and then released it. This one incident<\/span> reflects so much more than what appears on the surface.\u00a0Dvir’s deed, in its truest sense, is a manifestation of his religious and ethical core. Despite the prevailing tensions in our region, Dvir showed compassion towards a living creature and in so doing, fulfilled the Torah commandment of helping a donkey that has collapsed under its heavy burden. <\/span><\/p>\n

But this is not the entire story.\u00a0There is beautiful symbolism rooted in this incident that is Biblical in scope. <\/span><\/p>\n

The words chamor<\/i> or aton <\/i>(donkey) appears about ten times in Tanach. When examining these instances, it becomes patently clear that when a donkey is mentioned,\u00a0it represents much more than a mode of transportation. The donkey\u00a0carries a symbolic importance.\u00a0When Avraham arrives at the location where he was to offer his son Yitzchak, he does so on a donkey \u2013 “And Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey”; when Moshe’s family is to return to Egypt, they do so on a donkey \u2013 “And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon the donkey.”\u00a0 And perhaps the most well-known incident of all \u2013 Bil’am, the infamous sorcerer, is reprimanded by his very own aton<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it could be simply an interesting detail to note \u2013 that a donkey was used for the journey \u2013\u00a0 <\/span>one cannot but wonder why the Torah, known for its succinct descriptions, chooses to include such a minor detail.\u00a0In most instances, when the Torah describes a trek, it does not mention details such as how the individuals travelled, the modes of transportation or what the journey was like. Avraham journeys from Ur Kasdim to Canaan, yet we are given no details of the trip.\u00a0 When Moshe fled from Egypt, we are not told upon which animal he rode. Therefore, when this particular detail is mentioned, its insertion into the text rightfully evokes surprise and requires an explanation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This detail does not go unnoticed by our Sages:<\/span><\/p>\n

“The donkey upon which Abraham rode is the offspring of the aton <\/i>created at sunset on the eve of the first Shabbat of Creation … this is the very same donkey upon which Moses rode when coming down to Egypt \u2026 this is the very donkey that the Messiah will ride upon \u2026 (Pirkei De’Rabi Eliezer<\/i>:30).<\/span><\/p>\n

Each time that a donkey or aton is described as the method of transportation, we find the journey takes an unexpected turn and the original purpose of the journey does not materialize.<\/span><\/p>\n