Vayikra, Bechukosai 26:6 ...
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And I will grant peace in the Land, and you will lie down with no one to frighten [you]; I will remove wild beasts from the Land, and no army will pass through your land; |
"I will cause dangerous animals to cease from the land" -- Rebbi Yehudah explains this to mean, "I will eliminate them altogether." Rebbi Shimon says that it means "I will curb their dangerous behavior, so that they do no damage" -- but they will still be in existence in the land. Said Rebbi Shimon, "Which is more of a praise for Hashem -- that there be no dangerous animals at all, or that there be dangerous animals who, against their nature, do no damage? You must admit that it is the latter that is a greater praise for Him." (Torat Kohanim, ad loc.)
This passage has been discussed online by both Rabbi Simon Jacobson based on Likutei Sichos of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Rabbi Mordechai Korenfeld, one of the pioneers of Torah on the Web. Both focus on the explantion offered by the Rogachover Gaon.
First, the background. Chomer is the material essence of a thing - what it is made of, the combination of the 4 substances that is particular to a certain type of a thing. Wood, for example is the Chomer of trees, desks and tables.Tzurah is the form, characteristic and properties of a particular object - what defines the chomer of wood as being a table, quadrangular, hard and brown (see Rambam in Ch. 2 of Yesodei HaTorah and Moreh Nevukhim III:8). Expressed in this terminology, says the Rogachover, Rebbe Yehudah considers that an animal is defined by its chomer, its physicality and Rebbe Shimon says it is the form, the Tzurah that defines the beast. Rebbe Yehudah is focused on the "kamos" the quantity, the essence. Rebbe Shimon is focused on the "aichos", the quality of the appearance, in philosophical terminology, the accidents, the form, and thus is satisfied if the matter continues to exist but does not fullfill its original intentions, for then the Tzurah has been voided. Therefore, Rebbe Yehudah concludes that the removal has to be a destruction of the matter. They maintain consistent views of reality with chometz on Pesach and work on Shabbas as discussed in those essays.
How is this relevant to our lives? Of course, there are the real wild animals ( some commentaries say this relates to the question of whether pigs in the future will become extinct or become kosher). Others relate the passage in Torat Kohanim to the following question: Will at the end of days the Nations be destroyed along with Go and Magog or as is the case with Amalek or will they become our servants or convert? Or, may be we are talking about the animalistic soul within a person : will these dark, negative energies going to be annilhilated or be channeled to do good!? Animals represent these energies and the sources discuss that when a person lacks an external manifestation of his Tzelem Elokim, his G-dly soul, then wild animals will not fear him and thus attack!
The root for the verb for "elimination" in this phrase is the same as for Shabbas. When Shabbas comes, is it a time
that is separate and in a different reality from the rest of the week or is it the elevation to a higher state of rest from the energy of all the work one did in the world that week? Do the rocks that are thrown about from the Sambatyon river all week long merely just stop their constant barage or is that they achieve a true state of menuchas hanefesh (elevating rest of the soul) ?!
Background references include:
Share Moadim Pesach (Chabad) p.115. Leshem Sh'vo V'Achlamah Deah 2:4:4 p. 81 and 117, Yalkut Moshiach & Geulah (Behar-Bechukosai) [Chabad] p.367-394, Pardes Yosef, Magen Avos (Trisk), Panim Yafos p.255 on the passuk and more. Yahel Ohr - explantation on Tehillim from the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch.
See also
To Touch the Divine
Yemot HaMoshiach BeHalacha
Avakesh comments: I think that this Torat Kohanim can be related to the a central disagreement among kabalists. Some believe that after the process of separation of evil from good (birur), evil will be destroyed (bitul). This is the view of Ari, for example. Others, for example, Ramchal in KL'CH Pischei Chochma and R. Ashlag in the Inroduction to the Zohar hold that all evil will be returned to again become good, as it was initially. The topic is nicely discussed in the recent work Zohar Haramchal (it seems that Ramchal held the first view in some of his earlier works but the second view in his later works). Another good discussion in relation to Chabad literature can be found in chapter 6 of Eliott Wolfson's Open Secret.
If so, R. Yehuda and R. Shimon disagree precisely about this point. Rebbi Yehudah says that, "I will eliminate them altogether", in other words, evil will be destroyed. Rebbi Shimon says that it means "I will curb their dangerous behavior, so that they do no damage" -- but they will still be in existence in the land. R. Shimon holds that evil will be transformed.
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