{"id":79505,"date":"2020-09-01T21:33:26","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T18:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79505"},"modified":"2020-09-01T21:33:26","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T18:33:26","slug":"riding-on-a-donkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/riding-on-a-donkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding On A Donkey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Our chapter includes a joyous description of the coming of the ideal Messianic king: \u201cRejoice greatly, Fair Zion! Raise a shout, Fair Jerusalem! 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\u201d (9:9).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rabbinic Sages interpreted this donkey as having a remarkable history. According to <\/span>Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 31<\/span><\/a>, the donkey which accompanied Abraham and Isaac to the Aqedah (Gen. 22:8) was among those miraculous handiworks of God created at sunset on the last day of Creation (see Avot 5:6). It was this very same donkey that accompanied Moses to Egypt (Ex. 4:20). And it is this donkey that the Davidic Messiah will ride upon at the end of days, as it says: \u201cLo, your king is coming to you. He is victorious, triumphant, yet humble, riding on an ass, on a donkey foaled by a she-ass\u201d (9:9; see also Rashi on Exodus 4:20).<\/span><\/p>\n

This timeless donkey became so identified with the coming of the Messiah that according to Talmud Bavli Berakhot 56b simply seeing a donkey in one\u2019s dream anticipates Redemption, as it says: \u201cYour king is coming to you\u2026riding on an ass\u201d (9:9).<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanhedrin 98a resolves a seeming contradiction between Daniel\u2019s messianic vision (7:13): \u201cOne like a human being came with the clouds of heaven\u201d and Zechariah\u2019s prophecy describing the Messiah as \u201chumble, riding on an ass\u201d. If the Jewish people merit redemption, the Messiah will come \u201cwith the clouds of heaven\u201d. But if nevertheless we still do not merit redemption, the Messiah will come riding upon a donkey.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Talmud here goes on to relate that King Shapur (who ruled Persia, 241-272 CE) said to Shmuel (the head of the Yeshivah in Nehardea, Babylonia): You say that the Messiah will come on a donkey! I will send him my \u201cflashiest horse — <\/span>susya barqa<\/span><\/em>\u201d. Shmuel replied: Do you have a horse of a \u201chundred-hues\u201d like our Messiah\u2019s donkey (see Rashi, compare Kohut, <\/span>Arukh Ha-Shalem<\/span><\/i>, s.v. <\/span>kaar<\/span><\/i>)? The Maharal of Prague (d. 1609) on this extended Talmudic discussion notes that the Hebrew word for “donkey, chamor<\/em> is etymologically related to the word chomer <\/em>\u2013 raw material, in its simplest\u00a0<\/span>form, the opposite of perfected otherworldliness. This suggests that the Messiah is depicted as riding on a donkey to indicate that he will totally subjugate material physicality to ethereal spirituality. This line of interpretation has been followed by later Hasidic teaching on sovereignty of the Messiah over the material world represented by Zechariah\u2019s donkey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the expression \u201cthe Messiah\u2019s Donkey\u201d (<\/span>chamoro shel Mashiach<\/span><\/em>) has been used in contemporary Israeli discourse to refer, supposedly by Rav Kook, to those secular Jews who by doing the hard and dangerous work of resettling and building up the Land of Israel are, in effect, paving the way for religious Jews who will ultimately bring on the Messianic Age. See further Seffi Rachlevsy\u2019s controversial book, <\/span>The Messiah\u2019s Donkey<\/span><\/i>, 1998.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":79506,"id":79506,"title":"zech9-donkey","filename":"zech9-donkey.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/zech9-donkey.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/riding-on-a-donkey\/zech9-donkey\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"zech9-donkey","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":79505,"date":"2020-09-01 18:00:41","modified":"2022-08-16 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