Today is the song of the elephant. What does the elephant say?
מַה גָּדְלוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְיָ מְאֹד עָמְקוּ מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ: How great are Your deeds,
Hashem. Your thoughts are very deep. (Tehilim 92,6)
There are two interesting thoughts on the elephant in the Gemara in Berachot.
One is in 58B, where it says that an elephant is one of the three animals on
which you make a beracha when you see it
"Meshane et HaBeriot/God makes
strange creatures," So the Torah considers the elephant a strange
creature.
Additionally, in 56B it says, If you see a elephant in your dream,
wonders will happen to you. If you see many elephants in your dream,
wonders of wonders will happen to you. So, clearly the Gemara understands that
elephants are outstanding creatures. And
obviously, it's quite a large, interesting looking animal. It has thick legs, a
trunk, a funny looking tail, goofy looking ears... Everything about the
elephant is funny looking. On the other hand, it says in Chulin 60 A, that all creatures were created
according to their will. That means the elephant, with all its funny looking
features, understands that that is exactly what it wanted to be. It chose to be
that way. And it says,
מַה גָּדְלוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְיָ God, Your
creations are great. (gadlu can also mean big,
because he's big) מְאֹד
עָמְקוּ מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ: and the reasons
for are very deep. We cant understand it.
And this is not just about animals, it's applies to humans as well. Rabbenu Bachye, in
Devarim 22, 8 quotes this Gemara
and says on it, "All creatures were created according to their will and
desire. God told them from when they were created (back in the first six
days of creation), all of their concepts, all the events that would
happen to them, how long they'd live and how their death will be. Sometimes
has v'shalom, a person dies a horrible death. They're aware of that too.
And their parnasa/ livelihood and whether it will come easily or with difficulty, whether they make it on their own, or will have to
come onto others. And they agreed to it.
That is the wondrous lesson of the elephant. Another important
lesson comes from a rule we have said many a time, from the Gemara in Shabbat
77 B: There are five instances where we
see something large afraid of something small. One of them is that the largest
of animals- the elephant- is afraid of the smallest of creatures-the mosquito!
The mosquito is so small that when the Midrash
wants to accentuate something small the
tide the mosquito, for example, they tell the human being, "If you do the
will of God, then we'll say you're the first of creatures, and if you don't do
the will of God, we'll say to you, the mosquito
came before you."
So those are the two extremes- the elephant and the mosquito, and
the mosquito scares the elephant! The Sefer
Lechem Rav says we see from here that even this little mosquito, as small
and minute it is, has the power of an elephant because he can overcome the elephant! All of that
is in him. So on that we say on one hand, מַה גָּדְלוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְיָ look how great
and big Your creatures are. But on the
other hand, מְאֹד עָמְקוּ
מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָlook how deep Your thoughts are. Meaning,
You created this little mosquito so small but it can disturb the very big elephant.
So one explanation is that the elephant is talking about its funny
looking features and accepting them, like a caricature I recall, of a funny
looking kid that said, "If God
created me, I can't be junk." That's
the elephant's message- You were created. You
liked the way you were created, even though you look goofy, there was a good reason for
it. Elephants, throughout history, have done great things. We know the
Greeks used elephants in the times of the
Hashmona'im. And there was
the famous conqueror, Hannibal, who used
elephants to cross the Swiss Alps to win
a war. Elephants were very necessary and powerful Elephants have a strong place
in history, even with their funny looking features.
I'd like to add another aspect to the elephant, which I once heard
at an Agudah convention, by someone describing what Agudat Yisrael,with
all its separate parts, was all
about. He gave the mashal of a
group of blind men who heard that a
strange animal called an elephant had been brought to town, but none of them
were aware of its shape and form. Out of
curiosity, they decided to inspect it by touch. "Hey, the elephant is a pillar,"
said the man who felt the leg . "Oh no, it's like a rope," said the
man who touched the tail.
"No,
no, it's like a thick branch," claimed the third, who felt the trunk of the elephant. "It's like a big
fan," called the fourth man, who touched the ear. "It's like a huge wall," said the fifth man, who touched
the belly of the elephant. "It's like a solid pipe," said the sixth man,
who touched the tusk of the elephant.
So,
what is the elephant? There's a lot going on inside of an elephant and it's
hard to figure it out. And that's why, on the elephant we say, מַה גָּדְלוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ
יְיָ מְאֹד עָמְקוּ מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ:
How great are Your deeds? They're very deep Your thoughts.
What's going on? What is it exactly? What is the beautiful song of
the elephant. מַה גָּדְלוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ
יְיָ מְאֹד עָמְקוּ מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ:
How beautiful!
