Today we continue with the Song of the Mouse, but on a deeper level.
The עכבר /mouse says says,
אֲרוֹמִמְךָ יְיָ כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי וְלֹא־שִׂמַּחְתָּ אֹיְבַי לִי׃ (תהלים ל ב)
I'm going to lift up Hashem because He drew me up from the depths,
There's an interesting story in the Navi, in Shemuelא . It was a horrible day, when the Pelishtim took the Aron Elokim, as the Navi reports, The glory has been exiled from Israel for the Ark of Hashem has been captured.
But Hashem immediately made a miracle and the idol of that town came crashing down, so they decide to do something. And the first thing is Hashem struck the people of Ashdod with hemorrhoids. They got scared and decided to move the Aron to the town of Gat, but again there is a great commotion. Why? Because again the people of the city, from small to great were afflicted with internal hemorrhoids. So they decided to move the Aron to the town of Echron. And those people said, "They brought it here because they want to kill us?" Finally, the leaders got together and decided, "Let's send it back. It's going to kill our people." There was a panic of death in the whole city. The hand of Hashem was very heavy there. And the people who did not die were stricken with hemorrhoids and the outcry of the city ascended to heaven.
Horrific punishments were coming onto them. And when they were ready to send back the Ark, they said, "We'll send it back with a gift." What did they send? They were five Philistine governors, and they sent five golden images of hemorrhoids and five golden mice.
Very strange. Make your images of hemorrhoids and images of mice which are demolishing the country and give them his homage to the God of Israel.. Perhaps He will alleviate His hand from upon you and your gods and your land.
What in the world is going on with this story?
We turn to the Yalkut Shemoni Bamidbar chapter 11, which tells us that the people of Pelishtim said, God brought 10 plagues on the Egyptians. He ran out of plagues. So God said, I ran out of plagues?! I'm going to give you something you never saw before! And so when every one of them sat down to relieve themselves, God sent mice from the depths to nibble away at them and cause hemorrhoidal pains. So it wasn't just the hemorrhoids, as the pasuk says, but the mice that caused the hemorrhoids. That is why, when they wanted to do teshuva they sent back, in homage, the image of mice and hemorrhoids. And therefore it says the sefer Siach Yitzchak that the mice say, אֲרוֹמִמְךָ יְיָ כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי וְלֹא־שִׂמַּחְתָּ אֹיְבַי לִי׃ (תהלים ל ב) /I want to praise Hashem. He drew me up from the depths, like with a pail And the enemies did not rejoice over me.
We overtook the Pelishtim. And the mouse is happy to say, I caused a Kiddush Hashem, I caused the Aron to go back to the Mishkan. The Gemara in Masechet Yoma, 52 B says that in the Kodesh HaKodashim of the first Bet Hamikdash, originally there was the Aron, the manna, the oil, the staff of Aharon, and the box that the Pelishtim sent the 'gift' in!
Th Ben Ish Chai is bothered- You're putting that gift- with these mice- in the Holy of Holies? The Ben Ish Chai explains that they removed all the gold mice and hemorrhoids, and just left the box there to remember the miracle that had happened. But the sefer Lekutei Amarim says in the name of an elder, who wrote the book Nefesh David, that the mice were there in the Aron. And that's why he says the mouse's song is אֲרוֹמִמְךָ יְיָ כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי וְלֹא־שִׂמַּחְתָּ אֹיְבַי לִי׃ (תהלים ל ב /You lift me up from the depths and You put me in the Holy of Holies. That's the song of the mice.
The Gemara in Horaot 13A says, why is everyone controlling the mice? Rashi asks, Why is it that everybody is chasing mice, with mousetraps, etc…
The answer is, Their makeup is bad. Rashi says that their Yetzer, their inclination, is really bad because they eat through things that they have no pleasure from, and they destroy them. That's why the Yerushalmi in Baba Metzia ( perek ג Halacha ה , cited by Rav Chaim Kanievsky, says the mice are wicked and that's why they're chased.
As we know, everything in the world can be channeled or used for the good. And this wicked mouse, who bites and eats, was used on a mission to protect the Kavod of the Aron, which shows us that even someone with bad tendencies can channel them and use them, and say, אֲרוֹמִמְךָ יְיָ כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי וְלֹא־שִׂמַּחְתָּ אֹיְבַי לִי׃ (תהלים ל ב)You lifted me up, and my enemies were not happy.
This is a song that was sung for David Hamelech when he went into the Bet Hamikdash.
David also, it says, had seeming negative tendencies. It says is he was a redhead. And when Shemuel saw him, he said, He's a redhead. He can't be anointed. But no, Tov Ro'ee/he has good eyes. The Gemara says even though he was aggressive, he asked permission from the Sanhedrin. So certain people might have Achbar-like traits, and you might think the man is going to end up being totally wicked, but in the end, if he's channeled properly, he'll be able to sing that song of the mice, because they were the ones that brought Kavod Hashem, by bringing the Aron back to the Mishkan.