Today's Perek Shira is the Song of the Snail.
It's a pasuk in Tehillim 59,9 , where David HaMelech is cursing the wicked, and
he says כְּמוֹ
שַׁבְּלוּל תֶּמֶס יַהֲלֹךְ נֵפֶל אֵשֶׁת בַּל חָזוּ שָׁמֶשׁ: /Like the
snail that melts and slithers away. the stillborn of a mole, that never
saw the sun.
So, the mole (which we're not going to talk about)
and the snail have in common that the sun is not good for them.
And , now lets explain the pasuk:
What does it mean that the snail that melts and slithers away?
Simply, it means that it dies when it leaves its shell, so it slithers away.
But the Seforno says that a snail has a certain mucus, and it creates a
slimy trail that makes it appear like it's melting away. So David HaMelech is
saying that the wicked should continually melt away and disappear in a similar
fashion.
The Midrash adds a point that just
like the snail disappears but leaves behind a visible trail, so too with evil
slander, long after the actual sound of the words vanish, the damage they cause
remains. So, that's the pasuk.
What is the snail's message about not
seeing the sun? The sefer Kanaf Rananim explains
that the wicked are compared to the snail, because just like the snail is
always in his shell, hiding himself from the sun, so too, the
wicked don't want to see the sun and light of the Torah. They avoid the
light and stay in their shells. That's one explanation.
The sefer Yismach Yehuda explains beautifully that
the Gemara in Nidarim 8b tells us that
there's no difference between Gehinom and Olam HaBa.
The sun is really not at full force presently, but when Hashem
takes the sun out of its sheath, the righteous are healed and the wicked are
judged. And not only the righteous are healed, but they enjoy it.
They're dancing and the wicked are melting away. That's why the wicked are like
the snail, that can't come in contact with the sun.
This is an important lesson- the snail symbolizes
the inability to deal with the Torah.
So the Resha'im avoid the sun, the
light of Torah and Godliness in this world, and therefore, they can't
handle it in the next world.
Basically, this world is, like the Mesilat Yesharim tells
us, A place to delight in God. Not just the next world, but
this world. And with that enjoyment and delight that we develop in this world
for spirituality, we'll continue in the world to come. That's an
important concept.
Just like when it comes to drinking scotch, you have
to develop a taste, you have to develop a taste for spirituality.
Somebody that has no appreciation for spirituality will not enjoy it at all. In
fact, it's the opposite-it will be painful for them.So, the wicked,
snail-like people who avoid the sun, will not be able to ever enjoy the sun.
Our job in this world is to develop that taste. A
certain rabbi once said jokingly (although there's more than a grain of truth
in this humorous remark), that Gan Eden and Gehinom are
really the same thing. It's a huge Bet Midrash with
bookshelves lining the walls from one end to the other, and people have nowhere
else to go- forever. For the righteous person, this is Gan Eden.
What more could you ask for? But for the person with no connection to Torah,
this is Gehinom- like sitting through a boring speech for eternity.
Rav Wolbe said that the time in our lives that
we're supposed to develop this taste for spirituality is Shabbat. That's the
litmus test. How much do you appreciate Shabbat? Shabbat is Me'en Olam
Haba/ a microcosm of Olam Haba. Shabbat is created for Oneg, Oneg Shabbat.
Like the Pele Yoetz writes on the topic of Rosh Hashanah, that there are
many levels of Oneg. Enjoying your piece of chicken is not
the ultimate. That's where it starts. You might say, Oh
wow, this is what chicken tastes like, so imagine what Olam Haba tastes
like!
But the ultimate goal is to get to a spiritual
flavor and appreciation. Rav Shach once commented that Gan Eden is the
experience of a long Friday night in the winter, learning Gemara by
candlelight. You have a long candle, and you sit there with the Gemara
and you're great. And you know what Gehinom is? It's
the feeling one experiences when the candle is suddenly extinguished and one
can no longer study!
A more modern example that has happened to me more
than once is when you have a 45- minute free Zoom account, and you're in
the middle of an exciting shiur. Then suddenly, bing, the 45 minute
mark comes and that's it. That's Gehinom if you're in
the middle of the class.
The experience of Gan Eden and Gehinom depends
on one's connection to Torah learning- something that we develop here.
And that's the message of the snail: Do
not be of those creatures that avoid the sun. Develop a taste for the sun and
you will enjoy Olam HaBa.
