Today we study the song of the Spider/Simamit
(sometimes called Shimamit)
הַלְלוּהוּ
בְצִלְצְלֵי שָׁמַע הַלְלוּהוּ בְּצִלְצְלֵי תְרוּעָה: (תהילים
קנ ה)
Praise Him, Hashem with the Silseleh
Shama, Praise Him with the Silseleh Teruah.
What does Silsel mean? The
Radak and Ibn Ezra say has to do with
the word Mitzaltayim, which is found a lot in the Kituvim, e.g. Divreh
HaYamim 16,42.
Most say they are symbols,
two copper plates that bang against each other and create a loud sound. The Mabit
says they are two types of symbols. One is the Silseleh Shama, that makes a loud sound,
and the other is the Silseleh Teruah, that makes a softer
sound. The Shiltei Giborim describes them as a small handheld disc that make a
clicking sound like a Teruah.
What do these two sounds mean?
The Mabit says we have to praise God
for open miracles and hidden miracles. For the open miracles we need an instrument
that creates a loud, crashing sound, and for the hidden miracles, we have the
sound of a staccato Teruah blast.
Why specifically is it the spider that
sings this song?
The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat 77B says
that Rav Yehuda said Rav said Nothing
that Hashem created in the world was for naught. Why did God create spiders?
To heal scorpion bytes. They would crush
and cook spiders and smear them on scorpion bites.
So there's something about the
spider as the antidote for the scorpion. Further, the Gemara continues and says there are five fears where
something bigger is afraid of something smaller. One of those is that the
scorpion is afraid of the spider. The scorpion, as big and powerful as he is,
is afraid of the spider. Why? Rashi says
the spider makes a hissing sound of sorts that goes into the ear of the scorpion
and scares it. That's why the sefer Siftei Renanot says the Song of the
Spider is about praising God through sound. It thanks Hashem for its sound
abilities, which it uses for protection. The sefer Shaar Shimon gives a deeper
meaning- that this hints to the fear that the Satan has of the blowing of the
shofar. The shofar sounds instill fear
into the Satan. That's why he gets confused when he hears the sound of the
shofar.
The spider is singing this song that
refers to the sounds of creation, the sefer of Rav Shmuel Kimchi says, referring to the fact that the spider
spins a web and catches all kinds of creatures in those webs. When those
creatures are caught, they cry out. So
the spider praises God for the ability,
the instinct to create the webs and capture these creatures. And he praises
when he hears the sound of his captive. That means he did a good job and he now
has what to eat.
And he ends with, from all this,
we see the wisdom of Hashem and that every creature has to serve Hashem
according to his abilities and praise God for the abilities that he has.
Just like every creature has
instincts, every human being has instincts. And as we know from the Zohar, Na'aseh
Adam/Let us make man, all the creatures of creation were asked to give
their instincts and talents to man. So man is the most talented of creatures.
Let's appreciate some of the wonders of the spider,
as his song is not only his physical
song, but what we learn from him:
There are 40,000 species of spider
and each of them produces several different kinds of silk. There's the egg sack
silk, which they used to wrap their eggs in. Then there's a silk that they use
to wrap their prey in. There's a drag line silk, the strongest of all, which is
what they hang on. There's an attaching silk that they use to hang their webs
onto an object. There are all kinds of
varieties, finer than a human hair and stronger than steel.
Many webs weigh less than a
milligram and can support 4,000 times their weight. These are wonders! An
amazing fact is that if we could get a spider to spin silk as thick as a pen,
it would stop a 747 airliner in flight! That's how powerful God's silk is, that is created by this
minuscule little spider.
Of course, besides the strength of
the web, what about the intricate design of the web? The architecture, the
ingenious design that is engineered in a way that keeps damage localized and lets
them repair it.
Look at the talents that the spider has
and look at the talents that we have. And we praise Hashem for the
talents that He gives us.
And where did all this come from? The
biggest wonder of them all is Who taught the spider to do all these
things? This is a tremendous Chochma that was put into the spider and
into creation.
That's our lesson today. The Song of
the Spider.
