There’s a very interesting Teshuva written in the Responsa of Rav Chai Gaon. There he tells a Mashal (parable). And he actually says it is a very important Mashal with great lessons.
He writes how there once was a lion that went to a fox, and the lion told the fox that he was hungry and he wants to eat. Presumably he wanted to eat the fox. The fox was sly and asked the lion as to why he would chose a lion as a meal. The fox continued and said that there are other options for better tasting meat. The fox told the lion to go and eat a human being. The fox knew there would be a pit that was camouflaged, and he knew that when the lion would go after the human, he would fall into the pit and get stuck. So the lion was concerned and said to the fox that he was worried that the human being might pray and that he might become trapped. So the fox replied to the lion and agreed with him, but then told the lion that the human’s prayers would not affect him, nor his children, but rather his grandchildren. The fox convinced the lion that there was nothing to worry about. The fox told the lion that he would not even see the humans, and their prayers would not yield an affect to a time very far off. So the lion accepted the claim of the fox, and he went after the human being to devour him, and sure enough he fell into the pit, and he got trapped. The lion then screamed out to the fox angrily that the fox had stated nothing would happen to the lion. The fox replied that it must be that the lion’s grandfather also sinned and was the target of a human’s prayers. The fox declared to this lion that the punishment and trapping was due to the prayers against his grandfather.
Rav Hai Gaon brings this Mashal down as a very important lesson. This Mashal is brought down in his Responsa and not in a children’s book of stories. Rav Chai Gaon was one of the greatest Rabbis of his time in the generation of the Geonim. So great was he, that he was referred to as the Gaon. When you say the Gaon, it is understood that you are talking about Rav Hai Gaon. He became the Rosh Yeshivah at the image of 13 years old. And he goes and writes this Mashal, and he said it is very important and there are many lessons to be learnt from it. The lesson might be the lesson that we see in Parashat Korach.
Korach was a smart man. He was a wise man. But because he got blinded by his going after his lust, so he thus forgot some of the most simple things and basic logic. He said he would rather go back to Egypt which is a land flowing with milk and honey. He was willing to usurp the throne against Moshe Rabenu, the man who made all the miracles. He did some of the most foolish things and he didn’t think of basic knowledge. Why? All because he wanted to go after his pleasures. And that blinded him. In the end he fell into the trap, and after he fell into the trap he realized and said; Moshe Emet, Torah Emet, VeAnachnu Badaeem. Meaning, Moshe is true and the Torah is true and we are a bunch of fools.
The Rabbi’s Mashal means that the king of the jungle is the lion. It is a wise animal and a smart animal, but the king got blinded by the taste of what could be (his lust.) The fox told him the other meat tastes better. The lion replied worried that the human would pray against him. But the fox retorted and said not to worry about it and that the praying wouldn’t work against him. The lion was blinded. He didn’t think that maybe this happened before. He didn’t think simply that this might have happened to his grandfather, and that maybe he is going to be the answer of the human’s prayer of many years before. It was simple logic, but still he gave in to the fox. When you are blinded by lustful taste, you don’t see the truth and you distort the facts. As you can see in the Parasha it can even lead you to fight a war against Moshe Rabenu.
Rav Chai Gaon’s lesson is still applicable today. We have many people who fortunately misinterpret our Torah. They read the Torah and they cast innuendos against some of the great Torah personalities and take their whole lives out of context. And the reason is because they are blinded by their passions. They do this because they need to justify their own materialism by saying that they are in good company. They want to compare themselves to David Hamelech or to Avraham, and they come along and they make all sorts of distortions of the Torah. This is because of lustful desire. They are blinded by their passion. Only a person that is Emet (true) that is able to divest himself from his personal prejudices and deep desires is able to see a true understanding of what the Torah really means.
Korach made a mistake that was so basic whereby he fought against Moshe Rabenu who was the master of all the profits. Korach was a great man. He had Ruach Hakodesh (wholly spirit). But you see that once lust is placed in front of a person it can bring down even the wisest of men for the most elementary things become difficult for them to perceive.
The lion wasn’t able to figure out that maybe he would get trapped for maybe his grandfather attacked a human and the human prayed, resulting in the trapping of the grandson. He wasn’t able to figure out that he could be the victim of what he thought his grandchild would be the victim of. He wasn’t able to deduce the basic logic. He should of thought of that. If it could happen to his grandson, it could happen to him. He didn’t see the basic logic since he was hungry and he wanted to eat the human being.
The lesson of the Parasha is very hard. It is hard for us to always be objective because we all have our personal biases. Therefore, it is important to have a Rabbi, and it’s important to have a wife. Chachamim tell us that a wife is given to a man in order to keep him balanced, in order to keep him straight. There is a phrase, ‘Ezer Kinegdo’. That the wife is supposed to be an aid against him. How is she an aid? By going against him. By keeping him in the proper perspective and not letting him get caught up in the pursuit of his personal honor or in his pleasures. It is the job of a wife to ground her husband in order to keep him focused in the straight line in order he does not deviate from the truth.
It’s not the time to digress from this Divre Torah, but a great example of ‘Ezer Kinegdo’ would be the wife of On Ben Peletz. She was able to set her husband straight and give him clarity that the honor that he was seeking was really worthless and not beneficial and hence On Ben Peletz eventually was saved.
Compare her to the wife of Korach. She only fed into the desires of Korach instead of giving her husband proper advice. And so eventually she and her husband were eternally swallowed in the ground.
This is the great lesson of Rav Chai Gaon, of the fox and the lion.
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Rav Chai Gaon
