Noam Elimelech · Parshas Noach · Maamar יד From the Torah ofRebbe Elimelech of Lizhenskרבי אלימלך מליז'נסקProfile ›

The Raven's Way: Running and Returning

Chazal say the Torah endures only in one who is cruel to his children, as the raven is to its young. Is that really what holding fast to the Torah asks? And why should the raven Noach sent out go “going out and returning”?

Bereishis 8:7

וַיְשַׁלַּח אֶת־הָעֹרֵב וַיֵּצֵא יָצוֹא וָשׁוֹב עַד־יְבֹשֶׁת הַמַּיִם מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ

He sent out the raven, and it went out, going out and returning, until the waters had dried up from the earth.

30Another reading of the raven. “He sent out the raven, and it went out, going out and returning …” Chazal said that a person who wants to hold fast to the Torah must be cruel to his children, as the raven is to its young,¹ so that no physical thought comes to him. So the tzaddik is likened to a raven. And the tzaddik's service must always be ratzo vashov, “running and returning,” like the holy chayos, the angels of whom it says, “And the chayos ran and returned …”² This is “He sent out the raven”: he held himself on the level of the raven. “And it went out, yatzo vashov, going out and returning”: the raven's yatzo vashov is the chayos' ratzo vashov, running and returning.

בְּעִנְיָן אַחֵר. "וַיְשַׁלַּח אֶת הָעוֹרֵב וַיֵּצֵא יָצוֹא וָשׁוֹב כו׳", כִּי אָמְרוּ שֶׁצָּרִיךְ הָאָדָם הָרוֹצֶה לְהַחְזִיק בַּתּוֹרָה לִהְיוֹת אַכְזָר כָּעוֹרֵב עַל בָּנָיו שֶׁלֹּא יָבוֹא לוֹ שׁוּם מַחְשָׁבָה גַּשְׁמִי, נִמְצָא הַצַּדִּיק הוּא נִמְשַׁל לָעוֹרֵב, וְעַבְדוּת הַצַּדִּיק צָרִיךְ לִהְיוֹת תָּמִיד בְּרָצוֹא וָשׁוֹב, כְּמוֹ חַיּוֹת הַקּוֹדֶשׁ הַנֶּאֱמָר עֲלֵיהֶם "וְהַחַיּוֹת רָצוֹא וָשׁוֹב כו'". וְזֶהוּ "וַיְשַׁלַּח אֶת הָעוֹרֵב", פֵּירוּשׁ הֶחֱזִיק עַצְמוֹ בְּמַדְרֵיגַת עוֹרֵב, "וַיֵּצֵא יָצוֹא וָשׁוֹב" כנ"ל.

Eruvin 22a, where Rava says that the words of Torah endure only “in one who makes himself cruel to his children and his household like a raven.” ↩
Yechezkel 1:14. ↩

In shortHolding fast to the Torah takes a raven's hardness toward one's own, and the tzaddik's service, like that of the holy chayos, is always running and returning.

The maamar as a whole

R’ Elimelech gives another reading of the raven. Chazal said that one who wants to hold fast to the Torah must be cruel to his children, as the raven is to its young, so that no physical thought comes to him; so the tzaddik is likened to a raven. And the tzaddik’s service must always be ratzo vashov, running and returning, like the holy chayos of Yechezkel’s vision. So “he sent out the raven” means he held himself on the raven’s level, and “it went out, yatzo vashov” is the running and returning of the chayos: the tzaddik’s service never stands still.

Takeaway

Holding fast to the Torah asks for something of the raven: a hardness that lets no physical thought take hold. And the tzaddik's service never stands still; like the holy chayos, it runs and returns, again and again.

Learn this in the merit of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. His yahrzeit and life ›

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