Let us return to our Master’s sermon. After he explained the commandment of the public reading of the Torah, he raised his talit above his shoulders, covered his head, and said, “The Holy One, blessed be He, has done us a great kindness, for when a person sits in the synagogue he hears the words of the Torah that God gave to Israel.” Again he lowered his talit onto his shoulders, placed both his arms on the podium in front of him, rested his head upon them, and told of certain elders, of whom it was said by those who know of such matters, that during the reading of the Torah they ascended to the spiritual level Israel was at when the Torah was given.
Our Master further related the following: “When I was studying in the yeshiva of my great teacher, luminary of the ages, there came to town a preacher who asked my Master’s permission to speak in the Great Synagogue on the Sabbath. The weekly Torah portion was Yitro, and when my Master asked him what he would talk about, the preacher replied that his subject would be the Ten Commandments. When my Master asked him to be more specific, the preacher replied that the Ten Commandments in this Torah portion are meant for this world and the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy for the world to come. To which my Master said, ‘I do not know this world and I do not know the next one; all l know is what is put forth in the verse Would that they had this heart of theirs to fear Me and keep My commands for all time so that it would go well with them and with their children forever’.”
Our Master, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, melodiously repeated the entire verse, and when he intoned the words so that it would go well with them and with their children forever, everyone knew that to fear God and to obey His commandments was what it meant for it to go well with us and our children forever.
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Our Master continued: “Now that we have seen the grandeur of prayer and the sanctity of the Torah, let me say something about the conversations people conduct while the congregation is praying and reading from the Torah.
“Reb Zevulun the spice merchant, may he rest in peace, told me that he once heard from some far-roaming travelers about a desert that lies beyond the land of Cush. In that desert there is a certain species of monkeys that look like dogs and whose main food is ants. When one of these monkeys goes out hunting and notices an anthill, it places one of its paws over the anthill, buries itself in the sand so as to make itself invisible, and pretends to be asleep. The ants in turn see what they think is a nice soft hill in which to live, and they leave their dens in which they have stored their food. Whole armies of them crawl out and climb up the hill without knowing that an animal’s paw lies underneath. The remaining ants see this and are also drawn to the hill, and they all crawl all over the monkey’s paw, completely unaware that they stand on the very site of their destruction and that a dangerous animal lies in wait to devour them. The monkey lies there covered in sand, its paw covering the ants, the entire colony of which has by now left its den and been drawn to this hill. When the paw is completely full of ants, the monkey opens its mouth and swallows then all with one gulp.
“Like life in that desert, so is our existence in this world, and like that monkey who looks like a dog, so is Satan who bedevils Israel. And we, the remnant of Israel, the house of Jacob — how tiny are we, O Israel, how feeble our strength — we are like ants, of which Scripture says, They are a people without power, yet they prepare food for themselves in summer, and of which it is further written Go to the ant, you sluggard, study its ways and learn. And yet with all its wisdom, the ant cannot avoid falling into the hands of the monkey.
“Dearly beloved brothers, perhaps I see this matter so clearly that I have not explained it to you adequately, so let me say it another way. It is well known that Israel’s house of prayer is called a nest, as we learn from the psalm, How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, I long, I yearn for the courts of the Lord, my body and soul shout for joy to the living God, after which the psalmist continues, Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself in which to set her young near Your altar, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Happy are they who dwell in Your house. .. Now we can understand what Job meant when he said I will die with my nest: if I will not merit to fulfill the psalmist’s prayer and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, then I hope that when I die, I die there, my soul expiring in prayer to the living God.”
The memorial candles burned brightly as candles do when it gets dark. Our Master looked at them and said, “The sun is about to set, the day is nearly done, so I will be brief and speak only to the point here. I would only cite Rabbi Ibn Ezra on the verse I have just noted, and the swallow a nest for herself in which to set her young near Your altar, O Lord of hosts. Ibn Ezra quotes a commentator who explains that there is a certain kind of bird that flies away from settled areas where people live and makes its nest near the special place where sacrifices are offered to the blessed God, so that it might merit seeing its young near the altar. Now we know that no birds nested in the Holy Temple, as the Radak pointed out, and even Ibn Ezra himself disagreed with what that commentator wrote. In any case, his reference provides a fitting metaphor for Israel, who, like that bird, sets its young near Your altar, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
“One more thing before I return to the matter at hand. It is well known that the abode of the Messiah is called a bird’s nest. It is less well known that this nest rests upon the prayers that Israel offers. How careful, then, must one be not to talk while the congregation is praying so as not, God forbid, to topple the nest from its perch.
“The press of time and the many facets of the matter have kept me from interpreting all the lessons of the parable. Nevertheless, we can see the parallel between the monkey in the parable and Satan in its lesson. Monkey and Satan both want the same thing: to fill their bellies, the former by stretching forth its paw and ensnaring ants, the latter by sticking out his hand to grab the words of Israel’s prayers and of the Torah and stuff his belly with them.