Animals can often inspire us TY Shekalim 13

There is a delightful story on TY Shekalim 13 that I’m going to take out of context. Animals can often inspire us as the story shows.

 The donkey of Rabbi Pinkhas ben Yair was once stolen by robbers at night. (The donkey) passed three days in hiding by them, but she refused to taste any food[1]. After three days they decided to return her; they said, “Let us remove her from here so that she not die in our possession, for, if she does, the stench of her carcass will fill our cave.” They set her free. She went and stood at her master’s gate and began to bray. He (Pinkhas ben Yair) said to (his servants), “Open the gate for this unfortunate, for it has been three days that she has not tasted anything. They opened the gate for her and brought her in. He (Pinkhas ben Yair) said to (his servants), “Give her something to eat.” They brought her barley, but she refused to eat. (The servants) told (Pinkhas ben Yair): “Master, she does not want to eat!” He asked them, “Has it (the food you offered her) been sifted?[2]” They answered him, “Yes!” He asked them, “Did you separate the tithes from the food, in accord with its demai[3] status?” They answered him: “Were we obligated to do so? Did the master not teach us this law from the Mishna (Demai 1:3) One who buys from an am haaretz[4] grain for seed, or for feeding animals, flour for tanning hides, or oil for a lamp, is exempt from the tithing requirement of Demai? Why, then should we have separated tithes from the donkey’s food?” (Rabbi Pinkhas ben Yair) answer them: “What can be done about this unfortunate, for she is very stringent with herself?” So they separate the demai tithes and she ate. (Art Scroll translation)

 If the donkey is careful about the food she eats, how much more so should we be careful about the food we eat?!

My friend Danny Siegel tells how an Israeli dog inspire him. One day he was walking the streets of Jerusalem when he saw the owner of a dog was talking to him in Hebrew. Danny realized that the dog knew more Hebrew than he did. He was inspired to study words in the dictionary starting with the letter aleph and concluding with the letter tav, to increase his vocabulary.

 Has an animal ever inspire you to better behavior?

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[1] Perhaps the donkey refused to eat because the food was stolen or the food was not properly tithed. Apparently she was a very religious animal.

[2] in order to remove all the stones and other refuse

[3] food where there is a doubt that all the proper tithes have been separated

[4] An am haaretz generally separated the tithes, but could be relied upon to do so all the time. Consequently, the rabbis ordained to make sure that the tithes were separated the person purchasing food from the am haaretz separate the tithes himself.