BITTERSWEET; THE HEAVENLY TASTE
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah tells the story of Noach sending the dove out of the Teiva (Ark) to see if the waters of the Great Flood receded. The dove returned with an olive leaf in her beak. The Torah underscores that this olive leaf was in her beak for eating purposes. We know that the olive leaf is very bitter and Noach had prepared nutritious food for all the animals. Why did the dove pass up on the tasty food for bitter food? Our Sages teach us that “it is better to take bitter food from the hands of HaKadosh baruch Hu than take the tasty food from the hands of Man.” In other words; it is better to take a hand-out from HaShem than taking a hand-out from Man.
Why should that be? In either case one is taking a hand-out? Whenever one takes a hand-out there a sense of inadequacy, a sense of helplessness, an inability to care for oneself. There is also a sense of indebtedness towards his benefactor, another cause for loss of self-worth.
The reason we human beings have a bitter feeling when we lose our self-worth and other creatures do not is because we hold with-in us a tzelem Elokim (an image of GD). A tzelem Elokim should never be subjected to another human being. Even though the other person also has his tzelem Elokim, he is nevertheless only a physical manifestation of that tzelem Elokim. As such it is degrading to subject his own tzelem Elokim to another person. However, when subjecting ourselves to HaShem, the Elokim Itself, there is nothing more liberating! When one subjects his self-worth to the source of that self-worth he has increased his himself not diminished.
We experience this on a regular basis. Think about the people in your life from whom you get energy and life. It may be a spouse, a close friend, a child, a teacher, whoever it may be. Do you feel inhibited and restrained when you are overcome by a sense of deep gratitude that you feel towards them or do you feel liberated? I posit that if this person gives you strength and energy, then the sense of indebtedness intensifies your connection to them. And while you do subject yourself to them in gratitude for what they have done for you, at the same time that very gratitude connects you to them in a deeper way than you were connected to them previously.
The irony! The bitter olive leaf taken from the Hands of one’s Creator has such a sweet taste while the sweet food taken from the hands of Man has a terribly bitter taste.
It is my prayer to HaKadosh baruch Hu that we should be able to taste the sweetness of any bitter experiences that we must traverse.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind