Perek Shira: The Song of the Strong amongst the Creeping Creatures
The Cat says: “I will pursue my enemies and reach them, and I shall not turn back until I annihilate them!” (Tehillim 18:38)
The strong amongst the Creeping Creatures say: “Your wife is like a grapevine in the inner chambers of your house; your children are like olive shoots around your table.” (Tehillim 128:3)
“The strong amongst the Creeping Creatures” seems to refer to low-crawling vertebrates, such as lizards and rodents. These have the combined qualities of being highly prolific, yet physically strong, unlike invertebrates, such as worms, ants, and other weak insects. For example, a queen ant might bear 300,000 ants in a single day, but they are all invertebrates, and are therefore weak, short-lived, and individually insignificant.
This song expresses how Hashem sides with the underdog and has compassion upon the wretched, and we thus find that the smaller and more repulsive a being is, the more it proliferates. It refers primarily to the Jewish people in the Egyptian exile, who, the more they were detested, made insignificant, and trod upon, the more they propagated, bearing six babies each time. Grapevines are more fruitful than olive trees, but have flimsy branches and vulnerable fruits, as opposed to olive trees, which are sturdy evergreens with tough fruit. This song describes Hashem’s blessing in terms of the good qualities of both: “Your wife is like a grapevine,” bearing clusters of babies each time; each who are sturdy “like olive shoots.”
In our state of exile, and especially when we are outside our land, our royal status as Hashem’s chosen nation goes unrecognized. We are often disliked and treated as foreign citizens, or even as enemies of the state. This should not discourage us since it has a hidden blessing. The more that anti-Semitism degrades us and makes us seem like vermin, the more we shall increase mightily — and sing their song.
- Based partially on the following sources: Shirah Chadashah, Ya’avetz; Tiferes Vol. 8, pg. 323
*In loving memory of Harav Zeev Shlomo ben Zecharia Leib
