"Donkey Holiness"
(there is always more)
"Every firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb" - Exodus 13.13
From this Passover passage in Exodus the idea emerges that in the redemptive scheme of things there lies hidden beneath appearances, within the essence of living things, a depth of holiness such that despite the awfulness and squalor of man's seemingly 'lost' condition, there is a redeeming intent that suggests the world is not condemned to perdition. There is always more.
In the Passover story 'kosher' animals along with first-born sons were to be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb, but an ass is not 'kosher', it is an unclean animal and therefore not worthy of redemption. Yet "every firstling of an ass" was to be redeemed along with all that was holy.
Elsewhere in Old Testament prophecy the Messianic Age would be ushered in by "a pauper riding on a donkey" (Zechariah 9.9). As a prophetic allusion to Palm Sunday, possibly more apparent than real, Jesus' triumphal entrance into Jerusalem on just such an animal nevertheless becomes a symbol of lowliness and poverty (John 12. 12-15). A Jewish Rav (Rabbi)says, "let the Messiah come that I might sit in the shadow of his donkey's dung"#. Israel, "holy to the Lord", for all her unworthiness, believed redeemed, regardless.
There is much more to come. Despite the hopelessness of crass materialism and poverty of spiritual aspiration in our world, there is yet reason to expect the unexpected. Good must come out of evil because "God is not mocked"; the worst we can do or be is not beyond the hand of Almighty God to show mercy vide Psalm 130. There is always more!
# Chanan Morrison c.2013: "Sapphire from the Land of Istrael" (Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook).
