(Rav Hisda) said (admiringly to Rav Hamnuna in response
to his exposition of Deuteronomy 8:8 – a land of wheat and barley, vines, figs
and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey – as giving the order for
precedence in the various fruit to be blessed): “Who will give us iron legs
that we may serve you” (and constantly hear from you novel ideas)?
The Ben HaYehoyada asks two questions in respect of this
rather strange language of approbation: how will iron legs serve to assist the
student follow and serve his Rebbe; and what is the significance of iron, as
opposed to brass, or some other metal?
He gives four interlinked answers:
1. That the Mekubalim (the master of Kabalah) held that
the Chachomim of earlier times travelled to liberate sparks of holiness from
their materialistic husks i.e. Psalm
119:1 ashrei tmimei derech haHolchim b'Toras Hashem (Happy are the pure
travellers who journey in/with G-d's Torah.) And thus these righteous Rabbis
were called, those of iron legs because they cut through the husks, ridding the
world of confusion and despair, instead infusing it with Yishuv haDaas, the
settled mind which is a function of an understanding that we live in an ordered
universe run by HKBH
2. Both Malchus (sovereignty) and Torah sh'Bal Pe (oral
Torah) are designated as "Iron". When the Talmidei Chachomin (?who
represent Malchus?) travel "b'Toras Hashem" they are
"travelling" in Torah sh'Bal Pe to cut through the materialistic
husks.
3. Eretz Yisrael is compared to iron (its stones are
iron) (?and therefore it is a hard place to live) but its air is deemed to make
one who studies Torah there wiser than if he studies elsewhere. Wishing that a
person has legs of iron is akin to wishing that he may have the merit to study
in Eretz Yisrael.
4. In sefer Daniel, Nebuchanedzer's dream contains a
figure with legs of iron which represents the final exile of Edom, which is
hard as iron; and this exile causes confusion and despair. However, in the end
HKBH will revenge us and install Yisrael above Edom. The one who is given legs
of iron is thus the one to whom is given over the right to rule Edom. This will
dispel the despair.
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