Rashi teaches that this was no ordinary donkey. It was the donkey that Avraham Avinu saddled for the Akeidas, Binding, of Yitzchak. It is also the donkey that Moshiach Tziddkeinu is destined to be revealed upon, as the pasuk in Zecharyah (9:9) says, Ani v’rocheiv al ha’chamor, “A humble man riding on a donkey.” What is Rashi teaching us? What is to be gleaned from the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu’s donkey was none other than the same donkey that Avraham saddled to go to the Akeidah? Horav Chaim Stein, zl, explains that we should understand this in the context of the long galus, exile, which we have endured. When we experience one trouble after devastating trouble, it destroys our ability to hope, to maintain the aspiration that one day this bitter galus will come to an end with the advent of Moshiach and the glorious Redemption. How do we keep the flame of hope burning? How do we keep it alive?
The Rosh Yeshivah explains that Hashem solved our problem with the idea that refuah kodem l’makah, cure precedes the illness. He showed us that the refuah comes through Avraham’s extraordinary devotion and mesiras nefesh, self-sacrifice, his readiness to sacrifice his beloved son, Yitzchak. Hashem commanded and Avraham replied, Hineni, “Here I am.” No questions; no excuses; just “Here I am.” This unprecedented and unemulated mesiras nefesh serves as an enduring merit to ensure Klal Yisrael’s survival through its long and torturous galus. It will not end earlier than when Hashem decides, but it will end. We see this from Moshe, who mounted his wife and sons on the very same donkey that Avraham had saddled years before him. Galus Mitzrayim, the Egyptian exile, and its subsequent liberation serve as the paradigm for galus and geulah. Just as the first geulah, redemption, from Egypt occurred in the merit of Avraham’s mesiras nefesh, so, too, will all subsequent geulos have the Akeidas Yitzchak as their foundation. This is the connection between the donkey which surfaced hundreds of years later to provide travel arrangements for Moshe’s family. We should not lose hope, because the mechanism and merit for Moshiach’s coming have been in place for thousands of years.
This exposition explains the relationship between the “three donkeys” which are one and the same. Why is it that, concerning Avraham, the Torah writes that he saddled the donkey, and, regarding Moshe, he mounted his family on the donkey, while concerning Moshiach, he is riding on the donkey? We suggest that Avraham and Moshe played ancillary roles with regard to the geulah. Avraham was the source of merit. Moshe facilitated the liberation, but it did not end with him. We experienced ensuing exiles, including the one which we are presently experiencing. It is only with the advent of Moshiach that we will finally see an end to our tzaros, troubles, speedily in our days.
