Musar sobre Isaías 14:29

This אדמוני will eventually emerge purified and holy, a reference to the David who is also known as אדמוני. We read in Samuel I 16,12 that David is described as אדמוני עם יפה עינים וטוב ראי, "ruddy cheeked, bright-eyed and handsome." The first person to be described as אדמוני was Esau; it is therefore hardly a compliment to David to be similarly described. The essential difference is that whereas Esau was עין רע, represented all that is negative associated with the eye, David was the reverse, and is therefore described as יפה עינים. In David's case the positive aspects of eyes are meant: the prophet therefore describes him as טוב ראי. Solomon, who says in Kohelet 10,8: פורץ גדר ישכנו נחש, that "he who breaches the fence will be bitten by a snake,” may have referred to David's forbear Peretz, whom the Torah had described as "bursting out" (Genesis 38,29). The נחש referred to is the power of Esau. King Saul repaired the fence partially when he defeated נחש king of Ammon who went to war against Israel as reported in Samuel I 11,1. David also accomplished a great deal in this area during his reign. In the future, as the Messiah, however, he will take revenge on the forces of Esau in the manner of a serpent, as we know from Isaiah 14,29: כי משרש נחש יצא צפע, "For from the root of a snake there sprouts an asp."

When Israel had sinned, it was attacked by נחש the king of Ammon (Samuel 1,11,1). At that time, immediately after his appointment, Saul defeated the Ammonites. When Saul failed to carry out his task against Amalek completely, the נחש "serpent" (in the guise of the Philistines) raised its head; eventually Saul himself in desperation consulted with the witch of Endor, -an example of מעשה נחשים.- In the end, (Samuel I chapter 28) Saul was killed, and the kingdom reverted back to its permanent designates, to the house of Yehudah-David. David is described as אדמוני וטוב רואי, "ruddy, good looking," in Samuel I 16,12, the counterpart to Esau, who was called אדום, because he had absorbed all the pollutants of the original serpent which had made blood (red) the symbol of death. Esau had absorbed all this pollutant in order that Jacob might be free of it. We have shown that this was what Bileam alluded to when he proclaimed: כי לא נחש ביעקב, "that Jacob does not contain a vestige of the original serpent" (Numbers 23,23). The colour אדום, then can originate either in the קליפה, representing the blood of impurity, or in a sacred domain. When it originates in the sacred domain it is described, as in Samuel, as טוב רואי, "beautiful to behold." David is descended from Peretz, who was פורץ גדר, "achieved a break-through" against the forces of the נחש. David was an outstanding Torah scholar; when the honor of G–d was at stake he knew how to take revenge in the manner of a serpent. It is said of him: כי משורש נחש יצא צפע, "for from the stock of a snake there sprouts an asp" (Isaiah 14,29). The allusion is to David's father Yishai (cf. Targum) who is the נחש in our verse. These terms are used by the prophets as forces that are able to parry and subdue the original serpent, root of impurity.

Before this will occur, the משיח בן יוסף the natural enemy of Esau will come forth and will complete his task of liberating Israel from the serpent's pollutants just as he had begun to do when he had been given the mission to be "a father to Pharaoh" in the land that is known as ערות הארץ, "the naked part of the earth." Then the Messiah, who has his roots in the נחש (Yishai) can come forth as a צפע (as described on page 309 based on Isaiah 14,29. When Joseph's butler told the brothers that his master had said נחש ינחש איש אשר כמוני in 44,5, he alluded to the process of defeating the serpent at its own game; his master would be able to parry and subdue the negative forces from where they had emanated.