ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף תהילים 80:14

מקרסם – to cut, and it is similar to (Psalms 80:14): “wild boards gnaw at it [and creatures of the field feed on it?]”

Midrash Tanchuma Shemini 8 points out that four animals are mentioned here in four separate verses to allude to four different empires which will play host to the Jewish people in exile. Verse four speaks of גמל, the camel, a reference to the Babylonian exile; we have a hint of this in Psalms 137,8 בת בבל השדודה אשרי שישלם לך את גמולך שגמלת לנו, “fair Babylon you predator, a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us.” [The letters of the word גמל, “camel, appear twice in that verse. Ed.]
In verse five, the Torah speaks of the שפן, hyrax.” (it has short ears and hoofed feet).This is a reference to the exile under the Greeks which forbade the study and practice of Torah as we know from Amos 8,11: “a time is coming, declares my Lord G’d, when I will send a famine upon the land; not a hunger for bread or thirst for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.” It is also written in verse 12 of that chapter: “men shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” [The connection of the above verse to שפן is not clear, there is also a variant in the Tanchuma relating the above verse to the hare, ארנבת, Ed.]
Concerning the hare, ארנבת, mentioned in verse six, this is a reference to the exile under the Medes, (Ahasverus) which treated the Jewish people as a פאה, the corner of a field the farmer must leave unharvested allowing all comers to help themselves. This is what almost happened under Haman, the regent of that empire. The name of the wife of King Talmay was ארנבת, hare. [Ptolemaus of Egypt, one of the heirs of Alexander’s empire who staked a claim to the land of Israel as part of his share, and was defeated by Antiochus. He commissioned translation of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek. That day was considered a black day in Jewish history by the scholars of the Talmud, Ed.]
The pig,חזיר, mentioned in verse 7 is a reference to the Roman empire, the fourth exile, the one which we still endure. David says in Psalms 80,14: “wild boars gnaw at it and creatures of the forest feed on it.” The word חזיר in that verse is a reminder of the Romans and their Satanic origin, the forest being considered where Satan has its lair. The words וגרה לא יגר, “it does not chew the cud,” is taken as a hint that this is the last exile, i.e. it will not repeat itself. Whereas these animals appear in separate verses in our chapter, in Deut. 14 where the gist of this legislation is repeated, the first three animals mentioned here appear in a single verse except for the pig. The message is that although the first three exiles occurred at different times they have something in common, i.e. the period that they lasted was relatively short. The present exile is in a totally different category equivalent to all the previous exiles combined. David arranged four separate Thanksgivings in Psalms to acknowledge our salvation from each of these exiles in chapter 136 known as הלל הגדול, “the great Hallel.” He commences with the words “Praise the Lord for He is good, His steadfast loves is eternal.” This line referred to our being redeemed from the Babylonian exile. The second verse “Praise the G’d of G’ds, His steadfast love is eternal,” is an expression of gratitude for our having been redeemed from the exile of the Greeks; the third verse, i.e. “Praise the Lord of lords, His steadfast love is eternal,” refers to our redemption from the exile of the Medes. David uses the expression הודו, ”praise!” in three successive verses to allude to the three animals Moses mentioned in verses 4-5-6 in our chapter. In the last verse of this “Hallel hagadol” where he concludes with the words הודו ל-אל השמים, this is a reference to the redemption from the yoke of the Romans. Seeing that he had foreseen all these exiles and their redemptions by means of his Holy Spirit, he mentions the word השמים, seeing that of that final redemption it is stated in Psalms 96,11 ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ, “both the heavens and the earth will rejoice then.” [That psalm which commences with the words שירו לה' שיר חדש, clearly speaks of the final redemption as it will be different from the weaker שירה חדשה which earmarked the thanksgiving for the Exodus from Egypt. Ed.]

מָרוֹר זֶה שֶׁאָנוּ אוֹכְלִים “The maror which we eat…” Let us examine why the sages chose hazeret²⁷⁸"A bitter vegetable, often romaine lettuce, placed on the seder plate" חֲזֶרֶת (for the bitter herbs) over מָרוֹר maror. For Scripture commands us to eat maror with the Passover offering, and certainly if there was no herb found whose name is maror then it would have been good for us to use another, or something that causes the same results. Since there is an herb called maror, as the Mishnah states, “And these are the vegetables with which a person can fulfill his obligation to eat bitter herbs on Passover: ḥazeret, chervil [tamkha], field eryngo [ḥarḥavina], endives [olashin], and maror,”²⁷⁹Mishnah Pesachim 2:6 why don’t we choose the one that is expressly called maror instead of ḥazeret (for the bitter herbs)?
It may be that this is because the sages said, the mitzvah is with ḥazeret; because ḥazeret is also called חַסָּא hassa, lettuce, because God had compassion (ḥassa) upon us .²⁸⁰BT Pesachim 39a It is as if they were saying, “It is true that it would have been more appropriate to take maror since this is explicitly stated in the Torah. But since ḥazeret is also called ḥassa, and the Holy One, had compassion, ḥassa, upon us and redeemed us, it is appropriate to eat ḥazeret. But we still need to understand why this is the case and why it (ḥazeret) is what it is. Why is it that God had compassion upon us and yet we are still commanded to eat maror, and that the commandment came after the redemption? We shouldn't have had to exchange it with ḥazeret if the taste was not appropriate! It appears to say that the sages saw that the different types of herbs that are used for maror allude to the different exiles. Maror was an allusion to Egyptian exile and ḥazeret is an allusion to the present exile since we need to arouse God’s compassion to send a redeemer to redeem us.. That is why the sages said it is a mitzvah to use ḥazeret now. It could be that in each era they chose an herb that alluded to that exile. They were ordered as follows: Maror was for the Egyptian exile because they embittered our lives with hard labor. Ḥarḥavina alludes to the Babylonian exile because they destroyed our land and our Holy temple. Tamkha alluded to Media/Persian exile because the Holy One supported us and helped us in the rebuilding of the Temple. Or else it is because God supported us against the will of our enemies who sought to accuse us. Or it could refer to God’s support that we did not fall at the advice of Haman. Olashin refers to the exile by the Greeks who passed decrees against Israel so that they couldn’t study Torah. It is called olashin which is an abbreviation of Ol Shin, Shin from the word shinun, learning, that is, they took from them the yoke of learning. Or it (olashin) may come from the expression שן סלעים shen selaim, a rocky crag²⁸¹See I Samuel 14:4 and Job 39:28 Also see Ramban on Deuteronomy 1:4 It literally means the tooth of the rock. which means a strong hold because the whole world weighed down on them. Or it might be from the word , sone’, שונא hater or enemy, because we did not have an enemy who hated us as much as those who prevented us from studying Torah. חֲזֶרֶת, hazeret, refers to the present exile during which God will return us to our place as we originally were. Also חֲזֶרֶת, hazeret, is from the expression hazir, boar/pig, “wild boars from the forest gnaw at it…” (Ps. 80:14) Why is it called hazir? Because in the future God will return the kingdom to the one to whom it belongs, speedily in our days.

a profligate beast The boar out of the forest (80:14). There is none as profligate among the beasts as the boar, and also “the lions from his thicket” (Jer. 4:7), i.e., Nebuchadnezzar, shall not be found there.

Rebuke the people of the forest This is Ishmael [Esau], who is compared to the “boar from the forest,” which dwells among the reeds (below 80:14).

בן ארבעים שנה [AND ESAU WAS] FORTY YEARS OLD —Esau is compared to a boar, as it is said, (Psalms 80:14) “The boar from the wood doth ravage it”. The boar when it lies down stretches forth its cloven hoof as much as to say, “See, I am a clean animal” (whilst really cloven hoofs are a feature of clean animals only in conjunction with another that is lacking in the swine). In the same way these dukes of Esau rob and extort and pretend to be honorable (Genesis Rabbah 65:1). For the whole forty years Esau enticed women from their husbands and ill-treated them; when he reached the age of forty he said, “My father took a wife when he was forty and I shall do the same” (Gen. R. 65).