Why a Donkey | Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer

When Moshe Rabeinu leaves to free the Jewish people, the Yidden, from their servitude, from their slavery in Egypt, the pasuk says, that he puts his family on a donkey. This is very surprising. Moshe Rabeinu was desperate to save the Yidden. Every single moment that they were enslaved, another Jew was suffering and being abused. So couldn't they choose a more efficient animal? A horse gallops between 40 and 50 miles an hour. A camel perhaps around 30 miles an hour. A donkey averages 15 miles an hour. But it goes even further, because the ultimate Moshiach, says the Navi Zecharya, he'll be רוכב על חמור. Moshiach will, yet again, be riding on the slow donkey. Asks the Imrei Emes, Why? 21st century. Put Moshiach on a Mustang or Corvette. Let him get us out already. A donkey tarries, a donkey delays us. Why a donkey? Says the Heilige Imrei Emes, Because there may be a Jew who's not ראוי, who's not fit yet. There's a Jew who's on the fence. There's a Jew who’s struggling. He's got to choose Kedushah versus טומאה, holiness versus contamination. He's got to choose Ruchnius versus Gashmius, spirituality versus physicality. רוכב על החמור you know what it means? חמור means from the word חומר, physicality, Gashmius, pleasure. רוכב means that there's a person out there who's going to choose to subjugate, to vanquish, to conquer the choice of physicality and say: I want Kedushah, I want purity, I want holiness. Yes, I'm challenged. Yes, I'm tempted. But I'm going to make the right choice. I’ll be רוכב על החמור. And that's why Moshiach is on a donkey. Because it could be there ought to be one person and just as Moshiach is about to come, he's going to forsake that person, that person is going to be left behind. But the donkey goes slow. And that person has one last chance to choose the Kedushah, to choose holiness. And then Moshiach will capture him and bring him for the ride. Let's bring Moshiach through Ruchnius, through spirituality, through Kedushah, through holiness, through making that right decision, that single right decision at that right time not to look.