THE SONG OF THE SNAIL
The snail sings how the merits of the wicked do not prevent Hashem from removing their harmful presence from society.
[Song 81] Snail (Ch. 6)
שַׁבְּלוּל אוֹמֵר. כְּמוֹ שַׁבְּלוּל תֶּמֶס יַהֲלֹךְ נֵפֶל אֵשֶׁת בַּל חָזוּ שָׁמֶשׁ: (תהילים נח ט)
The Snail is saying, “Like the snail that melts away, the stillborn of a mole that does not see the sun.”
Commentary
The snail is particularly sensitive to dehydration, and therefore prefers to seek
food at night and after cooling rain. It excretes moisturizing slime as it slithers,
and effectively melts in hot temperatures. It symbolizes wicked people who are
protected by the merit of the Torah they have learned, in the same way a snail’s
shell protects it and maintains its hydration. Arrogantly, they move as slowly as
the snail, but are just as vulnerable. The snail sings of King David’s unique
prayer regarding his enemies, who were Torah scholars, yet slandered and
hunted him without cause. He requested that they should forget their Torah and
melt like a dehydrated snail, and not merit to enjoy reward for their Torah in
the World to Come, “like a stillborn that does not see the light”
Torah without mitzvos is like power without function. Hashem gave us the
Torah for us to perfect ourselves and the whole world around us. From the song
of the snail we learn to absorb our Torah into every fiber of our beings and merit
its all-encompassing blessings.
LIVING WITH THE SONG
A Jew cannot rest on his laurels. Every day of life is granted to us to develop ourselves more and more. The Vilna
Gaon writes: “The main [reason for man’s] life is to strengthen himself constantly in the breaking of negative character
traits [which all of one’s divine service and lot in the world are dependent upon], and if not, why should he have life?”
Inspirational commentary By Shmuel Ben-Tzion Kraines author of
The Song of Existence.