Our Gemara on Amud Aleph continues to discuss various elements of animal instinct and psychology, which, as we discussed on yesterday’s daf, are aspects of animal psychology that can be true for humans as well, to the extent that they can be dominated by animal instincts. Additionally, as we discussed in the previous daf, according to the tradition of tereifos, certain predatory animals inject a venomous poison from their claws. Therefore, certain small punctures can still render an animal a tereifa.


Our Gemara explains that if a predator clawed an animal, but the claw was severed before the animal could withdraw it, the animal is not a tereifa because the venom is only released when the animal withdraws its hand. Since the limb was cut off and dead before the claw was removed, its power is neutralized.


Sod Yesharim (Simchas Torah 3) observes that this pattern—that the greater power occurs at the time of withdrawal—is true in other areas as well. As we often observe in Psychology of the Daf, to the mystic, a natural physical or anatomical phenomenon is meaningful in spiritual dimensions as well, since the physical world is a lower-form reflection of a deeper truth. Sod Yesharim says that Moshe’s Torah had its greatest effect at the moments prior to his death. He says this is because an external force is always external until it withdraws, and then, if the entity internalizes it, it is no longer foreign or external but now adopted and internal.

The Rambam famously spoke of this phenomenon in a letter to his beloved student Yosef ibn Eknin: “The opposition and criticism of my teachings will die down once the jealousy fades (after my passing).”


Psychologically speaking, there is always a degree of opposition that is aroused by an outsider or external force, even if it comes from a loving or benign teacher or parent. It is not uncommon to first see the wisdom of a parent once they are no longer in this world and the painful oppositional struggles for autonomy are lifted. While this is generally true, because life is not perfect, it does not mean it is a good thing. Let’s try to learn from the people who have wisdom to offer while they are still alive, even if it sometimes bruises our egos. Additionally, sometimes a parent has to deliberately recede in order to allow a child to internalize the messages with less opposition.