Tehillim 83 – wolf, raven, and 83 diseases

Tehillim 83 – wolf, raven, and 83 diseases

Tehillim 83:12 – “Shitemo nedivemo ke-Orev ve-khi-Ze’ev, u-khe-Zevah u-khe-Tzalmuna kol nesikhemo” – (deal with them and their leaders as You did with Orev and Ze’ev, and with Zevah and Tzalmuna). Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh writes that Orev and Ze’ev served two kings of Midian: Zevah and Tzalmuna. The name Zevah means “slaughter”; it begins with the first two and primary letters of the name Ze’ev (“zayin” and “bet”). The name Tzalmuna means “tzel na” – (a moving shadow), or “tzelem na” (a moving image, a dim shadow); The name Orev, “raven” - עורב  - derives from the root “erev” – evening, twilight. It is also identical to the word אורב “orev” – (one lying in ambush). The name Ze’ev means “wolf”. The prophet Habakkuk uses the phrase “evening wolves” (ze’evim erev), hinting at the connection between the raven and the wolf: “His horses are swifter than leopards and fiercer than evening wolves.” As we can see, all four names reflect negative and destructive forces. The positive image of the wolf in the Torah is Binyamin (Yaakov’s son). Chazal teach that Binyamin’s wolf is the “Mizbe’ach” – the Altar in the Temple, where sacrificial animals were slaughtered and burned; in this sense, the image of a predator devouring its prey becomes clear. The word “Mizbe’ach” shares a root with the name of the Midianite king Zevah, whom Ze’ev served. All four appear in Tehillim 83, whose number corresponds to the gematria of the word “machalah” – illness. According to the Talmud, the number 83 is the total number of diseases that afflict people. The reduced gematria of 83 is 11. Interestingly, the word “Bereishit” equals eleven times the value of the word “machalah” (illness). The first three letters (bet, reish, and aleph) form the word “bara” (created) and point to another meaning of this root – “briyut” (health). This hints that from the very beginning of the Torah, there is a power to heal the 11 aspects at every spiritual level of the soul.  (Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, “Body, Mind, and Soul”)