Prayer and Blessings
Why do we recite a blessing on an elephant as a change in created beings?
Question
It is known that the ape emerged from man in the generation of the Dispersion. I also heard that the elephant emerged from man, and therefore we recite a blessing on both as a change in created beings. What is the connection of the elephant to this matter?
Answer
Greetings,
Some say that the reason we recite the blessing on the ape and on the elephant as a change in created beings is because they resemble man in certain respects (Rabbeinu the Meiri on Berachot 58b).
See also in Meleshet Shlomo on tractate Kilayim (chapter 8, mishnah 6), where he wrote: I heard from a wise, pious, kabbalistic scholar, Rabbi Meshulam, of blessed memory, concerning that which is taught in Berachot (58b): One who sees an elephant, an ape, and a kipof says, Blessed are You Who changes created beings. The difficulty is: what sort of change applies there, since all living creatures are also different in form from one another? He answered that in the time of the Generation of the Flood, Hashem punished the people, transforming them into apes and elephants; meaning that the ape resembles man, and the elephant also understands human speech.
It does appear in tractate Sanhedrin (109a) that the people of the Generation of the Dispersion were divided into three groups, etc., and that the group which said, Let us ascend and make war, were turned into apes, spirits, demons, and lilin. See there. But elephants are not mentioned.
However, this is brought in Seder HaDorot (1173) in the name of Sefer HaYashar, that those who said, Let us ascend to the heavens, etc., became apes and shenavim. See there. And shenavim refers to elephants, as Rashi explained (II Chronicles 9:21): shenavim - ivory, and the elephant itself.
With blessings,
Hillel Meirs
