The pig will one day 'return' to Israel. This is Esau/Edom. Esau/Edom is Rome, Christianity (see posts 6 and 9 above):
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The Pig Returns, This is Esau
It says in the midrashim of our Sages that the 4 Kingdoms [in which Israel is exiled] (
Bavel,
Yavan (Greece), Madai, and Edom [Rome]) are likened to the 4 animals which are mentioned explicitly in the verse that forbids eating them because they only possess one sign of purity.
In this itself there are 2 parts:
1) "the camel and the hare and the badger, because they chew their cud but they do not have split hooves;
2) "the pig because it possesses split hooves but does not chew its cud".
The camel and the hare and the badger refer to
Bavel,
Yavan, and Madai, and the pig refers to Edom [Rome], as in: "
the pigs of the forest ravage it"(
Psalms 80:14) -- "just as a pig at the time he wallows [in the filth] sticks out his forelegs and says ‘look, I am pure’, so, too, the kingdom of Edom…"(
Vayikra Raba 13) For this reason it is mentioned separately [as explained by Rabbeinu Bachaye] "in order to show that it [the fourth exile, the exile of Edom] is a lengthy exile in and of itself and is equal to all the others."
Via "our actions and our
avoda" in the exile of Edom we bring about the refinement of Edom, as our Sages say, "in the future the pig will become pure" (for at that time it will possess both signs [of being pure] – split hooves and raising the cud), as the closing words of the Midrash "the pig this is Edom, which does not chew its cud and is not followed by any kingdom after it". Why is the pig called "
chazir", for it returns the crown to its master, as we say: "
the saviors ascended to Mount Zion to judge Mount Esau and to G-d will be the Kingship", for then will be fulfilled the promise to Yaakov: "
until I come to my master in Se'ir" [upon which Rashi comments] "when will he go – in the days of Moshiach, as it says ‘
the saviors shall ascend to Mount Zion to judge Mount Esau’. (Gen. 33:14)'
[Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Hisva'aduyot 5750 I, p. 351]