“When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born.” A day-old ox is called “an ox,” since what he can achieve, he has already achieved on the first day. Hence, people who do not belong to the quality of “speaking” but to the quality of “animal” live their whole lives with the intellect that they had attained on the day they were born, meaning the day when they are initiated into Mitzvot [commandments].

The only addition that they have is in quantity, since it is a small intellect compared to the intellect that can be attained with the intellect of the Torah. Hence, what one achieves on the first day, with this he lives through the end.

Conversely, the speaking degree, which is the quality of “man,” as in “You are called ‘man’ and not the nations of the world,” is the opposite: “Man is born a wild ass” compared to what he can attain when he is rewarded with the quality of “man.”

This is so because the spirit of the beast descends, meaning that all its actions are for the purpose of below, namely for one’s own sake, while man’s spirit ascends, meaning it is for the sake of the Creator, called “upward,” as our sages said, “Know what is above you” (Avot, Chapter 1). At that time, he sees that he was born an uneducated person, and then his work to walk on the path of truth begins. At that time, it is said, “Even if the whole world tells you that you are righteous, be wicked in your own eyes.”