Inspired. Buoyant. Flying high. Terms describing a joyous spirit invoke the most invisible, yet most essential element of our natural environment – air. Indeed the breath of life is its defining quality, its very essence. And if air is emblematic of spirituality, the ultimate symbol of spiritual power should be that which dominates the skies. And so it is in Judaism.
No bird flies higher than the eagle. But as exalted as it is, the eagle’s visual acuity is astounding, allowing it to detect the movement of a mouse in the grass from thousands of feet up. Even its personality is impressive, for despite being a predator, it has a kind nature, hovering over its young before landing in the nest so as not to startle them excessively. It is also very loyal, typically mating for life, which can be as long as 30 years.
As a symbol of the Almighty, it’s a nice one. Who is higher than Hashem? Whose vision is more accurate? Whose kindness to its ‘offspring’ is greater, preparing us for His presence instead of shocking us with unannounced revelation? And who is more loyal to His people? But the parallel is more than just an allegory. It reaches to the heart of the faith.
No image is more exalted than that of the Divine Chariot, the merkavah in Hebrew. First recorded in the Book of Ezekiel[1], this sublime configuration lies at the core of Kabbalah. Indeed, the merkavah is invested with so much transcendent energy that in order to explore it safely, students traditionally used to prepare for decades lest they be overpowered and lose their values, their sanity, or even their life, as the Talmud relates.
The wheels of the Chariot each had four faces, including a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. The eagle was in the center, symbolizing mercy and truth, qualities that transcend the others to the highest of heights, yet penetrate to the lowest realms of existence in the mundane world.
During the Exodus, this spiritual infrastructure of the cosmos was openly revealed to the Children of Israel at the Sea and especially at Sinai. It was a transient glimpse to introduce us to the ultimate ground of reality and to prepare us for the future revelation of the Divine presence when Moshiach comes.
Way back at the beginning, the ‘eagle’ was there and shortly at the end, we will perceive it again. Right from the outset, Genesis speaks of “the spirit of G-d hovering over the waters.” No fewer than 22 Midrashic sources identify this spirit as the spirit of Moshiach.[2] The Zohar teaches that the beginning and end are intertwined.
But when is this ‘end’ going to happen?
It may seem like Moshiach is taking forever getting here but that’s because or sense of time is so restricted, basically limited by the times frame of our lives, recent history and tomorrow’s weather.
But just as the revelation at Sinai didn’t take place in the foggy past but a mere 100 or so generations ago on a sunny Saturday morning on the 9th of May, 1313 B.C.E (6 Sivan 2448), so too, Moshiach’s coming will not take place in the fuzzy future but on a specific imminent date and time yet to be disclosed.
Seeing is believing.
In Richard Milton’s modern classic, Forbidden Science, he dredges up indicting testimony of the American scientific establishment’s incredulity over meteorites landing in France, viz., “Rocks don’t fall from the sky!” But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The true spirit of science is to embrace empirical observation as the arbiter of all scientific theory, no matter whether it busts our conceptual bubbles or not.
While researching this article, I started to wonder what the naturalists have to say about the biological basis of the Biblical imagery of the Israelite ‘fledglings’ being carried to redemption as “on the wings of eagles.” Do eagles actually carry their young on their wings?
Sure enough, there are those that say, “Nah! It can’t happen.” But then there are others like this entry about the Golden Eagle from the incomparably authoritative 21-volume Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds by Arthur Cleveland Bent published by the United States Government Printing Office “Last summer while my father and I were extracting honey at the apiary about a mile southeast of Thacher School, Ojai, California, we noticed a golden eagle teaching its young one to fly. It was about ten o'clock. The mother started from the nest in the crags, and roughly handling the young one, she allowed him to drop, I should say, about ninety feet, then she would swoop down under him, wings spread, and he would alight on her back. She would soar to the top of the range with him and repeat the process. One time she waited perhaps fifteen minutes between flights. I should say the farthest she let him fall was 150 feet.
My father and I watched this, spellbound, for over an hour. I do not know whether the young one gained confidence by this method or not. A few days later father and I rode to the cliff and out on Overhanging Rock. The eagle's nest was empty.”
Apparently this parental flight training exercise can be quite scary just like its analogue, the Jewish journey from slavery in exile to independence and eternal freedom in the coming redemption.
The Divine Chariot is coming in to the station. It started rolling at the dawn of time with its central figure, the ‘eagle’ hovering over the primordial waters. It carried us out on our express flight from Egypt to Sinai where we got a bird’s-eye-glimpse of its inner workings, including the face of the ‘eagle’. And now we stand together on the platform at the end of the exile-line, confident that our connecting flight to our nest, Jerusalem, is about to arrive. Amen.
Moshiach Now.
[1] Ezekiel 1:1‑28
And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, as I was among the exiles by the River Chebar, the heavens opened and I saw a vision of God. On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, by the River Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans. And the power of God was upon him there.
And I looked, and behold, a thunderhead came sweeping out of the north—a great cloud and a flashing fire and surrounded by radiance. And in the center of it, in the middle of the fire, a gleaming, like the color of amber. In the middle of it were also the figures of four creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of human beings. But each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. They had human hands under their wings; and the four of them had their faces and their wings on four sides. Their wings were joined to one another; so that they did not turn when they moved; each could move in the direction of any of its faces.
Each of them had a human face [in front], the face of a lion on the right; the face of an ox on the left; and the face of an eagle [at the back]. Thus were their faces. Their wings were stretched upward; each had two touching the others while the other two covered their bodies. And each could move in the direction of any of its faces; wherever the spirit moved them, they went.
[2] Yalkut Moshiach and Geulah al ha’Torah, Vol. 1, Kehot Pub.
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