Yitro #2

Shemot 18, 19, and 20

Learning to Fly on Eagles' Wings

Miriam-Simma Walfish, 5765

In our parasha, when the Israelites reach Mount Sinai, God calls Moshe up to the mountain and commands him to tell the Israelites, "You have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, how I carried you on the wings of eagles and I brought you to me" - "אַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי לְמִצְרָיִם וָאֶשָּׂא אֶתְכֶם עַל כַּנְפֵי נְשָׁרִים וָאָבִא אֶתְכֶם אֵלָי" (19:4). Nehama Leibowitz (Studies on Exodus) examines various interpretations of this metaphor in pursuit of clarifying what it aims to express. Perhaps the simplest meaning of the metaphor is Rashbam's interpretation. He says that just as an eagle travels swiftly, protecting her young, the Israelites were delivered swiftly and safely to their current destination. While this may be the simplest reading, Leibowitz points out that it does not really explain the connection between God and Israel in the metaphor. According to Rashbam's interpretation, the verse could have just as easily read, "And you were carried on the wings of eagles."

Rashi's explanation adds another element to this metaphor. He points out that eagles carry their young on their back, as opposed to other birds that carry their young between their feet. The other young carry their birds between their feet because they are worried that birds flying over them and stealing their young off their backs. Eagles are the biggest birds in the sky. They have no worry of anything flying over them and stealing their young; the only thing they fear are the arrows of hunters, so they put their young on their wings. Rashi's interpretation adds a personal element to the metaphor. The eagles are not impersonal protectors; rather they are parents trying to protect their young.

In Parashat Ha'azinu, the metaphor of God as eagle re-appears. The verse there reads: "Like an eagle who rouses his nest, hovering over his young, he spreads his wings and takes him, carrying him on his pinion" - "כְּנֶשֶׁר יָעִיר קִנּוֹ עַל גּוֹזָלָיו יְרַחֵף יִפְרֹשׂ כְּנָפָיו יִקָּחֵהוּ יִשָּׂאֵהוּ עַל אֶבְרָתוֹ" (Deut. 32:11). Martin Buber, cited in Leibowitz, explains that when an eagle tries to teach her young how to fly, she takes one little bird, puts it on her back, flies very high and throws the bird off and catches it, so that the bird will learn how to fly. Applying Buber's explanation back into our context, the metaphor of being carried on an eagle's wings implies a notion of education as well as the idea of the best sort of protection and caring. This association of the eagles' wings with education and preparation fits well with verses immediately following (Ex. 19:5-6):

The preparation and education that the nation received on the back of the nation was to prepare them to keep the covenant with God and become a holy nation.

In his volume of derashot on Pesach (#47), Rav Hutner discusses the significance of the Ten Commandments, specifically noting the difference in language between the root ד-ב-ר of "dibrot", which refers to the Ten Commandments, and א-מ-ר, the root used to describe the ten utterances God used to create the world in Bereishit, chapter 1. The reason these different words are used, suggests Rav Hutner, is that one can issue a "command" only if someone else is there to receive it. At the time of creation, there was no one to receive the command and so God could only "utter".

According to Rav Hutner, the utterances are made possible only because God gives without any expectation to receive anything in return. God sustained the world until the giving of the Torah through this absolute giving, this giving with no expectations from the receiver. When the Torah was given, however, God's giving changed in nature. It was no longer unconditional, but was now based on the status of the receiver; giving became a reward for fulfilling the covenant. This transition was essential for the nation, because the nation needed to take ownership over its own sustenance. When you receive a gift, you are grateful but it is often hard to think of it as being truly yours, whereas something you earn, you guard with your life, especially if the earning came with difficulty.

Rav Hutner's interpretation of Matan Torah explains why there is so much time between the exodus and the giving of the Torah. A transition from unconditional giving to a giving based on merit and on serving God could not happen overnight, because the people had just been slaves, with a slave mentality. They were used to working hard, but they were used to receiving everything: their orders, their food, even perhaps their thoughts. The exodus was the first step in the process of being rid of the shackles of slavery, but molding a nation and trying to free them of the mental baggage that comes along with being a slave took more time. According to a midrash in Kohelet Rabbah (3), the Israelites could have received the Torah immediately, but God said that they had not yet "returned to health." Israel still needed to be sustained by the first kind of hesed, of unconditional giving, while God molded them into a nation worthy of receiving God's covenant and a new kind of earned hesed.

Perhaps this is also why the giving of the Torah happens immediately after the appointing of judges. The judges are the last stage in the preparation of the nation to receive God's new kind of giving in which the nation needs to be self-sufficient.

And so we return to the metaphor of the eagle. The metaphor that God carried the Israelites through the desert on eagles' wings expresses the transition between the two types of giving. God as the eagle is protecting and sustaining them unconditionally, but not in the way that God created the world with no one to hear God's utterances. God sustains the people as the eagle sustains her young, protecting them fiercely from every danger, but educating them along the way, pushing them to be capable of receiving the covenant. If the exodus was when Israel was truly born as a nation, Matan Torah was when they learned how to fly.

Shabbat Shalom.