#thehawkandthesquirrel #wordshavewings #parshatvayera #hawk #squirrel #akeydatyitzhak #theakeydah #akedah #thesquirrelandthehawk
There is so much to write about in this parsha; so many topics that ask the readers to think, to cry and to participate in the text. As I walked Trixie yesterday and considered what to write about, I witnessed the squirrel and the hawk flying in the air. For Parshat Vayeira, the parsha of the Akeidah, a text that we still think about today, this seemed like a strange coincidence. The story of the Akeydah defines what faith can be and lays out an impossibly difficult question to Abraham. And what of Isaac in this piece as they climb that mountain?
For last year's poems on this parsha, please go to: https://www.wordshavewings.net/post/covenant
The Squirrel and the Hawk
Today I saw a squirrel carried through the air by a hawk as I walked down the street with my dog gently pulling me and I saw the movement through the corner of my eye.
I looked up.
The hawk climbed upward,
forceful and strong,
its wings pushing the air
as they climbed higher
upward and upward
over the cars.
Telephone wires crossed beneath them,
traffic flowed noisily
and the hawk gripped the squirrel
and the squirrel held onto him
in an ancient choreographed dance
And the squirrel’s wiry tail thrashed as though
it drummed the air
moving to the rhythm of his pulse;
faster and faster it went,
and although I could not see the squirrel’s eyes
as it searched the sky above him,
I knew how his black eyes must appear
in shock,
then in terror,
slow acceptance of his fate.
I could feel his heart beating.
And the hawk held the squirrel
and the squirrel held the hawk
as they rose upward higher and higher still
in a bizarre embrace.
And I watched
as they
disappeared
into a the crown of
a tall oak
tree
and
I saw
them
no more
and although I did not see the squirrel I understood how every moment of that climb
higher
and higher
into the cerulean
blue of the Cheshvan
sky, into the yellowing
leaves of the oak
tree, into
the nest
of the
hawk. The
squirrel’s eyes grew wider and wider until at that last moment when the squirrel wished
a sparrow
or a crow would save him
but that was not to be.
It was his fate
on this day,
at this moment
to be sacrificed in a tall oak tree.
There was no angel,
there was no crow,
there was no sparrow,
only a hawk.
And perhaps it is no accident
that I saw this today,
during this week of the akedah.
And for all the things that I will forget about today,
the lunch that I ate,
the places I walked,
the words I read,
I know that I will remember this
like a small cold pebble settled in my heart,
like sand in my eyes,
I will remember the squirrel and the hawk.
And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son.
וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֵלָ֜יו מַלְאַ֤ךְ יְהֹוָה֙ מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אַבְרָהָ֣ם ׀ אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיֹּ֖אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃ Then an angel of the LORD called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.”
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַל־תִּשְׁלַ֤ח יָֽדְךָ֙ אֶל־הַנַּ֔עַר וְאַל־תַּ֥עַשׂ ל֖וֹ מְא֑וּמָה כִּ֣י ׀ עַתָּ֣ה יָדַ֗עְתִּי כִּֽי־יְרֵ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אַ֔תָּה וְלֹ֥א חָשַׂ֛כְתָּ אֶת־בִּנְךָ֥ אֶת־יְחִידְךָ֖ מִמֶּֽנִּי׃ And he said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.”
וַיִּשָּׂ֨א אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֶת־עֵינָ֗יו וַיַּרְא֙ וְהִנֵּה־אַ֔יִל אַחַ֕ר נֶאֱחַ֥ז בַּסְּבַ֖ךְ בְּקַרְנָ֑יו וַיֵּ֤לֶךְ אַבְרָהָם֙ וַיִּקַּ֣ח אֶת־הָאַ֔יִל וַיַּעֲלֵ֥הוּ לְעֹלָ֖ה תַּ֥חַת בְּנֽוֹ׃ When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon abReading ’eḥad with many Heb. mss. and ancient versions; text ’aḥar “after.” ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.
Genesis 22:10-13 (translation from Sefaria)
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