As an Eagle
In the future we will gracefully fly like eagles over the waters. This means that we will have the ability to fathom the most esoteric and elusive G-dly knowledge with relative ease. The most profound and heretofore unfathomable levels of Torah knowledge will be available to us. SHUVAH SHUVAH
Engulfed in a Sea of Knowledge
“As an eagle that stirs up her nest, hovers over her young, spreads abroad her wings, taking them, bearing them on her pinions.”
According to the Midrash this prophetic verse that appears in this week’s parsha, alludes to the future when G-d shall “destroy” the world—the entire world will be engulfed in the sea of Heavenly knowledge—but Israel will be provided with wings as eagles, as it were, and they will “float on the surface of the waters.”
Obviously, the Midrash was speaking allegorically when it says that Israel will be provided with wings to fly over the waters.
The following is an abridged exposition of this enigmatic matter based on the teachings of Kabbalah and Chassidic literature.
SHUVAH
Upper and Lower Waters
When the world was created, Genesis relates, the world was covered with water. On the second day of creation G-d separated between the “upper waters” and the “lower waters.”
The “lower” and “upper” waters represent two levels of knowledge, inasmuch as water is a Biblical metaphor for knowledge. The “upper waters” refer to the Divine celestial, unfiltered knowledge and the “lower waters” represent the knowledge associated with the natural order, i.e., the wisdom contained within science, philosophy and other “worldly” domains of knowledge.
Before the separation of these waters on the second day of creation, the two areas of knowledge were one. This means that the so-called secular areas of wisdom were subsumed within Torah wisdom, which is its ultimate source.
Returning to Pre-Separation Days
In the future Messianic Age (in its more advanced stages) the world will return to its pre-separation era. The word of G-d that animates physical existence (the area of wisdom that is related to creation) will be reintegrated into the more G-dly Torah realm. The “lower waters” and “upper waters” will once again be united.
SHUVAH
In the future we will gracefully fly like eagles over the waters. This means that we will have the ability to fathom the most esoteric and elusive G-dly knowledge with relative ease. The most profound and heretofore unfathomable levels of Torah knowledge will be available to us.
The upcoming Festival of Sukkos is known as the time when we are judged for water. Literally this means that during this Holiday G-d decides how much rain we will receive in the rainy season. But on a spiritual plane this can mean that Sukkos is when we are judged as to the extent we will be able to plumb the depths of spiritual knowledge.
The more we get into the spirit of the Festival by eating in a Sukkah and especially by taking the “four kinds” of plants (Lulav, Etrog, Hadassim, Arovot) that grow and thrive on water, we will merit to become like eagles and gracefully fly over the waters of Divine knowledge.
SHUVAH
SHUVAH
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Haazinu by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
