And The Birds Were Soaring....

בס''ד

Shavua Tov!

My husband likes to go to the early 5:00 a.m. minyan Shabbat morning and I take advantage of the time by sitting outside davening and watching nature at its best.

The air is cool and comfortable in the early morning. As I made myself comfortable, and daylight was just coming up, a couple of magnificent big, black crows came soaring gracefully across the blue Israeli sky, their wings, flapping with all their might to get to a roof top or a pole to rest.

Reaching their destination, they crow with a cawing sound, calling the rest of the gang. Within seconds a large flock of crows were over head.

On the ground I watched the smaller birds looking for food. Their determination to find food is something special to see. I enjoyed watching Mother bird flying to a tree branch to feed her young who were waiting for her. 

We have some of the tiniest, most beautiful colored birds I have ever seen. Their singing sounds like a fine tuned choir.

And I mustn’t forget to tell you about our woodpeckers.  We have woodpeckers all around our trees. Their pecking sound is something to hear. The Woodpeckers are unique in their appearance, with black stripes across their chest, red or yellow truffle of feather on the top of their head and sharp pointy becks. They are so interesting to watch and interact with other birds.

Sitting outside, sipping on a cup of coffee, I was grateful to be living in our homeland and enjoying Hashem’s handiwork, for only He could have produced nature at its best. Hashem, without a doubt is a master artist. The colors, shapes and sizes He chose for the birds are beyond human imagination

Seven thirty came very quickly. My husband came home from Shul, the cool air was warming up, men were passing my house to go to the next Shabbat minyan and in the background of the singing birds I could hear a helicopter.

Since the IAF doesn’t practice on Shabbat............

Until next time... please feel free to comment and share....

Miriam   

Little Bird, Little Bird..........

בס''ד

Every morning, for many years, my husband and I have been feeding the birds. These little creatures have come to rely on the crumbs of bread that we leave them. Early each morning, we see them hovering over our back yard waiting for their treats.

The Negev is known for its birds. This area is a bird watchers paradise. There is this beautiful little black, two shades of gray and a touch of white bird with a yellow beak that has been coming to eat for some time.

This morning, as I was looking out of my kitchen window watching the birds eat, I saw my little bird enjoy her share and then fly away with a piece of bread in her beak.

This poem is for her……...

Little Bird, Little Bird

As I look out of my window
A little  bird I  did see

Nibbling on a piece of bread

That was left for her to enjoy.

This beautiful bird

A creation from Hashem

Flapping her wings

As she floats through the air 

With a morsel of bread in her beak

To feed her young.

Mother bird, Mother bird 

What a wonder you are

Hashem has instilled in you

Motherly love and responsibility.

Little bird, little bird 

So perfect in every way

Your colors are so magical

Oh, what a beautiful sight!

Enjoy and pass on!

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Until next time.....

Miriam      

 

בס''ד

Our Daily Bread............

Several years ago, we lived in Modi’in [between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv]. My laundry room window faced the parking lot, and after living there for a couple of days, I noticed that a flock of small birds would congregate each morning and look for food. ‘What can they find in a driveway I asked my husband?” He made some comment saying birds are dumb.

I took a slice of old bread, broke it into several small pieces and threw it out to the birds. Their initial reaction was to fly away, but a minute or two later they returned and pecked at the bread.

So started my daily routine of feeding the birds.

Early each and every morning, I would open my window wide, call “birdies” throw out my pieces of bread and before I knew it, my ‘bird friends’ were pecking away.

This ritual became sort of family experience. Everyone enjoyed watching the birds eat, even though they laughed at me for calling the birds. Even our dog got into the act. He would jump up on a chair, put his two front paws on the window still, look around and hope a piece of bread would fall his way. Somehow small pieces always ‘fell’ down to his chair.

After awhile, the bird population in my parking lot grew. It was if the small birds told their friends and neighbors how to get free and easy food. It was amazing to see nature at work.

Very early one morning, before I fed the birds, we heard the triss [shutters] in our laundry room rattle. At first we just ignored it, thinking it was the wind, but a few seconds later, the rattle was louder. I opened the triss a little, and to my shock, several birds were sitting on the window still. They knew where the bread came from and were looking for food.

I remember thinking, is this what it was like, when the Jews were walking through the desert and their only food was the manna that fell from the sky each night. Waiting and looking for your daily ration is a humbling experience.

Like the birds, we are dependent on Hashem for our needs. Today manna doesn’t fall from the sky. We need to work to provide for ourselves and our families. But it is Hashem who decrees our livelihood. He is our Father in Shamyim [heaven] watching over us and we are His children. He knows our joy, he knows our pain. He is always with us.

I don’t know where the minhag [custom] of not throwing any left over bread from the table into the garbage came from, but I do know, if we collect the old bread and put it outside to feed the birds and where I live the chickens, we will always have food on our table. Around our apartment even the cats enjoy the left over bread.

We now live in Netivot. The birds congregate behind our apartment. Now it is not me who feeds the birds, but my husband, who every morning as soon as he sees the birds, goes and scatters the pieces of left over bread and comes back to the apartment to watch them eat. When a cat comes around, the birds fly away, and as soon as the cat is gone, back come the birds. More than once, he has chased a cat away who was lingering around trying to catch a bird to eat.

One day, a neighbor of ours, who happens to be a Rav, saw my husband scattering the bread. He asked him what he was doing and when my husband said that he was feeding the birds, the Rav told him that feeding the birds was a very important mitzvah.

He reminded my husband that the Shabbos, on which the Torah parsha of Beshalach is read, is known as Shabbos Shira. One of the customs associated with this Shabbos is to place crumbs outside for the birds to eat.

The chirping of birds is not 'noise'. It is the way that birds praise Hashem for providing them with their needs. Because, on this Shabbos, we too sing praises of Hashem, we recognize the constant song of praise chirped by the birds by feeding them, as a form of reward.

After four years, on the last day that we lived in Modi’in, I finished throwing out my pieces of bread I asked my husband, “who will feed the birds tomorrow?” He told me not to worry, they’ll be fed.

I hope you enjoyed my blog. Feel free to pass it along.

Note: This coming Shabbos is Shabbos Shira

Shabbat Shalom

Miriam