Like an Eagle Awakens Her Nest

"Like an Eagle Awakens Her Nest"

כנשר יעיר קנו

(Deut. 32:11)

Jews are like just-hatched chicks of the mother eagle. They look around but see no mother just yet. So too the Jewish people scurry about, mostly oblivious to the God that watches over them.

The way the mother eagle, upon returning to her nest, to feed or visit her chicks, does it is interesting. Were she to simply fly in and land in front of them, her size and speed would frighten them to death. So she first lands nearby, out of sight, and then begins to shake branches or make movements to draw their attention from afar. Then she slowly will advance towards them.

So to we Jews may not behold God if He were to suddenly present Himself, as happened in Mount Sinai when the Jews received the first two commandments from God Himself. It says there, they had to be miraculously resuscitated, when, with each commandment, the fright killed them. They then persuaded Moses to be the conduit and through him, instead, receive the remaining 8 commandments.

This is how God is preparing us for the Final and Ultimate Era of Redemption. He cannot reveal Himself suddenly. He does it gradually. First He brings Chassidus into the world. He raises a dynasty of Rabbis who, with every passing generation, spread Chassidus more and more, each Rabbi reaching out much more than his predecssor, taking these waters of the utopic fountain of eternity to wherever Jews find themselves. By now, there hardly remains a Jew worldwide who has not been touched by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Unlike the nitty-gritty stuff that makes up the Talmud, and unlike the harsh approach of Mussar to rally the Jews to observance, Chassidus is lofty and mellow. It brings to light new aspects of Torah heretofore concealed from even the greatest minds. Chassidus awakens the soul with sweet-talk of God and the value of the Jewish soul. It talks of the role of Moshiach, the meaning of a conduit, and what redemption means. It talks about God's eventual revelation to us in dimensions as of yet unbeknown to us.

Before the Sabbath dons on us, the obligation of the Jew on Friday is to have a foretaste of the Sabbath - by tasting a bit of the dish prepared for the approaching Sabbath day. Similarly, on the eve of the eternal Sabbath, we, today, at the threshold of the Era of the Final and Ultimate Redemption, must get a foretaste of the Eternal Sabbath era. How so? By studying Chassidus, or, at the very least, studying about Moshiach! In order that we stand prepared.