Call of the Eagle

I once heard a story about a farmer and his poultry farm. The story did not make any sense to me until I converted to Judaism. An eagle egg was mistakenly placed among the eggs that a mother hen was sitting on. The day arrived when the chicks stuck their tiny beaks through the egg and wanted to see daylight. So too did the little eagle. This baby eagle grew up together with the hens on the farm. At first the young eagle did not realize it was any different from the other inhabitants of the place. It tried to pick the grain from the ground as did the other birds, but it seemed to be so difficult to eat the same food. It started to act differently and behave strangely and feel more and more uncomfortable surrounded by the hens.

 

Meanwhile the mother eagle also realized that one of her young ones was missing. She started to fly around, calling from above, hoping that her missing young bird would respond to her call. One day the young eagle heard the voice of his mother calling. It was a new voice, but still it was familiar. The young eagle tried his wings and flew up to follow his mother. Finally he realized: "I'm not a chicken, I'm an eagle."

 

I was still bothered by the question of the identity of my soul. In the Jewish faith we learn that the soul is divine, that it is created separately to the body and nourishes the body. It is only during our lifetime that the soul and the body are connected. Unlike other religions, which hold that man is born with a sinful soul, Judaism maintains that every Jew is born with a pure soul free from sin. Our soul is eternal. It existed before it came to live in our body and will continue to exist after the body dies.

 

I was born in Finland to Christian parents, but what kind of soul did God give me? Was there a mistake in the giving of souls? Maybe the angel taking care of "soul deliveries" mixed up the address. Instead of giving my soul to a Bachmann or Brenner in Carmiel he delivered it to a Brunell in Karleby, Finland. And what about Runa? The same thing must have happened to her. Yet God has a better “delivery record” than that. No mistakes from His side. The answer must be found elsewhere.

 

There is a Midrash (Bible commentary) which states that God, before offering the Torah to the Jews, went to all the other nations with the same offer. None of them were willing to accept the difficult rules and regulations as a nation, but among them were individuals who stood on their tiptoes waving frantically to capture God’s attention, expressing their willingness to accept the Torah. When God gave the Torah to His people at Mt. Sinai, the souls of the converts were also present, those who so eagerly wanted to accept the Torah as their own.

 

Rabbi Josef Lifland in his book Converts and Conversions presents a different, very interesting comment on the souls of the converts at Mt. Sinai. Moshe tells the people: “Not with you alone do I make this covenant…with those who are standing here with us this day…and also those who are not here with us” (Deuteronomy 29,13–14). So if the covenant was made with people who were not present, how were they represented at Mt. Sinai? According to Rabbi Lifland the souls of all Jews were present, but not of converts. He explains, “The difference between a Jew’s relationship with the revelation at Sinai and that of a convert is that every Jew of every generation was present when the Torah was given, if not in body at least in soul. The convert, on the other hand, was there neither in body nor in soul – only his ‘mazal’ (destiny) was present.” According to Rabbi Lifland, in order to understand this, we must realize that there are higher elements of spirituality to the human being, in addition to his soul that is “attached” to the body. These higher elements, which are not “attached” to the body, heard the voice going forth from Mt. Sinai. It is because of his mazal, for example, that one may suddenly have thoughts of repentance. These thoughts stem from a realm beyond consciousness. Mazal is the influence that flows from above into the soul.

 

Jews believe that one day all nations will recognize God’s sovereignty and submit themselves to Him. The thoughts that will bring them to this state will come from their mazal. The true proselyte, says Rabbi Lifland, is one who comes to this recognition earlier than the rest of the world, and because of this he merits shelter under the wings of the Divine presence. All this is a result of his mazal having stood upon Mt. Sinai. 

 

Why did the Almighty place my soul in a body that happened to be born in Finland to Christian parents? If I exclude the possibility of a mistake, since I don't believe that God makes mistakes, I have to continue my search. But the fact is, at that time, I felt very much like the young eagle bird. We did not want to eat the food. We became vegetarians. We behaved differently; we could not participate in the Christian holidays. When the Finns celebrated their festivals, we stayed home, and when we had Jewish festivals nobody celebrated. During these years we also learned the importance of the Christmas tree as a Christian folk symbol. For our relatives and neighbors, it was most upsetting when we stopped having the tree and celebrating Christmas. It became more and more obvious that we belonged elsewhere, and could not stay here; at least, not in our town, without a Jewish community. This was our call, and we had to answer it.

 

To be continued.

 

 

(Strangers No More, by Shlomo Brunell. Reprinted with courtesy of Gefen Publishing House 2005 www.gefenpublishing.com)