Black-throated Green Warbler : A Time to Release

This is a Black-throated Green Warbler. During the spring and fall migrations, there is a local park that is “warbler central.” Each season, Facebook is lit up with reports and photos of fleeting birds stopping here briefly as they migrate through. That park is the “must go” place if you want to see the warblers. Confession: I absolutely do not like that park. It’s too “parklike,” and the crowds are (unintentionally) intolerably intrusive. I often dictate as I hike and need solitude. The birds, though, seem to love the place, so if you want the photos, that’s where you have to go. Alternatively, you feel like you’re missing out, not getting the “gets” that everyone on Facebook does.

Tanakh demonstrates our ancestors’ genuine humanity with diverse depictions of how they answered HaShem’s call. Consider Abram, who gathers his household and seemingly without question, leaves his native land and his father’s house for an unspecified place. His son Isaac allows himself to be bound atop Mt. Moriah, intended for a burnt sacrifice. We contrastingly read how Moses argued against being appointed as a prophet, as if God were somehow unaware of Moses’s “shortcomings.” And Jonah! Jonah is the very bookend, the polar opposite, of Abraham’s faithful obedience. Jonah nearly dies at sea rather than carry HaShem’s warning to Nineveh.

We all encounter pressure - professional, familial, social - that imposes obligations. This pressure can be very intense, even in inconsequential contexts. I’ve succumbed at times and planned to visit “the park” during migration. But just moments before going, I stepped into my own backyard - and found this gem. Crisis averted. Why did this migratory gift come to my home rather than the park I shun? Who can say? Things have a tendency to resolve as they should: Abram’s descendants inherit the land; Isaac lives; Moses leads the Israelites; and Jonah rescues Nineveh. In 5782, trust in abundance and release fears of inadequacy - of Warblers and our own capacities.