Cedar Waxwing : Bandits
This is a Cedar Waxwing. A huge flock of them descended on my backyard and utterly devoured trees full of juniper berries. These birds are stunningly beautiful, one of those species that seems to be so rich with personality and presence that people are inherently drawn to them. This photo shows a bird from last season. There were hundreds of them, day after day. This year people have been asking where the waxwings are. For various reasons, they seem to be present in greatly diminished numbers, and they are missed. With their ravenous appetites and black masks, waxwings are often lovingly called “little bandits.” “Bandits” is one of those lovely, archaic words in which I delight - and of late it is much on my mind.
Talmud describes an era in which bandits were very much different. There is discussion about the guard shacks along major roads intended to give warning when bandits approached a town. There is discussion about whether it is acceptable to sit upon one’s tefillin to hide them while riding in bandit-infested areas. There is discussion about publicly displaying one’s mezuzah on your doorposts and one’s menorah in your window when bandits might target such homes. And most poignantly, there is discussion about the need to ransom members of the Jewish community taken hostage by bandits. Far from a quaint archaism, “bandits” to the Sages reflected living in a very different and dangerous world.
This drash is written in a time of modern banditry, a challenging time, a heartbreaking time. And it is also a time for faith and appreciation. Much of Talmud was written in Babylonia, by descendants of those carried off as war captives. Nearly two thousand years would pass, and then, Talmud would again be studied in a sovereign Jewish state. Faith. I watch support sent from around the world to help cousins in need. Food, money, and medicine flow in even as the most vulnerable people are flown out, destined for safe and accepting new homes. Appreciation. The Waxwings are temporarily diminished in number, but they will be back in fullness and beauty. Banditry will always exist, but it will never achieve dominion.