Lazuli Bunting : Let’s Sing the Same Song

This is a Lazuli Bunting. As is typical, I heard him before I saw him. His song sounded familiar but with just enough “off” to immediately grab my attention. That’s when I remembered I was on a trip into the mountains, and rather than my accustomed sightings, I was likely to encounter new birds - like this one. There are numerous members of the bunting family, many of which I’d seen before and often. But for whatever reason, this species has found its own niche more West than South. They’re widely abundant, but you have to be in the right place to see them. To meet this “new cousin” was a tremendous joy.

“Am Yisrael Chai” is an anthem, an anthem of just two lines, that conveys a tremendous depth of meaning. Am Yisrael means the People Israel, a singular whole. But even as early as from Jacob’s deathbed, his blessings to his sons recognized that each of them and their tribes had different characters and destinies. In the millennia following, Jews have found their way into every corner of the planet, creating localized customs, language, philosophies, and practices. This extended family has dispersed around the globe. Like all families, we have our… issues.

Jews again are living in a challenging age. Anti-semitism, both Left and Right, seems the only widely popular bipartisan issue. Within the Jewish community, different religious and political traditions strain our family ties. We wallow in pilpul: “Who is a Jew?” “Who is a Zionist?” while our enemies ignore these nuances and answer by indiscriminately attacking any Jew they see in the street, the academy, and the marketplace. One wonders whether “Am Yisrael Chai” is only two lines because that’s all that was needed - or that was the extent of the mutually-agreed text. Cousins: it’s time to pay attention to the Bunting and start singing the same song.