Sage Thrasher : The Time is Ripe

This is a Sage Thrasher. When I first saw him, he was deep in the tangles of a dead tree. Sitting motionless and quiet, and with his camouflage coloration, I almost didn’t see him. Then I got just the narrowest of glances, enough to recognize but certainly impossible to get a decent photo. So I sat. Minutes later he hopped out of the constrained space onto a cleared branch, better than I could have posed him. And that beautiful light! Bird photography often reinforces the Jewish wisdom, “Don’t just do something, sit there!”

The story of Pesach is the Israelites’ escape from the narrow, constricted space of Mitzrayim. The Hebrew word for “Egypt” also means “narrow” or “constricted.” The narrow strip of fertile land alongside the Nile of course gives rise to an apt name for Egypt. And for an enslaved nation, the physical constriction and narrowed living under Pharaoh is perfectly captured with the same word. Tanakh teaches that the Israelites were destined to live 400 years as strangers in this strange land. “Don’t just do something, sit there!”

“Don’t just do something, sit there!” The cynic accuses that this is a recipe for passivity and sheepishness. Say rather that this is a recognition that every action has its moment of ripeness. Whether that moment is announced by “signs and wonders” or a simple hop out of the brambles, moving beyond the constraints we face, escaping our own narrows, can take time. But it happens. Faith in the process is just as important as faith in the outcome. Complex interpersonal interactions and a hopping Thrasher, both have their moment.