Say’s Phoebe : The Water and the Wind

This is a Say’s Phoebe. This is the first one I’ve seen, on a recent expedition to the desert of West Texas. Seemingly, she’s relatively unremarkable: small, somewhat drab, perched. But taken in context, this was a compelling moment. She’s perched on this tree looking out over the Rio Grande. Water. In the desert. The presence of water, a seeming miracle in its own right, is also the precondition for insects. And wind. The constant breeze provides just the extra little lift she needs to “hawk,” to conserve her own energy and make her hunting more efficient. Water and wind are what create her world, what allow her to flourish in the midst of a desert.

Torah’s Hebrew poetry creates maddeningly wonderful opportunities for English understanding. In Genesis 1:2, we read of “a wind from God sweeping over the water.” Or perhaps we instead read of “the spirit of God sweeping over the water.” Which is it? The only definitive answer is that the Hebrew is amenable to multiple translations. The former is the product of a Creator. HaShem made a wind and sent it across the waters. The latter is direct, personified action. HaShem’s own Presence moved through space and time. To borrow a Talmudic phrase, “both this and that are true.” So how are we to reconcile the two?

For the moment, pause your rational understanding and instead just feel. Recall a time you’ve stood in water, flowing gently against your feet with the breeze in your face. Feel the constancy. The water’s flow and the wind’s push continue on and on. No matter what language we use, no matter how we make sense of the water and the wind, they continue to flow gently around us, against us - in some way through us. Water and wind, symbols of Torah and HaShem, together are the world’s first two things. Perched in the desert, relying on water and wind to flourish, the Phoebe finds its place. Perched in the desert, relying on Water and Wind to flourish, I do as well.