Scissor-tailed Flycatcher : Passover
This is a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I encountered him in a massive tangle at the edge of an open field. The sun had just risen. You can see the light glinting back at you in his eye. Notice his wings. They are surely propelling him forward out of the constrictions, but they show just the slightest blur, a comment that his motion just exceeds our ability to grasp. The colors - smoky white and fiery red - make this bird impossible to miss, even against the chaos of his perch. And that tail, that eponymous tail…. Yes it names the bird, and more than that, its luxurious length, its almost decadent excess, inspires us to marvel at the beauty of this most liberated bird. His launch from brush into air epitomizes freedom.
The Bible tells the story of Passover, the journey to freedom, with a fascinating juxtaposition of the majestic and the mundane. We are awestruck by the “signs and wonders,” the “mighty hand and the outstretched arm.” And we are taught over and again how the Israelites rushed, and their bread had no time to rise. The entire narrative of Passover: drawing the infant Moses from the Nile, the contest with Pharaoh’s magicians, the plagues and the Angel of Death, the escape from the pursuing army, and pillars of smoke and fire, it’s all spectacular, utterly epic. And yet, the bread. Amidst all these otherworldly phenomena, the defining symbol of Passover - millennia later - remains the unleavened bread.
Why is our history this seemingly incongruous contrast? Perhaps we are to learn “freedom” has two constituent parts: the initiation - violent and otherworldly - and the perpetuation - sedate and earthly. Put another way, we commemorate God’s astonishing miracles… with our simplest possible bread. HaShem “jumpstarted” redemption with miraculous power. Our complementary role is eternal vigilance and maintenance of the gift of freedom. Our daily lives, the seemingly mundane “daily bread,” are no less important, no less vital than the miracles of Exodus. The Flycatcher’s launch emphasizes moving from the tangle into the unlimited sky; that is our charge from the lesson of Exodus as well.