Turkey Vulture : L’Chaim!

This is a Turkey Vulture. Common mythology says that these are a harbinger of death. Reality of course is quite different, and Vultures are an essential part of the natural world’s “clean up” process. They’re carrion eaters certainly, but frightening tales aside, they don’t have the ability to predict that their food will be ready any time soon. So when this one perched right outside my library window, I didn’t panic. Too much….

Our siddur includes a teaching from Abraham Joshua Heschel (z”l) that for those who live aware of HaShem, getting older means to gain time rather than to lose it. This seeming(!) paradox completely inverts the Western notion of how we see age, what the Greeks would have taught as the telos of our lifespan. And the Egyptians? With their pyramids built in preparation for the afterlife? Not for us. Heschel (z”l) is beautifully reinforcing the Jewish focus on the here-and-now, the accumulation of the birds-in-hand, if you will. Truth is in our cups, and we say, “L’Chaim! To life!”

By a certain stage, death is no longer inconceivably abstract. Nor is it an expected visitor at the door. But our tradition teaches that life is profoundly tangible. We are to focus on what we do, what we have - and most importantly - what we share. The sanctified moments we have accumulated through the years are our true riches. And what will come, will come. Ours is an appreciative and gratified perspective rather than one inherently anxious about an unknowable future. So raise a L’Chaim to that - oddly gorgeous - Vulture, and say, “Of course. But not yet!”