Welcome to our Perek Shira class.
Today's class is on a bird called the Rachama, which says,
אֶשְׁרְקָה
לָהֶם וַאֲקַבְּצֵם כִּי פְדִיתִים וְרָבוּ כְּמוֹ רָבוּ: (זכריה י ח)
I will whistle to them and I will
gather them in because I have redeemed them.
This is God talking, saying that He
will redeem the Jewish people. Eshrika is a whistling sound of sorts
that gathers people in, as in this case of when Mashiach is going to come.
The Tur, on Or HaChaim רפו in explaining on
Shabbat, says we know that if we keep two Shabbatot, Mashiach will come.
And in Musaf Shabbat, we say Tikanta Shabbat Ratzita Korbanoteha/You you
set up Shabbat, You wanted, its Korbanot.
If you pay attention to the Rashei
Tevot, it goes backwards alphabetically, from Taf to Shin to Resh,
to Kuf. That's called TaShRaK. And the Tur says it's based on
this pasuk of 'Eshrika/I will whistle.' because when we keep Shabbat, it
brings in the exile. So we hint to the whistling of this pasuk in Zachariah
10,8 every time we say Musaf Shabbat. Many siddurs have these
letters bolded, to hint to this concept.
Do what does this pasuk have to do
with this specific bird? Why is
this bird singing this song?
The Gemara in Hulin 63A says the Aramaic name for this
bird is the Sharakrok, because it
makes this whistling sound.
And why is it called Racham? Rav
Yochanan explains that when the Racham comes, mercy comes, and Rashi and
the Maharsha quote Rav Bebe who says
that when he makes this whistling sound while perched on a fence or the
like, it means that rain is going to come, which is a level of mercy. But, he
says, we have a tradition that if he's on the ground (which is not the
normal place for him to stand) when he makes this whistling sound, it's a
sign that Mashiach is coming.
So now we have a deeper insight.
This bird is literally the bird that's going to announce Mashiach, with
its whistling sounds.
So the Racham is the one that sings
about the whistling of Mashiach because he also whistles, to indicate God's
mercy. In today's day and age, the mercy of God
is symbolized through rain, and the ultimate rain, the ultimate mercy will
be in Mashiach's time. Therefore, the song of this bird is the song of the in-gatherings
of Mashiach.
The Maharsha on Hulin adds a beautiful thought on the pasuk,
(ישעיהו
נ״ב:ז׳) מה נאוו על ההרים רגלי מבשר משמיע שלום./How beautiful are the mountains and
the feet of the one that's going to announce Mashiach.
We
in the Sephardic world say this in our Hoshana Raba and Simchat Torah
prayers: מבשר,
מבשר ואמר we will have the sound of the one
announcing, referring to the announcing of Mashiach.
And right before that, we say "Like
it says, מה נאוו על ההרים רגלי מבשר how nice it will be on the mountains, the feet of the mevaser/ which refers to this bird, says the Maharsha. We're happy when we see this
bird on the mountains. Because normally, he's on the fence whistling. When
he whistles on the fence, it means rain is coming. But when we see him
whistling on the ground, that's really beautiful. That's the sign that Mashiach
is coming.
How beautiful and how deep the words
of Perek Shira! The bird called the Rachama, the bird
of mercy, in Aramaic, the Shararok bird makes the 'shararok'
sound of whistling, because he is the indicator of Mashiach.
And again, we hint to him, according
to the Tur, every time we say musaf Shabbat, where we say Tikanta Shabbat Ratzita
Korbanoteha- TaShRaK
The Sefer Lekutei Amarim
says something interesting about this bird in the name of the Yavetz, that rain
sometimes comes without warning. Nowadays we have weather apps, but in the old
days they had no idea. They used signs of nature to know when rain was coming but it could just come suddenly. And
the same is true with Mashiach. There are many simanim that the Gemara gives us, such
as when there is inflation etc, but we have to know that Mashiach can come suddenly, just like the rain comes
suddenly without any warning.
It says, ופתאום יבא אל היכלו
האדון
Suddenly our master will come to His courtyard.
God will come suddenly, without a
warning.
Rav Chaim Volozhin once told his wife, "You know what's going to be when Mashiach comes? I'm going to be
sitting, one day, eating my breakfast and you'll come running into the room and
say, "Chaim, Chaim! What are you doing? Mashiach is here!" That's how
sudden it's going to be. We have to be hoping and looking forward. When we see
these signs, we have to say, it could happen, Mashiach could come.
That's the beautiful song of the Sharakrok
whistling and letting us know that at any moment the rain can come, and at any
moment Mashiach can come.
Have a wonderful day.
