We are up to the song of the Tasit, which comes from a
famous pasuk in Tehilim 121,2
עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יי עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם /וָאָרֶץMy help comes from Hashem, Creator of Heaven and
earth
What is a Tasit? The word Tas means to fly , and
the Targum Yerushalmi in Bereshit 15,11 says that at the Brit Ben Habetarim, after the animals were split,
וַיֵּ֥רֶד הָעַ֖יִט עַל־הַפְּגָרִ֑ים/The Ayit came down on the split animals.
Rashi says there that the Ayit
is a certain kind of bird, such as a vulture, that comes down on carcasses. Based
on that, the Targum Yerushalmi translates it to the Taisa comes down, and
Rav Chaim Kanievsky ztl saysthis is the Tasit, from the word tas/
fly (today a pilot is called a tayas because he flies, based on this
word).
Why does the Tasit say
עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יי עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ ?
Rav Chaim Kanievsky explains, based on a pasuk in Yirmiyah,
where the Jewish people are compared to the Ayat,
in a negative way:
הַעַ֨יִט צָב֤וּעַ
נַחֲלָתִי֙ לִ֔י הַעַ֖יִט סָבִ֣יב עָלֶ֑יהָ לְכ֗וּ אִסְפ֛וּ כָּל־חַיַּ֥ת
הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה /Has my heritage become for me like
the bloodstained bird of prey, which other birds of prey surround?
He points out that this Ayit
is not liked by the other birds. It's surrounded by other birds and it's
bloodstained, which means maybe it has already been attacked. It's an unpopular bird,
surrounded by other birds that don't like it. And it's flying around looking for carcasses.
And it says, עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יי עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם
וָאָרֶץ:Hashem is going to help me.
This bird doesn't get fed every day like domesticated birds, like the
chicken or the dove. He's got to make it
on his own. He has fight for a living. He doesn't have an exact system, and
therefore he's on the bitachon program. And so this vulture says,
עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יי עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ:
I once read an article about vultures that really added to my appreciation
of nature. Vultures, or other types of scavenger birds are a tremendous help
for the environment. They are what's called nature's sanitation department. If
dead animals were to just lie there, they would attract all kinds of diseases
and become smelly and odorous. But the vultures
come and scavenge, and clean everything up. And Hashem, in His tremendous
mercy, created the stomach of vultures to contain an exceptionally corrosive acid, enabling
them to safely digest carcasses that are infected with all kind of toxins, such
as anthrax, cholera- lethal poisons- and yet they're able to eat them and
thereby remove these bacteria from the
environment.
This is a wonder of wonders. Amd it's really the ultimate Ezri Me'im
Hashem. Hashem is helping the vulture. He's out there eating carcasses?
Who knows what's going to happen
to him? But don't worry, Hashem worked
it out. His system is such that it can
handle it.
That's the vulture. The Hovot Halevavot, when talking about
bitachon, tells us to look into different animals and birds and see how Hashem
works it all out perfectly.
They all have all the tools necessary for what they need to do to
survive. Another interesting thing about vultures is that urinate straight down their legs, and the uric
acid kills the bacteria that accumulates on them from walking through carcasses. It also acts as an evaporative cooling agent.
Wonder of wonders, look how Hashem cares for birds and gives them
what they need, even if they are, so to
say, in a very difficult economic environment.
That's a lesson for us.
עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יי עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם
That's the song of the Vulture saying, Hey guys, don't worry, I
don't have any set system. I don't know where my food is coming from day to day. I I'm not like
the cow that just grazes the grass knowing what's coming. The vulture says, Listen guys, it's day by day, and we
survive.
