21 Apr KEDOSHIM: WE ARE MEANT TO SOAR

A fable is told of an
egg in an eagle’s nest
high in the branches of
a towering tree, that
fell out of the nest and
landed in the middle of a chicken coup. It
soon hatched, and a baby eagle emerged.
The baby bird looked around, saw the
other chickens, and naturally figured that
it, too, was a chicken. It realized that its
wings looked much different, but it was
raised among the chickens and acted just
as chickens act. It ate chicken feed and
ran around the coup, without flying.
Then, one day, its mother swooped down
from the skies into the chicken coup. It
saw its baby and told it to get onto its
back.
“Why?” the baby eagle asked. “I live
here in the chicken coup.”
“This isn’t where you belong,” the
mother eagle said. “You’re not meant to
be here. You’re meant to fly, to soar to the
heavens.”

The baby eagle had no idea what the
mother was talking about. It never
imagined that it could fly to the sky.
Finally, the mother convinced the baby to
get onto its back. The mother flew to a
mountain peak and told the baby to get
off. It then told the baby to flap its wings
and start to fly.
The Mishna in Pirkeh Avot (6:2) tells that
every day, a voice is sounded from Har
Sinai, exclaiming, “Woe unto those
creatures, who disgrace the Torah.” This
heavenly voice bemoans the fact that so
many people neglect the Torah, filling
their time instead with other, vain
pursuits. The Mishna applies to such
people the verse in the Book of Mishleh
(11:22), “A gold ring in the nose of a
pig.” We were given the Torah, which is
more precious than the most expensive
piece of gold jewelry. We were given the
opportunity to soar to the greatest heights,
to achieve greatness, to live meaningful,
spiritual lives, to live lives of kedushah.
If we waste our time on vanity, then we

are like someone who is given a
piece of gold jewelry and puts it
on a pig.
Parashat Kedoshim begins, Deber
El Kol Adas Bnei Yisrael
V’Amarta Aleihem Kedoshim
Tihyu, “Speak to the entire
congregation of Beneh Yisrael,
and say to them: You shall be
holy.” Moshe was to tell kol adas
Bnei Yisrael, the entire nation,
every single person among the
Jewish People, that they are meant
to be sacred. We are all meant to
soar. We are all meant to be great.
We are like that baby eagle in a
chicken coup. All around us, people
aren’t “flying.” They’re spending their
time on social media, watching all kinds
of videos, playing games, and being
glued to their screens. This is the society
we live in, but this is not the way we are
supposed to live. We are supposed to
soar, to live at a much higher standard, to
fill our time and our lives with meaning,

with purpose, with spirituality, with
kedushah. We aren’t supposed to act like
“chickens,” to occupy ourselves with
vanity.
Let us hear the call of kedoshim tihyu,
and make the commitment to be better, to
avoid the distractions, to avoid the
nonsense, so we can soar to the great
heights that we are meant to reach.