One of the beautiful things about marine life is that it is so tranquil. Looking from land, the sea looks perfect. All we can see on the surface are the waves, and below the surface, we can just imagine how the fish swim around and live in the most natural and harmonious way. Of course, we know that the big fish live off the smaller ones, but that too, is nature
The Hebrew word for nature is teva. Teva also has another meaning: hidden, as in, “hidden in the water,” as we find in the verse, “hidden in the sea.” This teaches us that many secrets are hidden within the laws of nature, and if we just look a little deeper into nature, we can find some fascinating tales.
In this week’s Torah portion of Shemini, we learn the laws of kosher and non-kosher birds. Birds of prey are non-kosher. Rashi, the famous commentator, used old French (his native language) to translate many of the Hebrew names of these birds, so that we know what they are. When it came to the osprey, Rashi not only told us its name, but explained how it dives into the water and pulls out fish in its mouth.
What kind of lesson can we learn from the fact that Rashi gave us this extra information and not just the name translation?
Rashi’s words teach us that the secret of the sea is that nature is full of miraculous events. Why is it that this specific fish was plucked out of the water by this bird? Why does one large fish eat a specific smaller one? Is it just nature? Or perhaps there is a G-d that makes the world go ’round?
On the surface everything looks so beautiful, but as we look a little deeper, we see that the hand of G-d is just beneath the surface. This is the secret of the sea. This is the lesson that the osprey can teach us.
The same is true in our lives. We may go on with our daily lives and everything looks so natural, but the truth is, the hand of G-d is active in everything we do. We just have to poke our heads out of the water to see it.
Shabbat Shalom.