A letter from Sept. 4:
Re: "A Blessing in the House" relates that the only letter of
the alef-beis missing from Bircas Hamozon is the
phei. This is not true -- in the very first blessing
we find the word "umepharnes."
Good for you, Y.H.!
[Note: The letter that is missing is the phei-
sofis.]
*
And from Amnon Goldberg, Tzefas, who reads the family
section, re: our article on "Vultures."
The vital scavengery function of birds of prey referred to in
"Vultures, Good, Bad or Ugly?" of 5 Cheshvan reminded one of
the vision of how they will in the future clean up the bodies
of the armies of Gog and Magog that will be strewn over the
Land.
"You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your
troops and the many nations that are with you. To the birds
of prey on the wing and to the wild animals will I give you
to be eaten..." (Yechezkel 39).
The haftorah for Shabbos Chol Hamoed Succos is about
the War of Gog and Magog and there is a tradition that it
will take place at that time. A mass migration of high-flying
raptors over Eretz Yisroel takes place during the Succos
season, including species referred to in the Torah, like the
tachmas, netz, do'oh, ayoh, ayit, ro'oh, ozniyo, peres,
rochom and eagle. How convenient to have thousands of
raptors overhead ready to partake in this accipitral feast
foretold 2500 years ago!
The Mekubolim explain how birds of prey derive their
vivification from the Face of the Eagle on the Merkovo
but because of the care it shows its young, the eagle does
not symbolize gevura and harshness but rather mercy
and kindness!
The builders of the Tower of Bovel intended to place an idol
of a huge eagle on top of the Tower. The Romans, a nation of
"fierce countenance and strange tongue, swift as eagles from
the ends of the earth," and then the Russians, Germans and
today, the USA, all invoked the eagle as their national
symbol.
But it will be the rochom whose `shrieking' song will
announce the advent of the Redemption, soon and in our
days.
[Ed. And for our Linguistic Corner, note how similar is the
root sharak, whistle or cry out, to the word
`shriek.']
