I had just lit Shabbos candles. And the cock crowed.
We have a rooster nearby who is a bit overenthusiastic. He
crows at 5 a.m., when I get up; he crows at 5:30, 6:00. He's
still crowing when I leave for work and is doing a repeat
performance when I return. I've heard that roosters crow
every time the light changes but this is ridiculous. When he
crowed after I lit candles, I turned to my son, "That rooster
never stops crowing. It's almost sunset!" A pause. "Maybe I
can write a story about that."
"About a rooster crowing all the time?" he asked, quite used
to my making stories out of things like pouring salt or
sneezing.
"Yeah, if I can find the right metaphor."
My son then went into mock philosophical mode. "Yes, the
rooster crows because it's his job, his purpose in life, and
because it's his purpose, he does it enthusiastically, all
the time, because that's what he was made to do and we can
learn from this that it's our job to study Torah and like
him, we should be doing it all the time."
"That's great!" I exclaimed enthusiastically, a big smile on
my face, ignoring the fact that he was joking. "That's
it!"
And so, I have a rooster who lives near my house. This
rooster crows all the time. Why? Because that is the job he
was given by Hashem and he does it faithfully and constantly,
with great alacrity, without even having read The Path of
the Just.
We too, individually and collectively, are here to serve a
purpose, serving Hashem with the unique talents He gave us.
And we must do so constantly and enthusiastically with
whatever talents we have been given and in whatever situation
Hashem has put us.
And in so doing, we can also learn from all Hashem's
creatures, for each one has a message just for us.
