Shabbos 49

“You shall shine as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her pinions with yellow gold.”

Among the discussion of insulated food, carpenter wood-shavings, fine flax, wooden boards, fleece and thirty-nine instances of labor, is the story of a small white dove in the palm of a scholar who was using his wits to escape torment. It’s a profound story with a lot of resonance for our times.

Elisha, Man of Wings, is described in the notes of the Koren Talmud as a man who was so exceedingly clean that he evoked the spirit of an angel. Elisha was unwavering in his fulfilment of the covenant to wear his phylacteries despite a decree by Roman rulers that declared the act forbidden. The punishment for disobeying the decree was quite horrific: the brain of the transgressor would be pierced.

Elisha walked through the marketplace with his phylacteries, taunting the Romans with his audacity. When he was stopped by a Roman official, he removed the phylacteries and clasped them in his closed hand. When the soldier demanded to know what he was holding so tightly, he opened his hand and there was an innocent dove spreading his wings.

The Talmud tells us that it matters that Elisha was holding within his palm a dove’s wings rather than a different breed of bird “because the congregation of Israel is likened to a dove, as it is stated: “You shall shine as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her pinions with yellow gold. Just as this dove, only its wings protect it and it has no other means of protection, so too the Jewish people, only mitzvot protect them.”

Elisha represents someone who has deep faith in his beliefs and is not willing to forsake his values regardless of the cost, including threat to his own safety. We have Elishas among us today in the form of all the doctors, nurses and medical support personnel who show up every day in over-burdened New York City hospitals in order to fulfill their duty during this horrific pandemic, regardless of the threat to their own lives. Like Elisha, they must keep themselves exceedingly clean and protected in special gear from the virus. And they keep showing up despite the fact that our system has somewhat failed them in its ability to properly source the special gear they need to stay safe. In their hands, they carry their own symbolic dove wings in their steadfast commitment to do their part in helping New York City heal itself.

I needed to find the dove today, with all its purity and promise of hope.