{"id":48701,"date":"2026-03-27T01:27:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48701"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:24:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T01:24:41","slug":"on-the-wings-of-griffon-vultures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/on-the-wings-of-griffon-vultures\/","title":{"rendered":"On the wings of griffon vultures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberation. Freedom. Renewal. Recalling our history, our stories. Passover\u2019s themes are many, and the challenge every year is for us to interpret them in a meaningful way for our time.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
This year’s cover of the JI’s Passover issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In making this special issue\u2019s cover, I started with the idea that I would use artificial intelligence \u2013 one of the most contemporary tools \u2013 to create it. Would AI free me from the hours that art creation takes? Short answer: no.<\/p>\n

I started with the directive to design a collage centred on the Jewish fight for freedom throughout history, and got lots of great feedback on how to arrange images to tell a powerful story. I could place \u201ckey representative figures or symbols at the forefront,\u201d \u201cuse overlapping images to create dimension and a sense of \u2018flow\u2019\u201d and incorporate \u201csymbolism of \u2018tikkun olam.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

AI had recommendations for typography, what media I could use, what colour palette. It suggested historical struggles I might want to include in a spiral-shaped design: the Exodus and the Maccabees in the outer ring; Conversos and Partisans in the next ring; early kibbutzim and the Iron Dome in yet another ring; and the yellow ribbon for the Oct. 7 hostages or \u201cstreet-art style seen in Tel Aviv or New York\u201d in the centre.<\/p>\n

I eventually figured out how to create an image in AI, but everything I tried looked horrible, so I decided to make my collage the old-fashioned way \u2013 with my own hands, using only paper, inspired by artist Deborah Shapiro (deborahshapiroart.com<\/a>), whose art I\u2019d used on the JI<\/i>\u2019s 2021 Rosh Hashanah cover.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After what felt like forever, I figured out what my focus would be. I came across the verse in Exodus (19:4): \u201cYou have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles\u2019 wings and brought you to Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

An article on aish.com by Rabbi Warren Goldstein, chief rabbi of South Africa, helped me think through the symbolism, from both a spiritual and secular perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach year, we are told to relive the experience of leaving Egypt \u2013 and I imagine being lifted from slavery and oppression \u2018on the wings of eagles,\u2019\u201d he writes. \u201cWhat better way could there be to express our transition from the earthly bonds that constrain us to the spiritual transcendence that God gave us than through the exhilarating, soaring rush of the eagle\u2019s flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
I tried two different backgrounds for the griffon vulture collage on this issue\u2019s cover, before I decided to make my own. This one is an AI-generated image based on colour suggestions, going from darkness to light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Goldstein goes on to talk about Rashi\u2019s interpretation that \u201cthe eagle\u2019s wings represent the nature of God\u2019s protection over us.\u201d The rabbi notes the miracle that Jews are still here, despite a long history of various peoples trying to kill us. And he compares the \u201crush of the eagle\u2019s flight\u201d to \u201cthe speed with which God liberated us from Egypt\u201d \u2013 so fast, of course, that our bread didn\u2019t have time to rise, hence, the matzah we eat on seder night as a symbol of our \u201csupernatural\u201d redemption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis divine dynamism \u2013 depicted by the image of a soaring eagle \u2013 becomes a call to action: \u2018Be light as an eagle,\u2019 says the mishna in Pirkei Avot. Too often we get bogged down by life,\u201d writes Goldstein. \u201cWe become consumed with angst, submerged in introspection and inertia. The mishna urges us to live life energetically and enthusiastically \u2013 like an eagle \u2013 with a sense of urgency for the task at hand, which is uplifting ourselves and our world through our mitzvot.\u201d<\/p>\n

I like this idea of living with a sense of energetic purpose, whether the motivation to improve ourselves and the world is inspired by Torah or other moral codes and teachings. Freedom and responsibility are inextricably intertwined in my view, but it is easy to get overwhelmed, and the thought of being carried sometimes, of soaring above the earth and gaining new perspective, appeals to me.<\/p>\n

I decided I would \u201cpaint\u201d an eagle.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
I also asked AI to design a collage of the Jewish fight for freedom, from the Exodus to modern days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I searched online for what types of eagles would be at home in Egypt or Israel, I came across a few articles about the mistranslation of \u201cnesherim\u201d in Exodus 19:4. Apparently, we were most likely carried out of slavery on the wings of vultures, not eagles, and probably on the wings of griffon vultures specifically.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the biblical\u00a0nesher\u00a0and ornithological griffon are known for their \u2018bald\u2019 head, enormous wingspan, effortless flight, cliff nesting, devoted nurturing, rapid descent and group feasting on carrion,\u201d writes Dr. Fred Cannon, a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, in Journal for the Study of the Old Testament<\/i>. \u201cFrom biblical times until the industrial age, griffons have been ubiquitous in the Middle East but absent in northern Europe or the Americas. However, eagles commonly resided in northern Europe but are uncommon residents or pass-through migrants in the Middle East. Through millennia, when northern Europeans sought translations for biblical plant and animal names, they sometimes replaced Middle Eastern meanings with recognizable northern European ones. So, the\u00a0nesher\u00a0became known as the eagle to many northern Europeans and North Americans. However, recent Hebrew-speaking ornithologists concur that the\u00a0nesher\u00a0is the griffon. This distinction becomes important when gleaning nuances from biblical metaphors, clarifying kosher dietary regulations and discerning genealogical connections among raptors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natan Slifkin, director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History, in Israel, notes that another part of the verse \u2013 \u201cva\u2019esa etchem<\/i>,\u201d \u201cI bore you,\u201d or \u201cI carried you\u201d \u2013 can be translated as \u201cI elevated you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe explanation,\u201d he writes about the symbolism, \u201cis that the\u00a0nesher\u00a0is the highest-flying bird, and God raised the Jewish people to spiritual heights above anything in the natural world with His miraculous redemption. The highest-flying birds are griffon vultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well, he explains, \u201cWhile people today view the vulture in a negative light, the Torah presents it as an example of a loving and caring parent. This also relates to the vulture\u2019s entire parenting process. Female griffon vultures usually lay one egg, which both parents incubate for an unusually long period of around seven weeks until it hatches. The young are slow to develop and do not leave the nest until three or four months of age. The long devotion of the vulture to its young symbolizes God\u2019s deep dedication to the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, it\u2019s more than time for us to dedicate ourselves to the griffon vulture. Only around 230 of them remain today, according to a brochure of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), which suggests helping save the griffon vulture as a b\u2019nai mitzvah project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The word \u201cnether\u201d comes \u201cfrom a Hebrew root that means \u2018to shed\u2019 or \u2018to fall off,\u2019\u201d explains the brochure. \u201cThat\u2019s because, as baby vultures grow up, they shed the feathers on their heads \u2013 an adaption that actually helps them stay clean! A bald head makes it easier for vultures to stick their heads into carcasses when they eat, without getting messy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brochure notes that griffon vultures live in the Golan Heights, Negev Desert and Carmel Mountains. They have a wingspan of up to 2.65 metres and spend two to three hours a day combing their feathers. They can spot food from seven kilometres away, eating dead animals before the bodies rot, which helps prevent the spread of diseases.<\/p>\n

Poisoning, electrolution, land loss, illegal hunting, and that griffon vultures only lay one egg a year, are all threats to their future. To help counter these pressures, SPNI has a breeding program, it is working with electric companies to insulate power poles, lobbying for stronger laws against poisons, and teaching farmers and others about more eco-friendly pest control.<\/p>\n

That the griffon vulture is endangered made it, to me, an even more appropriate image for the JI<\/i>\u2019s Passover cover, underscoring the connection between freedom and responsibility. The words I chose for the cover\u2019s background \u2013 cut and ripped from the last few issues of the JI<\/i> \u2013 are my attempt to depict Goldstein\u2019s commentary. While the eagle\/vulture is protecting us as much as possible from that which bogs humanity down, giving us some respite and renewed strength, we must continue to try and uplift ourselves and the world around us, grateful for the blessings we have, and working to bring more of them into being.<\/p>\n

Chag Pesach sameach. Happy Passover.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liberation. Freedom. Renewal. Recalling our history, our stories. Passover\u2019s themes are many, and the challenge every year is for us to interpret them in a meaningful way for our time. In making this special issue\u2019s cover, I started with the idea that I would use artificial intelligence \u2013 one of the most contemporary tools \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[9094,2466,9511,24769,2796,24768,23522,6433,218,400],"class_list":["post-48701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","tag-ai","tag-art","tag-collage","tag-endangered-animals","tag-exodus","tag-griffon-vultures","tag-hebrew-bible","tag-jewish-life","tag-judaism","tag-passover"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}