BOOK OF VAYIKRA ShemInI
11:17 | יא:יז
וְ אֶ ת הַ כּוֹס וְ אֶ ת הַ שָּׁ לָ ךְ וְ אֶ ת הַ יַּ נְ שׁוּף
The owl, the shalach and the little owl.
What type of bird is the shalach, listed here among the non-kosher fowl?
“Our rabbis explained,” says Rashi, “that it draws up fish from the sea.” Its name, shalach, is similar to the Hebrew word for drawing out, sholeh, indicating that the manner in which this bird “draws out” is exceptional—it extracts its prey from deep within the water.
Rashi’s words also hint to something else that the shalach extracts from the sea in addition to its prey.
The Talmud8 relates that upon seeing a shalach, Rabbi Yochanan would proclaim, “Your judgments are vast depths!”9 The commentaries explain that Rabbi Yochanan was referring to G-d’s “judgment in the vast depths of the sea,” whereby He sends the shalach to kill those fish whose time has come to die. This Talmudic passage supports the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching that G-d’s providence is not limited to humans; it extends to all wildlife, plant life, and even inanimate creations.
This extraordinary concept is hinted to in Rashi’s words regarding the shalach. The Divine Providence that dictates every detail of creation hides beneath the veil of nature, like the vast and complex marine world that hides beneath the surface of the ocean. But Rabbi Yochanan’s statement teaches us that the workings of nature are neither random nor spontaneous; even the lives and behavior patterns of fish and birds are precisely coordinated by Divine plan. Hence, what “our rabbis explained”—Rabbi Yochanan’s insight about the shalach setting upon its prey as an emissary to carry out G-d’s judgment—“draws up” what is hidden beneath the analogical “sea,” extracting the Divine Providence found in the details of creation from beneath its veil.
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 7, pp. 60–64
8. Chullin 63a.
9. Tehillim 36:7.
