Last update - 00:00 11/10/2007
Portion of the Week / 'And a dove and a youth still knock'
By Benjamin Lau
The Flood is over. Noah floats in his ark on the flood waters for days before deciding to check whether the waters have receded. The Bible describes Noah's dispatching of the raven and dove to test the land's surface: "And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground" (Genesis 8:7-8).
Noah relates differently to the two birds. Unlike the dispatching of the raven - "And he sent forth a raven" - the description of the dove's first dispatching is far from laconic: "Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground." Noah sends the dove "from him": A special connection between Noah and the dove is evident.
When the birds return, we sense his different attitude toward each. The raven does not return to Noah; at least, the raven's return is not explicitly mentioned. The vague phrase "which went forth to and fro" hints at no special relationship between Noah and the raven. The dove's return to the ark is described differently: "But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark" (Gen. 8:9).
The seeming redundancy of "returned unto him into the ark" expresses a close relationship between Noah and the dove: The dove returns to the ark and "unto him" - to the man who dispatched her, Noah. Similarly, the description of Noah's actions on the dove's return is surprising: "Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him." The syntax suggests the intimacy between man and wife. A special connection exists between Noah and his dove and can perhaps be understood if we recall the explanation of his name that is given earlier: "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands" (Gen. 5:29). This prayer links Noah's name to consolation. When the dove seeks dry land, the Bible says: "But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot" (Gen. 8:9).
A delicate, subtle thread connects the two. Apparently, in Noah's story, the dove symbolizes longing for a nest; for an intimate, private home; for family. In the post-flood world Noah faces devastation. He seeks a handhold - some starting-point to return to, from which the world's renewal can begin. Noah's search is common to all mortals. Perhaps that is why the homing pigeon [yonat hado'ar, mail dove, in Hebrew] symbolizes the location of an address. In describing the Jews' return to Zion, after their homeland was destroyed and they have been exiled, the Prophet Isaiah writes: "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" (60:8)
While some people battle storms and clouded skies to return home, others are privileged with a gentle return, like doves returning to their windows. However, sometimes even doves must wander great distances, enduring suffering before returning home.
In a sad Psalm, David describes his desperate situation as he flees King Saul. In the depth of despair, he seeks refuge among his enemies, the Philistines: "For the Leader; upon Jonath-elem-rehokim [or "a silent dove of distance"]. [A Psalm] of David; Michtam; when the Philistines took him in Gath. Be gracious unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up; all the day he fighting oppresseth me (Psalms 56:1-2)." The phrase "a silent dove of distance" describes David's feelings far from home. Not a sound is heard; the destination cannot be perceived. Nothing is heard or seen. The medieval Jewish poet Judah Halevi dedicates a poem to that "silent dove of distance": "Silent dove of distance/Lily of the valley/You search the marketplace/Which bewails its children/Once splendid/Now an object all revile/Once glorious in their wonderful features...."
The dove is depicted as a creature wandering aimlessly: "Now an object all revile." She is a homelesss exile; aimlessly she "search[es] the marketplace," like the woman seeking her lover in the Song of Songs. In another poem, Judah Halevi speaks of the dove that has "found ... rest for the sole of her foot." That poem has become a regular "guest" - and is sung - at the Sabbath table of Jewish families, Ashkenazic and Sephardic alike. Diaspora Jews, weary from their daily toil and distant from their homeland, find shelter in the Sabbath: "The dove has found there rest for the sole of her foot/There the weary can rest."
Similarly depicting Jews as a dove, Hebrew poet Haim Nahman Bialik, in his "Behind the Gate," imagines a dove leading him to the Promised Land. Traveling so great a distance in time and space, he does not know how to open the gate: "'Alas!' cry the waves/And the fish of the deep waters/How will I enter my gate, the special land, when my key is broken/And the door locked? No voice is heard, nobody answers/And a dove and a youth still knock at the gate."
Israeli songwriter Shimrit Or once wrote, with great longing in her heart, about a dove flying high above the towers. The yearning to see the dove find a resting-place has accompanied us for years; the song ends, "Keep going, keep going, you still have a long way to go."
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