The Bird

(160.) They told me in his name that, regarding the matter of his gathering, he gave a parable: There is a bird that lays very many eggs—an extraordinary multitude—so many that it cannot sit on all of them and hatch birds from them. God gave it the instinct to go and craftily place some eggs in one bird's nest, and similarly to place some more eggs in another nest. Thus it places its eggs in the nests of other birds. Those other birds do not know that the eggs are not theirs, and they sit on them until birds hatch from them. This bird also keeps some of its own eggs, sits on them, and hatches its own young. Afterward, the bird flies with its young and begins to chirp. Then all the birds that were raised by others from its eggs hear it. They recognize the voice and are immediately drawn to the bird from which they truly came, and they return to it. The meaning is somewhat understood by one who knows some hint regarding the greatness of Rabbainu's work of leadership with the world.