Stork

Scripture references: Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18; Job 39:13; Psalm 104:17; Jeremiah 8:7; Zechariah 5:9

The Hebrew חֲסִידָה (chasidah), The stork's Hebrew name is related to the word chesed, loyal love, steadfast love, covenant faithfulness. The chasidah is the chesed-bird, possibly named for its fidelity to its nest site, its loyal return each year to the same location, or its attentiveness to its young. The connection between the stork's name and the central covenantal attribute of YHWH (chesed) has been noted by Jewish interpreters; the Talmud (Chullin 63a) asks why the stork is called chasidah and answers: because it shows kindness (chesed) to its companions. Despite this, it is listed as unclean in Leviticus 11:19, the chesed-bird is not permitted for eating in Israel.

The stork knows its seasons, Jeremiah 8:7, "Even the stork in the heavens knows its times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their migration, but my people know not the rules of the LORD." Jeremiah uses the stork's seasonal knowledge as a rebuke to Israel. The migratory birds, stork, turtledove, swallow, crane, know exactly when to depart and when to return. Their migration is calibrated by instinct to the seasons YHWH built into creation. Israel, with the Torah and the covenant, does not know YHWH's ordinances. The bird that returns every spring to the same nest site, without fail, without forgetting, knows more about the God-given order than the people who received the Torah at Sinai.

The fir trees, Psalm 104:17, In the creation psalm: "In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees." Psalm 104 catalogs YHWH's provision for every creature in creation, the stork is given fir trees as her home. The tall conifers (possibly cypress or cedar in the Palestinian context) are specifically where YHWH has provided for the stork to build the massive nest that storks return to season after season. The provision is built into the landscape.

The stork-winged women, Zechariah 5:9, In Zechariah's vision of the flying scroll and the woman in the ephah basket: "Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven." The two women carry the ephah (containing Wickedness personified) toward the land of Shinar, where a house will be built for it. The stork-wing image is the only other appearance of the stork in the prophetic literature, and it is in a vision of the removal of wickedness. The stork wings, associated with the strong seasonal migratory flight that crosses great distances, carry the basket far away, to Babylon (Shinar), where it belongs.

The stork is the migration bird who knows its appointed time, whose instinctual faithfulness to its season Jeremiah uses to rebuke Israel's failure to know YHWH's ordinances, whose fir-tree home Psalm 104 names as YHWH's provision, and whose wings carry the basket of wickedness to Babylon in Zechariah's vision. The Sanctum holds it as Canon-tier: the chesed-bird who shames Israel by knowing what Israel has forgotten.