Scientists today are using artificial intelligence to try to understand the language of animals, but Jewish tradition tells us that there were people who could already understand what animals were saying. The Torah gives us a fascinating perspective on the voices of the animal world.
There is a new field of science today in which scientists are trying to use artificial intelligence to understand the language of animals.
We know that animals communicate with one another. Birds chirp, dolphins whistle, elephants make sounds at frequencies that we are not always able to hear, and whales communicate through complex series of sounds. But for thousands of years, there was one problem: we could hear them, but we could not understand them.
And then artificial intelligence arrived.
Instead of listening to only a few sounds, scientists can now record thousands, millions, and even billions of animal sounds and allow a computer to search for patterns. AI can ask questions that we are not capable of asking. Does a certain sound always repeat when there is danger? Is there a particular sound a mother makes when she calls her young? Or do animals change their sounds depending on who is nearby?
And perhaps, one day, we will even be able to understand what they are saying. There are researchers today trying to decode the communication of whales, elephants, birds, bats, and other animals through artificial intelligence.
When I read about this, I remembered someone who already knew how to do this: King Solomon.
About him it says, “And he spoke about the trees… and about the animals, and about the birds, and about the creeping things, and about the fish” (I Kings 5:13). The Sages explain that Solomon did not merely know about animals. He understood their language.
I want to share with you an interesting story from the Talmud (Bava Batra 3a) about Herod’s rise to power.
Herod was not Jewish, and he was also a slave of the Hasmonean royal family. The Talmud tells us that he murdered the entire Hasmonean family and took control of the kingdom. But he knew that the Torah says, “You shall surely appoint over yourself a king from among your brothers,” meaning that the king of Israel must come from the Jewish people.
Although this is not written explicitly in those words, the Sages interpreted the verse this way.
Herod asked, “Who interprets the Torah?” The answer was: the Sages of the Sanhedrin.
So Herod realized that there was a problem. As long as the Sages were still alive, they could judge him and remove him from power because he was not Jewish.
Herod therefore decided to murder all the members of the Sanhedrin so that no one would remain who could stop him from being king over the Land of Israel.
Of all the Sages, he left one alive, Bava ben Buta, who was one of the greatest Sages of the Sanhedrin and also a righteous man. Herod also persecuted him and, for some reason, blinded him.
One day, Herod decided to test Bava ben Buta.
He came to him in disguise. He did not tell him that he was Herod. He said to him, “Look, my master, what this evil slave has done. He has killed all the Sages and the ministers.”
Bava ben Buta replied, “What can I do?”
Herod said to him, “Curse him.”
Bava ben Buta answered with a verse from Ecclesiastes, where King Solomon says, “Even in your thoughts, do not curse a king.” The word “thoughts” means even in your mind. Do not even think about cursing the king.
Herod said to him, “But he is not a king. He is only a slave. He simply took control of the kingdom.”
Bava ben Buta answered, “Even if you are right, he is also a wealthy man.” The verse in Ecclesiastes continues, “And in your bedroom, do not curse a wealthy man.” Even when you are alone in your room, do not curse a wealthy person.
“And even if he is not wealthy,” Bava ben Buta continued, “he is the ruler. He controls the Land of Israel. And about that, the Torah says, ‘You shall not curse a ruler among your people’” (Exodus 22:27). Bava ben Buta was not willing to say a single negative word about the king.
Herod said to him, “But regarding the verse, ‘You shall not curse a ruler among your people,’ the Sages said that the words ‘among your people’ mean someone who acts as one of your people, meaning someone who follows the ways of the Torah. But that does not apply to an evil person who acts against the Torah.”
Bava ben Buta answered, “If he hears that I cursed him, he will kill me.”
Herod said to him, “But it is only you and me in this room. No one will ever know.”
Bava ben Buta answered with the continuation of the verse in Ecclesiastes: “For a bird of the sky will carry the voice.”
Rashi explains that this means that eventually things always become known. There are no secrets. Someone tells someone, who tells someone else, and eventually the information gets out. This is the meaning of the metaphor, “A bird of the sky will carry the voice.” And that is why Bava ben Buta refused under any circumstances to curse the king.
Herod saw this and was amazed. He said to Bava ben Buta, “You should know that I am Herod. If I had known that you Sages were so careful and so cautious, that you would not curse a king even in the privacy of your own bedroom, and that you are so careful to observe what the Torah commands and follow it under every circumstance, I would not have killed all the Sages.”
And he regretted the terrible things he had done. Then he asked Bava ben Buta, “What can I do to repair what I have done?”
Bava ben Buta answered, “You extinguished the light of the world,” referring to the Sages, who illuminate the world. “Go and occupy yourself with the light of the world, and build the Temple.”
And that is what Herod did. He renovated the Temple, until the Sages said, “Whoever has not seen the building of Herod has never seen a beautiful building.” That is the story as it appears in the Talmud.
The Message of the Birds
Rabbi Chaim Vital, the student of the Arizal, writes about the greatness of the Arizal, that he was able to understand the chirping of birds.
In his book The Eight Gates, in the section called The Gate of the Holy Spirit, Discourse 3, Rabbi Chaim Vital explains the entire subject of the secret of the chirping of birds. He explains that in the higher spiritual worlds, all kinds of things connected to the future are revealed. But these things are expressed in a spiritual form.
As the Sages say, “There is not a single creature, among all the creatures, that does not have an angel above it who strikes it and says to it, ‘Grow.’”
Every creation in the world has an angel appointed over it. There is an angel appointed over the sea, an angel appointed over the grapevine, an angel appointed over the frog, an angel appointed over the cow, and so on. In the same way, every bird and every animal in the world has an angel appointed over it.
Rabbi Chaim Vital says that whenever a decree is issued in the heavenly court, it is announced in Heaven. All the angels know about the decree but a spiritual announcement cannot reveal itself directly to people in the physical world. Since our world is a physical world, therefore, the angels place this information into the mouths of the birds, and the birds, through their chirping, tell us about it.
Only a righteous and holy person can reach the level where he is able to hear and understand what that animal is announcing and revealing to us. This is actually the deeper meaning of the verse, “A bird of the sky will carry the voice.”
The bird of the sky is the bird that chirps, and through its chirping it carries the spiritual voice, because the spiritual voice cannot express itself directly here in the physical world. With this understanding, we can appreciate the story of Bava ben Buta on a deeper level.
Bava ben Buta was not telling Herod that he was afraid that what he said would eventually become known through other human beings. Rather, when a person says something, when he curses a king even though the Torah says that he is forbidden to do so, the news of his failing is announced in Heaven, and “a bird of the sky will carry the voice.” The birds are the ones who later reveal it in this world.
In addition, Rabbi Chaim Vital explains in The Gate of the Holy Spirit that there are birds that have a specific mission to publicize and announce certain things.
For example, there is a bird appointed to announce a decree of famine, and there is one appointed to announce that, G-d forbid, a plague of locusts is about to come to the world. And there is a sparrow that is appointed to bring good news, particularly the news that a plague has been stopped.
We are soon going to read Parshat Noah, the story of the Flood.
After the Flood ended, Noah wanted to know whether the waters had already dried up and whether it was possible to leave the Ark. He first sent out the raven, but the raven did not want to carry out the mission. It went around the Ark but did not leave.
Afterward, Noah sent the dove. The dove went out on its mission and returned with good news, “An olive leaf was in its mouth,” a sign that the waters had gone down and that the earth was beginning to dry.
There is an interesting story in the Talmud (Gittin 45a). It tells us that Rav Ilish was taken captive and imprisoned. With him in captivity was a man who understood the language of birds. One day, a raven came and called to Rav Ilish. Rav Ilish asked the man who was with him, “What is the raven saying?”
The man answered, “The raven is saying, ‘Ilish, escape. Ilish, escape.’”
Rav Ilish said, “The raven is a liar, and I do not trust him.”
In the meantime, a dove came and called out. Rav Ilish asked the man who was with him, “What is the dove saying?”
He answered, “The dove is saying, ‘Ilish, escape. Ilish, escape.’”
Rav Ilish said, “The Jewish people are compared to a dove. If so, this means that a miracle will happen to me, and I will succeed in escaping.” And indeed, he succeeded in escaping.
According to what Rabbi Chaim Vital explains in the name of the Arizal, perhaps we can also understand what was behind the behavior of the raven and the dove.
Every animal has a spiritual role. The raven is associated with bad news, while the dove has the role of announcing good news. Therefore, when Noah sent the raven to check the condition of the world, the raven did not hurry to carry out its mission.
But when the dove was sent, it went out on its mission and returned with the best possible news: the waters had gone down, the earth was drying, and life could begin again.
The Dove of Redemption
Today we are celebrating the holiday of Sukkot. The Rebbe says in a talk: “It is explained in Chassidic teachings that the sukkah resembles Noah’s Ark, because the common theme of both is peace: In Noah’s Ark, all the animals were together, and nevertheless there was peace there, similar to the verse, ‘They shall neither harm nor destroy’; and likewise, the purpose of the sukkah is peace, ‘Spread over us the sukkah of Your peace,’ until the Sages say, ‘All of Israel are worthy of sitting in one sukkah.’” (Likkutei Sichos, vol. 15, p. 39)
Today as well, we are waiting and praying that the dove, which is compared to the Jewish people, will come and announce the arrival of the true and complete redemption, speedily in our days.
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