The Jewish Chapel at the Interfaith Center at UAlbany, formerly known as Chapel House, has a mural painted along its southern wall. Probably around 2005 or so, UAlbany Hillel got a grant from Avodah Arts to send up an artist in residence to work with students on painting a mural. The result, as you can still see it there today, includes a super-sized Hamsa, a flowing tree, a Havdalah candle all in shades of blues and greens. And undernearth the tree, just left of the Hamsa, a Great Blue Heron is sketched onto the wall.
Why a Great Blue Heron?
It was kind of hard to notice at first, but once we did the artist had already left town, so we were left to ponder this question on our own. In those days we prayed most Shabbat mornings in the Chapel House, so we had lots of time to look at it and ponder it, especially as we often had to wait around to get a Minyan. Remember this is at a college campus, and Saturday mornings is not everyone’s strong point.
A few weeks later Heshy Fried, an outdoor enthusiast well known for his FrumSatire blog went canoeing somewhere in the lower Adirondacks. He came back telling us dramatically (in Heshy’s unique storytelling style) of a large bird he saw (it was a Great Blue Heron), standing in the shallow water near the edge of the lake for a very long time. He canoed back and forth at some distance,and the bird just kept standing there, hardly moving a muscle. All of a sudden the bird finally moved, it quickly swooped down into the water with its long beak and came back up with a sizeable fish for lunch.
Aha! We discovered the reason for the Great Blue Heron on the synagogue wall! The bird’s patience was a message about our Minyan. Sometimes you just have to wait and wait for the Minyan to come. The bird on the wall tells us not to despair, do not give up, you just wait patiently until the Minyan will arrive!
As many of you are looking for summer internships or jobs for after graduation, I’d like to share 3 lessons from the Great Blue Heron on the wall:
1) You have to be patient. This is a very challenging job market, the world keeps changing, it’s not easy. Rejection should not usually be taken as a personal judgement, although there’s always room to improve and grow. Try, try and keep trying. Do not let frustration get the better of you.
2) Waiting around is not enough. You have to seize an opportunity when you see it. Grab it before its gone. Carpe Diem, YOLO, or Chap-Arein in Yiddish… however you say it, don’t let it slip through your fingers, don’t sleep through it. Like that Heron, swoop down and get it. If bigger fish come by, you can try to get them, too, but don’t let this fish get away because you are so patient.
3) The Great Blue Heron is a wading fish, which means it stands in the water to wait for fish. This heron doesn’t wait up in the trees or down in some meadow. It waits and wades in the water. Same for us, you can’t wait for a job while watching TV or by lying in bed. You have to get up, get out and get your feet wet.
The same can also be said of spiritual growth. Its a combination of healthy, gradual slow growth over time, as well as taking advantage of opportunities, and doing Mitzvot you might not yet seem ready for. And wading within the waters of Torah, immersed in Jewish experience is a big part of it, too.