Parshas Noach

In this week's parsha, the Torah tells us the story of how Noach built the teivah, and brought all of the animals inside - seven each of the kosher species, and two each of the non-kosher ones. Several times the Torah mentions how Noach was to bring livestock as well as birds. However, sometimes we see that the Torah mentions the birds before the livestock, and sometimes the livestock before the birds. Why the difference in order?

There is an interesting vort that is said which can be used to explain this phenomenon, as well as teach us a valuable lesson. If we analyze the pesukim in question, we will see that the pesukim where the birds are mentioned first occur while the future inhabitants of the the teivah have not yet entered it, whereas any mention of livestock being first refers to inside the teivah. That is because birds, with their ability to fly above all the other animals, are considered more choshuv than other kinds of animals. However, once inside the teivah, the birds lose the advantage that flight gives them, and are then considered lowlier than the rest of the animals. That is why the birds are then mentioned last.

The Jewish nation is compared to a bird, and the Torah is our wings. If we choose to confine ourselves into the "teivah" of the modern world with the "common animals" (the other nations of the world) and live by their degenerate standards, then we can lose our chashivus, our advantage over them, Heaven forbid. But if we break free of the barriers imposed upon us by the decadent society surrounding us, then we can be truly free, first and foremost above the other nations of the world. If we allow the Torah to be our wings and guide our flight, then nothing can prevent us from soaring higher and higher.