Merlin : Feel the Magic
Merlin
This is a Merlin. He’s a beautiful falcon, and I watched him for some time, mesmerized as he surveyed the field looking for prey for breakfast. I don’t often see merlins, and so I was quite thankful for the morning’s good fortune. In the birding world, though, the word “merlin” more often than not doesn’t refer to an actual bird. Instead, it’s the name of a phone app developed by Cornell University. This phenomenal piece of technology can identify birds - live in the field - by analyzing photos or even by recording their sounds. It is truly a marvel, and that it fits in our pockets is absolutely stunning. And yes, this wizardly technology was named in honor of the Arthurian magician. The ability to confirm identifications and to learn the skill have never been more accessible.
Biblical tradition is very clear on divination, necromancy, and augury. All are forbidden, and God explicitly lays out the punishment: to have God’s face set against that person, the precise opposite of the Priestly Benediction. In context, it is very clear that this injunction is intended to demarcate the Israelites from the surrounding tribes. Like so much of Jewish law, the intention is to remind of difference and avoid the degradation of surrounding tribes. Likely there is more as well. These heathen practices are intended to find out concrete answers to unanswerable questions. Will I find love? What will happen to my children? Will my business flourish? Human nature wants to know, but magic is a shortcut, cheating the natural unknowns baked into the world.
Our need for the comfort of knowing is no less diminished millennia later. Still we hire pollsters to “read the tea leaves” and forecasters to “peer into crystal balls.” Torah and the Sages were clear that faith and learning are predicates of living well. And critically there are aspects of life that are inherently unknowable, whose unfolding has to be accepted on its own terms. We by no means eschew science and its predictive power, nor do we conflate ornithology with ornithomancy. Merlin, both the bird and the app - and presumably even the mage! - are powerful, and our wisdom lies in understanding the boundaries of that power, embracing capabilities even as we acknowledge limitations. That’s the true comfort of knowing.