YE HAVE SEEN WHAT I DID UNTO THE EGYPTIANS. AND HOW I BARE YOU ON EAGLES’ WINGS. What do “eagles’ wings” denote? According to R. Judah, the “eagles” are a symbol of mercy, as it says: “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord…” (Deut. 32, 11). As the eagle watches lovingly over its own young, but is cruel towards others, so does the Holy One manifest His loving mercy to Israel and His severe judgement to the heathen nations. R. Simeon found the same indication in the verse: “The way of an eagle in the heavens” (Prov. 30, 19).

R. Eleazar once went from Cappadocia to Lydda, accompanied by R. Jose and R. Hiya. They had risen at sunrise, and as the light appeared, R. Hiya said: ‘I see before me the vision of the prophet, “As for the likeness of their (the Hayoth) faces, they four had the face of a man and the face of a lion, on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle” (Ezek. 1, 10). Thus the lion is on the right hand, the ox on the left; but what about the eagle?’

R. Eleazar replied: ‘It belongs to the sphere of the “child” (i.e. Mercy), for the eagle combines mercy and cruelty; and so God led Israel with love and dealt sternly with others,

and the expression, “the way of an eagle in the heavens” is thus to be taken literally, for love (mercy) is, as it were, in the centre of heaven. Hence the lion is at the right, the ox at the left, and the eagle between, uniting them. As for “man”, he comprises all, as it is written: “And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it” (Ezek. 1, 26).’