Rabbi Roodyn

(ט) צִפּוֹר שָׁמַיִם וּדְגֵי הַיָּם עֹבֵר אָרְחוֹת יַמִּים:

The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, indeed, He strides over the paths of the seas.

This piece of Rav Hirsch is truly remarkable, writing some 150 years ago he foresaw the changes that have taken place in the world as we approach the era of Moshiach. Of course he refers to these changes, which were just starting in his time, in contemporary terms, but when we look at them from our perspective they are truly astonishing.

“The term דרך denotes  a ‘way’ in general, a movement to a specific goal. Therefore the term השחת דרך, the individual ways of men also means ‘moral decay’. The word אורח on the other hand is usually employed to denote the ways of society, the paths that lead from man to man.

The word אורח denotes the way of society, the paths that lead from man to man. Rav Hirsch says that based on a pasuk in Iyov that the word אורח means to associate which leads to the  more familiar connotation of guests and hospitality. He interprets the pasuk ‘Indeed He strides over the paths of the seas’ as referring to a global village (although he does not use that term).  He points out that technological advances within ship building  measn that the seas and oceans stop functioning as partitions and rather become waterways linking the continents. “

The entire theme of this chapter is that one man will understand his purpose on earth and will act accordingly, his supremacy on earth should help spread the recognition and worship of Hashem throughout the world. Man’s inventive genius  too is harnessed by bridging the seas between continents will reunite the family of man which has been scattered to the ends of the earth since the dispersion of the nations at Bavel.

“In times of moral corruption, human inventiveness may help disseminate ideas leading to error and degeneration but the time will come when the human mind will use its faculties to spread from pole to pole, the knowledge of all that is good and true.”

How true he was and how correct he will be.