Haftara for Ki Tavo: "Like Doves to Their Nests"

The Case of the Kidnapped Chicken

One morning, Farmer Sam went to collect eggs and found his prize hen missing. Not just any hen—this was his best layer, a real overachiever in the egg department. He searched high and low, muttering about foxes and chicken thieves, until he happened to pass by his neighbor’s property.

And there she was—his hen—tied to the neighbor’s gate like a common outlaw.

“Hey! That’s my chicken!” he shouted.

The neighbor, lounging on his porch, barely looked up. “Maybe yes, maybe no,” he said. “Chickens all look the same. How do you know this one’s yours?”

The farmer smirked. “Simple,” he said. “Untie her legs and see where she runs. She’ll go straight home—to my chicken coop.”

Like Doves to their Nests

Three thousand years ago, Isaiah glimpsed a vision that must have seemed impossible: the scattered children of Israel returning home. He saw them not as wanderers, not as exiles, but as doves—soaring through the sky, drawn unerringly to their nests. “Who are these, who fly like a cloud, like doves to their nests?” (Isaiah 60:8).

Why doves? What is it about their flight that captures the essence of this return?

A dove, even when carried far from its home, never forgets where it belongs. Release it, and it will find its way back, crossing mountains and seas with unshakable certainty. So too with Israel. Scattered across the world, held back only by the chains of exile, the moment the bonds are loosened, the soul stirs. The longing that lay dormant awakens, and without hesitation, we take flight—toward the land where our story began, the home we never forgot.

Isaiah saw something extraordinary: a people who had never lost their way. Even in exile, the heart knew its direction. And when the moment came, we would not need to be shown the way—we would simply fly home.

(Adapted from Mishlei Ya'akov, p. 453)