The Chicken and the Egg

Maimonides rules in his Laws of Partnerships: If one person owns eggs, and another has chickens, and the two enter into a partnership for the latter’s chickens to warm the eggs until they hatch, the eventual profits are to be divided between them. Until then, the egg-owner must provide food and compensation to the chicken farmer.

The deeper dimension of this law: G-d possesses “eggs” – endless spiritual potential – which contain the latent ability to “hatch” and become revealed in the physical world. The Jew is G-d’s partner to cultivate the “eggs,” to incubate this holy potential. Through his thought, speech and action, the Jew “warms” the G-dliness hidden within this world until it “hatches” and grows to be a free-standing, living existence – a “rooster” which, with its call, awakens another human being to G-dliness.

As G-d’s partner, the Jew receives his share of the profits in the World to Come, after his work is complete. But until then, G-d must also pay compensation, as well as provide sustenance in the manner fit for a king – for all Jews are royalty, children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.