Gravitational waves discovered last year and announced last week are converted into sound waves giving the astronomers the ear into the cosmos. Characteristic sounds of gravitational waves are called “chirping.”

In Hebrew the  word for bird is tzipor – “chirping.” King Solomon was said to have understood the language of birds. Listening to and understanding the chirping of birds has been a long tradition among prophets of Israel. Tradition has it that Baal Shem Tov listened to and understood the chirping of birds.

Rabbi Chaim Vital, the principal disciple of the Ari-zal, writes in Ruach HaKodesh, “Every animal, beast, bird, and creeping-crawly is empowered by a spirit. These spirits are keepers of great mystery. Therefore, through a chirp of a bird, for example, or the sound of any animal, one can also discover great mystery concealed therein.”

Today, physicists discover mysteries of the universe by listening to the chirpings of the Cosmos.