The gemara (Sanhedrim 108) tells us that Noach found a certian bird sitting quietly in a room in the ark not bothering anyone or anything. He asked the bird, "Don't you want food?" to which the bird replied, "I saw you were busy and didn't want to bother you." In response to this act of kindness Noach blessed the bird that it should live forever.
Maharasha asks: this gemara seems to contradict a different Chazal. The Midrash teaches that this bird lived forever because it was the only animal that did not listen to Chavah and eat from the Eitz ha'Daas:
מהכא משמע דמברכתו של נח זכה לכך אבל בב״ר אמרו ותקח מפריו ותאכל הכל שמעו לה ואכלו חוץ מעוף א׳ ושמו חול הה״ד וכחול ארבה ימים אלף שנה הוא חי ובסוף אלף שנים גופו כלה וכו׳ וחוזר ומגדל אבריו וחי ע״כ וק״ל
One possible simple answer is that not eating from the Eitz ha'Daas prevented natural death, but there was always the chance that the bird might be hunted and killed. Noach's blessing prevented even that from occurring.
Rav Pincus in Tiferes Torah suggests a different answer. We've in the past discussed the gemara (R"H 32) that teaches that on Rosh haShana that angels are perplexed as to why Bn"Y are not saying hallel -- R"H is still a yom tov after all? Hashem answers that it is impossible to sing hallel and be joyous when the Book of Life and Book of Death stand open before us:
אָמַר רַבִּי אֲבָהוּ אָמְרוּ מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם מִפְּנֵי מָה אֵין יִשְׂרָאֵל אוֹמְרִים שִׁירָה לְפָנֶיךָ בְּרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה וּבְיוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים אָמַר לָהֶם אֶפְשָׁר מֶלֶךְ יוֹשֵׁב עַל כִּסֵּא דִין וְסִפְרֵי חַיִּים וְסִפְרֵי מֵתִים פְּתוּחִין לְפָנָיו וְיִשְׂרָאֵל אוֹמְרִים שִׁירָה.
B'shalama the Book of Death being open, asks Rav Pincus, neicha that we should be trembling in our boots. But why does the gemara also mention the fact that the Book of Life is open? Why is our trepidation on Yom haDin related to that book as well?
We see from this Chazal a tremendous yesod: Life means more than the absence of death. It's not enough to hope you are not inscribed in the Book of Death on Rosh HaShana and m'meila, if nothing bad happens, life will continue as-is ad infinitum with no need to do anything more. A person needs to have a reason to live; a person needs to strive for fulfillment, for growth. This is especially true on the Yom haDin, especially on Rosh haShana when the entire world has a chance to renew itself and be reborn. If a person is not part of that, what is life for? We are beyond the days of Rosh haShana, but this shabbos is also Rosh Chodesh, a time of hischadshus. It's not enough to slide into the new month maintaining status quo. We have to renew ourselves, renew our reason for being here, or what are we living for?
That's why we are shaking in our boots when the Book of Life is open. If you just skate by by avoiding the Book of Death without a Book of Life, you don't really have a life after all.
Unless we also make it into that Book of Life, our existence will be a futile exercise and will inevitably draw to a close.
Think for a moment about the two special trees in Gan Eden, the Eitz haDaas and the Eitz haChaim. If being alive means no more than avoiding death, then why was there an Eitz haChaim? Avoiding the Eitz haDaas alone would do the trick of guaranteeing eternal life? Al korchacha life must be about more than cheating death. We need an Eitz haChaim, we need a Sefer haChaim, meaning and reason for being here, or all the years in eternity don't really matter.
This the lesson Chazal are teaching us in this story about Noach's magical bird. True, the bird did not eat from the Eitz ha'Daas and therefore had the potential to live forever, but what a sad, meaningless existence that would be. Such a life would come to nothing and ultimately fizzle out on its own. It was by doing an act of chessed that this bird demonstrated that its existence had positive meaning, and that is the secret to the bracha which Noach gave it of true eternal life.
