36. The synagogue, like the ostrich, though it has wings, creeps upon the ground. What is signified by the name of the ostrich, if not the synagogue? which had the wings of the Law, but, creeping in its heart among things lowest, never lifted itself from the earth. And what is expressed by the heron and the hawk, if not the ancient fathers, who, unto those things which they were able to perceive by understanding, were able also to fly aloft by their living? The feather, therefore, of the ostrich is like the feathers of the heron and the hawk, because the voice of the Synagogue held the doctrine of the elders by speaking, but knew it not by living. Whence the Truth also admonishes the people of that same Synagogue concerning the Pharisees and Scribes, saying: The Scribes and Pharisees have sat upon the chair of Moses.
Therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do; but according to their works do ye not (Matt. 23:2–3). Now we could have said many things concerning the life of the heron; but because its feather alone is brought to remembrance, we are forbidden to speak of its life.