Ki Tetzei תשפא
The Torah teaches us in this week’s parsha Deuteronomy (22:6,7):
(ו) כִּי יִקָּרֵא קַן צִפּוֹר לְפָנֶיךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּכָל עֵץ אוֹ עַל הָאָרֶץ אֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ בֵיצִים וְהָאֵם רֹבֶצֶת עַל הָאֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ עַל הַבֵּיצִים לֹא תִקַּח הָאֵם עַל הַבָּנִים:
(ז) שַׁלֵּחַ תְּשַׁלַּח אֶת הָאֵם וְאֶת הַבָּנִים תִּקַּח לָךְ לְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ וְהַאֲרַכְתָּ יָמִים
6) If a bird’s nest happens to be before you on the road, an any tree or on the ground– young birds or eggs– and the mother is roosting on the young birds or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. 7) You shall surely send away the mother and take the young for yourself, so that it will be good for you and will prolong your days.
There are two distinct commandments here: (1) We are not allowed to take for ourselves the mother or her chicks and eggs when she is roosting on them; (2) We must first send the mother away. Only then may we take the chicks or eggs. For fulfilling these two mitzvot, the Torah promises long days as a reward. These are mitzvot numbers 544 and 545 of the Torah’s 613 commandments.
What an interesting pair of mitzvot! Don’t take the mother with the chicks, but after sending the mother away it’s okay to take them? And why such a great reward for properly performing these mitzvot? What could this be about?
In his Guide to the Perplexed, the מורה נבוכים (Section 3 Chapter 48), Maimonides writes:
וכן אסר לשחוט ‘אותו ואת בנו’ ‘ביום אחד’ – להשמר ולהרחיק לשחוט משניהם הבן לעיני האם, כי צער בעלי חיים בשה גדול מאד, אין הפרש בין צער האדם עליו וצער שאר בעלי חיים, כי אהבת האם ורחמיה על הולד אינו נמשך אחר השכל, רק אחר פועל הכח המדמה, הנמצא ברוב בעלי חיים כמו שנמצא באדם:
The Torah has forbidden one to slaughter a calf in its mother’s presence because it gives the mother great pain. There is no difference between a person and an animal in regard to the pain they experience from this. This is because the love of a mother and her mercy for her child doesn’t stem from her intelligence, but rather from its instinct, which exists in most animals just like in people.
וזה הטעם גם כן ב’שילוח הקן’ … וכשישלח האם ותלך לה, לא תצטער בראות לקיחת הבנים.
ואם אלו הצערים הנפשיים חסה התורה עליהם בבהמות ובעופות, כל שכן בבני האדם כולם
This is also the reason for sending the mother away before taking the chicks or eggs… and when he sends away the mother, she won’t have the pain of seeing her children taken away. And if, for the pain of even animals and birds the Torah showed concern, how much more so should we be careful about the feelings and pain of a fellow human being.
Maimonides explains that the reason for these mitzvot is out of mercy for the bird, just like the prohibition of slaughtering the calf in front of its mother is for the sake of saving the mother the pain of seeing her offspring killed.
Yet there is a Mishna in Tractate Berachot (5:3), which seems to contradict this notion:
(ג) הָאוֹמֵר עַל קַן צִפּוֹר יַגִּיעוּ רַחֲמֶיךָ … מְשַׁתְּקִין אוֹתוֹ
If a person says in his prayers to Hashem, “Just like you had mercy on the bird’s nest, so, too, have mercy on me,” we tell him, “Be quiet! That’s the wrong thing to say.”
Maimonides, quoting the Talmud, explains.
מפני שהוא תולה טעם זאת המצוה בחמלת הקדוש ברוך הוא על העוף, ואין הדבר כן שאילו היה מדרך רחמנות לא צוה לשחוט חיה או עוף כלל, אבל היא מצוה מקובלת אין לה טעם
[We quiet him down] because his understanding of the reason underlying this mitzvah is Hashem’s mercy on the bird. However, this is not so. If it was out of mercy for the bird, Hashem wouldn’t permit the slaughter of animals and birds at all! Rather, this is a mitzvah that is accepted without a known reason.
It is wrong to pray with this idea in mind because its underlying assumption is incorrect, viz, Hashem’s mercy on the bird. That is not the reason behind this mitzvah. This mitzvah is a decree from Hashem
This seems to contradict the notion cited above, that the point of this mitzvah is to have mercy on the mother bird or cow. An even more daunting question is the contradiction to what Maimonides himself said in the Guide to the Perplexed!
Nachmanides’ commentary to the Torah on this verse (Deuteronomy 22:7) goes to great length to prove that even though the Talmud says:
מפני שעושה מדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא רחמים ואינן אלא גזרות
One should not pray this way because he is making Hashem’s mitzvot into a display of mercy on the birds; and this isn’t so. The mitzvot are decrees upon Hashem’s people directing them to follow His ways as loyal servants without necessarily knowing the reason behind the commandment. Of course, Hashem has a goal and purpose behind every mitzvah. The Midrash Tanchuma (Tazriah 5) quotes Rabbi Akiva who explained what that goal is.
לפי שלא נתן הקב”ה את המצות לישראל אלא לצרף אותם בהם ולכך אמר דוד (תהלים יח) כל אמרת ה’ צרופה:
Hashem gave the mitzvot to the Jewish people exclusively to refine them.
Just as the goldsmith who melts his gold to remove its impurities and has an exact plan and system that he employs to do so, so, too, Hashem has given us the mitzvot so that through their performance we remove the impurities from our souls. The goal and purpose of every mitzvah is to purify us and make us into a more refined and holy people. Each mitzvah exerts its unique influence on a person, perfecting a different part of him. The mitzvot must be done repeatedly to slowly but surely remove all of the impurities; and as we do them more and more consistently, we refine ourselves more and more.
The mistake that the person praying makes is that Hashem is not prescribing that we send away the mother bird out of mercy for the bird, but, rather, it is out of Hashem’s interest in us. He designed his mitzvot as tools for us to use to better ourselves. Nachmanides states very clearly in his commentary that when it comes to animals, Hashem doesn’t prevent us from using them for our purposes, even though they may experience discomfort. We are permitted to plow with an ox, or have it pull our heavy wagons, even though it may be difficult for it. Hashem wants to affect us through His mitzvot, and when we practice this mitzva of sending away the mother bird, we will become more merciful.
The spiritual effect of this mitzvah will refine us in the area of our concern for others. If we must send away the mother bird out of consideration for its feelings, how much more so must we be concerned and sensitive to the feelings of our fellow human beings. If we must be concerned not to cause a mother cow the pain of seeing its calf slaughtered in front of her, how much more so must we be careful not to cause any pain to a fellow human being. This mitzvah teaches us to have mercy, the mitzva’s goal being for us to become better through performing it.
This resolves the seeming contradiction in the words of Maimonides. True, we are sparing the mother bird and mother cow pain, but that is not the goal of the mitzvah. The goal of the mitzvah is us.
We can derive another lesson from this mitzvah.
Have you ever tried to catch a bird? Even the pudgy pigeons in the park escape our efforts every time. Birds are naturally afraid of people and avoid them at all cost. The exception to this rule is when a mother bird is sitting on her eggs or chicks. Her maternal instinct is so strong that it will keep her there, even when a human being comes to catch her. As much as she wants to fly away to protect herself, she will stay put to protect her children. She’s a sitting duck (forgive the pun), and a cinch to capture along with her children.
The Torah teaches us that the maternal extinct of the bird is sacred, be respectful of it, and don’t take advantage of it to capture the bird. You can easily take this complete family – the mother and chicks, and delete them from the world; but don’t. If you want the chicks or eggs, first send the mother away. Then you can have them, but don’t use the mother’s instinct to protect her children against her to remove this entire family from the world.
Ecclesiastes (3:15) informs us:
וְהָאֱלֹהִים יְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת נִרְדָּף
And Hashem seeks the pursued.
Hashem has mercy on the downtrodden. When those with power and might seek to use their superior strength to take advantage of the weak, Hashem seeks the welfare of the victim and deals with the bully.
In the mitzvah of the mother bird, Hashem wants to teach us not to use our superiority to take advantage of the compromised. A person may naturally want to take advantage of another when he is down. He is an easy target, and I can get what I want from him with no trouble. Hashem, however, has mercy on the pursued, and so should we.
In response to our exhibiting mercy and preserving this family, Hashem promises to preserve us.
There is another approach to understanding the passage in the Talmud, that the mitzvah is not out of mercy for the bird, but, rather an edict from Hashem.
Rabbeinu Bachye, based on the kabalistic writings of the Zohar, explains this verse as follows (22:7):
ויש עוד דעת אחרת, שיש בקיום מצוה זו התעוררות רחמים על כל העולם, והוא כי מתוך שהוא משלח את האם הנה היא מצטערת ודואגת על חורבן קנה וריחוק בניה ומצטערת והולכת ורוצה לאבד את עצמה, ומתוך צערה הגדול השר הממונה על העופות מבקש רחמים מהקב”ה, ואז הקב”ה שכתוב בו (תהלים קמה, ט) ורחמיו על כל מעשיו ממשיך שפע הרחמים על כל המצטערים והצריכים רחמים ומרחם עליהם. נמצאת אומר שהמקיים מצוה זו ומשלח הוא סיבה לעורר רחמים על כל העולם וטוב לו עמהם, וזהו שאמר למען ייטב לך והארכת ימים, כלומר אותו השילוח יהיה לטוב לך והארכת ימים עליו, כי אריכות ימים בסיבת הרחמים
There is yet another opinion, that this mitzvah causes great mercy from Hashem over the whole world. How is that? When the person sends the mother away, she is in great pain and is very worried about her nest getting ruined and her children getting killed. So great is her pain, that she wants to kill herself. (The Zohar says that the mother bird actually commits suicide by diving into the ocean.) Because of the great pain that she feels, the angel who is appointed to take care of the birds beseeches Hashem for mercy for her. When Hashem sees her pain, not only does He have mercy on her, He has mercy on all those who are suffering and require mercy and relieves their pain. The upshot is that the one who performs this mitzvah is the catalyst to stir Hashem’s mercy to the entire world. This is why the Torah promises long days as reward for this mitzvah; long life comes from mercy.
Rabbeinu Bachye reveals to us that although this mitzvah results in mercy, it is not as we have been understanding it until now. Sending away the mother bird causes her terrible pain, which stirs up a storm of activity in heaven. That storm ultimately results in an outpouring of mercy from Hashem to His children.
Hence, it is improper to say that Hashem has commanded this mitzvah out of mercy for the mother bird, who is actually in acute pain.
It is remarkable to see two such diverse opinions about the same mitzvah in the Torah. This underscores that the words of the Talmudic Sages that we do not know the real reasons for the mitzvot. But we are obligated in any event to do them as Hashem’s loyal soldiers. For our loyalty, Hashem will see to it that the mitzvah has the desired effect upon our souls to refine us and make us holier people. This is the goal of Hashem’s mitzvot: Not for Hashem, not for the bird, and not for the mother cow, but for us to become better people.
