פרשת כי תצה

In this week’s פרשה we are introduced to the מצוה of שלוח הקן, sending away the mother bird.  This is מצוה of shooing away the mother bird before taking away the eggs from the nest. What is the reason behind this מצוה? Why do we need to send the mother away?

The answer to this question is a מחלוקת between רמב"ם and the רמב"ן. The רמב"ם says, the reason for this מצוה is because, just like humans animals have feelings towards their children. Within every animal there is a certain amount of love that they have for their offspring. Therefore in order to not cause pain and suffering to the mother bird we send her away so that she does not have to see the eggs being taken. The רמב"ן gives a different answer. He says that it is all about psychology, if you are cruel to animals it may lead you to become cruel in regards to human beings.

We see this example very often (at least on CSI) by serial killers. What is one of the first questions they ask about the killer? They ask about his childhood. Did he ever have a traumatic experience etc… They also ask whether he ever used to experiment on animals and kill them. They ask this because they are trying to understand his psychology. When you hurt an animal it is only a step away from hurting humans.

The רמב''ן is telling us that this מצוה is for our wellbeing. It is for our protection. It is protecting us from ח''ו becoming desensitized to ה'’s creatures, and rationalizing the bad treatment of them. There is more than just that however. What the רמב''ן is really saying is even more than becoming desensitized, this מצוה is making us “sensitized” to all of ה'’s creations. Just like with the מצות of צדקה and חסד, we are not doing it because we want to. We don’t give צדקה because we feel bad for the poor guy. We aren’t doing חסד because we like the person we are doing it for. ה' is actually teaching us to act in His image. ה' is the ultimate definition of רחמנות, in all of these מצות we are being trained to be a person of רחם. ה' doesn’t need our help to take care of His children.

This is why we do the מצוה of שלוח הקן, when we learn how to treat even some of the smallest of ה'’s creatures with compassion, we will learn how to become a person of mercy.

Have an Awesome Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

With Help From- Rav Moshe Beigelman and Rav Shaya Greenberg