What’s the Shoo For? (Parshas Ki Tetze #3)

Shiluach Hakan, shooing away the mother bird, is just one of the numerous mitzvot detailed in this week’s parsha, Parshas Ki Tetze. The mitzvah itself seems simple, if not oddly mundane: “If you come upon a bird’s nest in the road, on any tree, or on the ground, and it has fledglings or eggs, if the mother is sitting on the fledglings or the eggs, you shall not take the mother on the young. You shall send away the mother and [then] you may take the young for yourself, in order that it should be good for you and you shall lengthen your days” (Devarim 22:6-7).

Many people cite the mitzvah of shiluach hakan as an example of the Torah’s compassionate treatment of animals, but then why take the fledglings or the eggs in the first place? Would it not be more compassionate to just keep walking? Perhaps, however, in this mitzvah we are able to witness the Torah’s overall combination of practicality and compassion. One’s practical, more animalistic self, comes upon a nest and thinks about food, about taking the easy prey, the sitting hen, and perhaps her young ones too. It is food, after all, and one has to have food. One’s compassionate, more spiritual self, thinks about all creatures being part of Hashem’s creation and would, perhaps, forego the whole idea. But in this one peculiar mitzvah, Hashem illustrates a path of compromise: Listen to your body - if you see a nest and want the eggs, you are probably hungry – but heed your soul – think about what you are about to consume, that this is part of the great creation and there is a compassionate way of behaving.

Nachmanides does not agree with the idea that shiluach hakan is a mitzvah about kindness to animals: “...The reason for the proscription is to teach us the trait of mercy and that we not become cruel. Since cruelty spreads in the soul of a man, as it is known with butchers that slaughter large oxen and donkeys, that they are 'people of blood,' 'slaughterers of men' [and] very cruel. And because of this they said (Kiddushin 82a), 'The best of butchers are the partners of Amalek.' And behold, these commandments with animals and birds are not mercy upon them, but [rather] decrees upon us, to guide us and to teach us the good character traits...” Nechama Leibowitz clarifies that “Nahmanides refuses to entertain the notion that the sending away of the mother bird is dictated by considerations of cruelty to animals. The precept is governed by purely educational considerations to inculcate kindness and compassion in our dealings with one another (Studies in Devarim, 219).

Whether the mitzvah of shiluach hakan is meant to teach the importance of kindness to animals or to bear a lesson to us about treating one another properly, it is a bit of a strange mitzvah, particularly in the modern age. One might question how frequently it would actually happen that a person would be walking by the road, see a bird's nest, and think to take the bird's young. Of course, for many generations we were an agrarian society and we lived in a far more ecologically diverse area, but still, one would probably have to be pretty hungry to look at a random nest and think “meal!” The fact of the matter stands, however, by the understanding that the Torah is relevant in every time and every place, so there must be some other – deeper – way to understand the mitzvah of shiluach hakan.

If we are not talking about a real bird (although the actual bird scenario is one that does happen and should be literally applied), but rather the idea of a bird and its nest, then the lesson of compassion in our dealings with others is truly transferable. It is interesting to note that this week’s parsha begins with the words ki tetze, when you go out. And while the phrase is referring to the verse "When you go out to war against your enemies...", there is an indefiniteness to the use of the word ki, when. It is not going to happen to every one, but when it does, be prepared. Shiluach hakan is very much of a “when you go out” mitzvah. It is not something that will definitely happen, and it is not something that one can create a scenario to make happen. Indeed, the pasuk describing the mitzvah emphasizes that the nest would be something that one comes upon. So too, in our every day lives many of us will not be in a position to have to choose a combination of seeming cruelty to effectively be both practical and compassionate.

Knowing that the Torah very much believes that "words can kill," perhaps we have the opportunity to understand this mitzvah differently. It is all too easy in the desire to rebuke or castigate individuals to condemn entire groups of people But if one thinks of the larger community as the mother and the individuals as the fledglings, then perhaps we have a modern means of applying the lessons of intuitive compassion inherent in shiluach hakan.

Two Witnesses (Shofteim #2)

Reading through Parshas Shoftim, one might notice that the requirement of two witnesses in a court case was instructed in two separate places. It is described in Devarim 17:6-7 and 19:15.” The witness requirement – two appropriate people who not only saw an act happen but tried to prevent it by warning the perpetrator of the consequences of his actions - is a foundation point of the Jewish legal system. Its repetition in the parsha whose most famous pasuk is “Justice, Justice shall you pursue” (16:20) reinforces its importance.

Not living in a situation where the Torah legal system can be applied, one might wonder at what lessons can be taken from this concept of witnesses. Perhaps first and foremost is that the hoped for role of the witnesses is to prevent the transgression in the first place. This is the significance of being part of a community because when one is part of a community ones’ friends and neighbors will help one stay on the right path. More importantly, perhaps, is a lesson that one should not surround oneself with patsies who agree to one’s every action but that one should learn to heed naysayers as well, lest one come to be too arrogant to believe their own fallibility and ignore the warnings of misdeeds when it matters most.

Of course, this is based on the assumption that people want to stay on a good path, that crimes happen as a result of impulse and/or circumstance and not a specifically chosen desire to do evil. Hashem quite obviously understood that such people as these do exist, and that they may try to “play” the law; Thus the warning against the consequence of being a false witness: “If a man who testified is a false witness, if he has testified falsely against his fellow, you shall do to him as he schemed to do to his fellow. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst” (19:18-19). Being part of a community, a good community, helps keep people from wicked ways, and using wicked ways to undermine the community’s system of justice cannot be permitted.

The great sages quoted in Pirkei Avot speak of the importance of being amongst others. Joshua ben P’rachia advices “Make for yourself a rav, acquire for yourself a companion, and judge all men favorably” (1:6), and the great Sage Hillel instructs: “Do not separate yourself from the community” (2:4). We live in a time when independence and individuality is heralded as a prime value, but the assertion of one’s individual rights must always be balanced by the needs of sustaining the greater community, which protects each of its individual members.

The Actions of Others (Eikev #3)

It would be lovely to live in a world where people did not judge one another, where the way one dresses, or the neighborhood one lives in, or the family into which one was born did not have any impact on what someone else thought of them. It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where people were patient enough to listen to the whole of a story, from all perspectives, before deciding who is right and who is wrong, or more drastically, who is righteous and who is wicked. Alas, until we enter the promised future of messianic times when the "wolf will dwell with the lamb" (Isaiah 11:6), we must focus on recognizing this predisposition to judgementalness and learning what purpose it can serve in ourselves. For this, we can turn to this week's parsha, Parshas Eikev

About to send B'nei Yisrael to conquer the promised land, Moshe warns the people: "And when the Lord your God has thrust them from your path say not to yourselves,'the Lord has enabled us to possess this land because of our virtues,' it is rather because of the wickedness of those nations who the Lord is dispossessing before you " (Devarim 9:4). The important part of this pasuk is not that the people of the land were wicked, but that the people of Klal Yisrael should not see the punishment - or the reward, for that matter - of others as a reflection on themselves. They were destroyed for their wickedness, therefore, we are righteous? No, quite the contrary. Seeing the consequences doled out to others should be a warning, a cause for questioning - if we are to have this land, what must we do to avoid such a fate?

Moshe spoke these words to Bnei Yisrael in the wilderness, but it can certainly apply to interpersonal interactions in any era. When someone acts in a way that upsets you, do not speak ill of them or berate them, rather take a few moments and assess whether you act in a similar way and if this is a character trait that you yourself can improve on. 

Interestingly, the next verse sounds almost verbatim to 9:4. "It is not because of your virtues and your rectitude that you will be able to possess their country; but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is dispossessing those nations before you, and in order to fulfill the oath that the Lord made to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (9:5). No actions occur outside the vacuum of history and concurrent life. When politics do not go your way, recognize and acknowledge that the long term plan is very long and extremely well hidden in front of our faces. Someone might be elected today due to a cause that began a hundred years ago or for an effect in an as-yet-unknown future. When that person that cut you off speeds into traffic and get pulls over, do not take it as a time to gloat. Maybe he was late for a job interview or maybe his being pulled over saved him from an accident. The ticket is punishment for his actions not a reward for anything you did. Perhaps you merely witnessed these events as an opportunity for you to become a more conscientious driver. 

In case the message was missed, the text does it again! "Know, then, that it is not for any virtue of yours that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff necked people” (9:6). Because human nature likes to gloat, one should never settle on one’s high-horse and assume their own virtues - that their right is the only way. In fact, Moshe immediately reminds Bnei Yisrael just how prone to misdeeds they are when he says: “Remember, never forget, how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness” (9:7). 

We are in a time of supreme judgementalness. Our society has become a hot-pot of assumptions about what other people are thinking, wanting, doing… Moshe’s triple warning toward self-reflection is thus particularly pertinent for us to contemplate. God will dole out the consequences as needed, our job is simply to work on being our best selves as ovdei Hashem.