Parsha Ki Teitzei
September 6, 2025/13 Elul 5786
Greetings Kneseth Israel,
I am so excited to be joining you this upcoming Shabbat with my family, that I decided to send a message ahead of us. Just kidding, but “sending” is an important part of this week’s parsha. As we are in the month of Elul (I apologize in advance), you are going to hear a lot about prayers, repentance, and mercy. The featured mitzvah of this email is “Shiluach Hakein” – sending away the mother bird from the nest watching her young or sitting on her eggs. On the surface, it appears to be a simple mitzvah – showing the mother bird mercy by not making her watch as her young are taken. Yet the Talmud Bavli in Berakhot (33b) says that if we hear someone invoking G-d’s mercy to the mother bird in prayer, we silence them! One opinion given is that the reason we do so is that we cannot ascribe human reasoning to G-d’s commandments. Although there is a clear underlying message to show mercy, we cannot lose sight of the need to follow G-d even when the reasons are not as clear.
There is an entire chapter in Talmud Bavli in Chullin discussing this important mitzvah. Sending away the mother bird is so critical that one may not even take the mother together with the young for use in the purification rituals of the metzora (a person with an affliction, often described as leprosy but of a spiritual nature). Furthermore, the metzora purification allows for reuniting a husband and wife, for which in a particular circumstance it is even permissible to erase G-d's name. Why is this command so stringent?
The Zera Shimshon noted that some commandments appear easy or hard depending on the perspective. The Torah promises that if you send away the mother bird as commanded, it will be good for you, and you will prolong your days. This is similar to the reward for honoring your father and mother, which is received in this life (Yerushalmi Peah 1a), yet sending away the mother bird is described as an easy mitzvah (Bavli Chullin 142a), costing you the maximum of an issur (an ancient coin) for the loss of the mother bird, and honoring your father and mother is described as hard, requiring you to beg door to door to support them if necessary! How can easy and hard be compared in this way?
One answer is that easy and hard are relative and we cannot pretend to fathom all His mysteries. The final Talmud in Chullin ends with a story by Rav Yosef who tells of a boy who was told by his father to climb a tower and collect some young birds. The boy sends away the mother bird and upon his return, fell off the ladder and died. But the Torah promised long life for this mitzvah, how could this be? So tragic were these circumstances that Acher, meaning other (a derogatory term for the former sage known as Elisha be Avuyah) who was the teacher of the great Rabbi Meir but turned against the Torah, was said by some to have rebelled specifically having witnessed such an event. Yet this is not as it seems, the Talmud states. As it says in this week’s parsha “so that it will be good for you” – in a world that is entirely good, and “so that your days will be long” – in a world that is eternal. May we all strive to fulfill the commandments and inherit that world that is entirely good and eternal. Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Joshua Shorr
I am so excited to be joining you this upcoming Shabbat with my family, that I decided to send a message ahead of us. Just kidding, but “sending” is an important part of this week’s parsha. As we are in the month of Elul (I apologize in advance), you are going to hear a lot about prayers, repentance, and mercy. The featured mitzvah of this email is “Shiluach Hakein” – sending away the mother bird from the nest watching her young or sitting on her eggs. On the surface, it appears to be a simple mitzvah – showing the mother bird mercy by not making her watch as her young are taken. Yet the Talmud Bavli in Berakhot (33b) says that if we hear someone invoking G-d’s mercy to the mother bird in prayer, we silence them! One opinion given is that the reason we do so is that we cannot ascribe human reasoning to G-d’s commandments. Although there is a clear underlying message to show mercy, we cannot lose sight of the need to follow G-d even when the reasons are not as clear.
There is an entire chapter in Talmud Bavli in Chullin discussing this important mitzvah. Sending away the mother bird is so critical that one may not even take the mother together with the young for use in the purification rituals of the metzora (a person with an affliction, often described as leprosy but of a spiritual nature). Furthermore, the metzora purification allows for reuniting a husband and wife, for which in a particular circumstance it is even permissible to erase G-d's name. Why is this command so stringent?
The Zera Shimshon noted that some commandments appear easy or hard depending on the perspective. The Torah promises that if you send away the mother bird as commanded, it will be good for you, and you will prolong your days. This is similar to the reward for honoring your father and mother, which is received in this life (Yerushalmi Peah 1a), yet sending away the mother bird is described as an easy mitzvah (Bavli Chullin 142a), costing you the maximum of an issur (an ancient coin) for the loss of the mother bird, and honoring your father and mother is described as hard, requiring you to beg door to door to support them if necessary! How can easy and hard be compared in this way?
One answer is that easy and hard are relative and we cannot pretend to fathom all His mysteries. The final Talmud in Chullin ends with a story by Rav Yosef who tells of a boy who was told by his father to climb a tower and collect some young birds. The boy sends away the mother bird and upon his return, fell off the ladder and died. But the Torah promised long life for this mitzvah, how could this be? So tragic were these circumstances that Acher, meaning other (a derogatory term for the former sage known as Elisha be Avuyah) who was the teacher of the great Rabbi Meir but turned against the Torah, was said by some to have rebelled specifically having witnessed such an event. Yet this is not as it seems, the Talmud states. As it says in this week’s parsha “so that it will be good for you” – in a world that is entirely good, and “so that your days will be long” – in a world that is eternal. May we all strive to fulfill the commandments and inherit that world that is entirely good and eternal. Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Joshua Shorr
