How Can Birds Teach Us About Compassion?

Ki Teitzei, Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Sari Laufer

If I asked you what lost objects, baby birds, roofs, and wayward children have in common, you might assume that it was the setup to a not-very-funny joke. Ki Teitzei seems, at first glance, to be a hodgepodge of laws which often touch on very painful topics. We see laws about captive women, unloved second wives, strict gender norms, and more. Ki Teitzei is not a pleasant read, especially for the modern reader.

Let's take the baby birds and the strange mitzvah known as "shiluach haken" found in Deuteronomy 22:6-7.

"If, along the road, you chance upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life."

While we might wonder how often this particular scenario presented itself to ancient Israelites, the more important question is: Why is this command here? What are we to learn from it?

One answer brings us to a rabbinic concept. The rabbis see meaning in what they call, "semichut haparshiyot," the connections between verses. For them, it cannot be just a random collection of laws. So, they teach that from this parashah, we learn the concept of "mitzvah goreret mitzvah,"one mitzvah leading to another. Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 1 teaches:

"One mitzvah leads to another mitzvah. How do we know this? It's written: 'If you come across a bird's nest, send away the mother.' (Devarim 22:6-7). What's written after this? 'When you build a new house' (Devarim 22:8). When you observe the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, your reward is [that] you'll get to build a new house for yourself, and then you'll get to do the mitzvah of ma'akeh (building a railing for your roof)."

Rashi's commentary on Deuteronomy 22:8 clarifies:

"If one has fulfilled the command of letting a mother bird go when the nest is rifled, they will in the end be privileged to build a new house and to fulfill the command of 'making a guard-rail,' for one good deed brings another good deed in its train, and you will attain to a vineyard, fields, and fine garments. It is for this reason that these sections are put in juxtaposition."

In this reading, then, these are not random verses placed next to each other, but verses deeply connected to one another; one cannot exist without the other.

Even with that, though, I am left to wonder what else we are to learn from this text. If I go through my life without ever happening upon a bird's nest with fledglings or eggs and the mother bird sitting over them, what can I do with this verse?

Ramban, a leading scholar of the Middle Ages, suggests that this mitzvah has little to do with the baby bird or the mother, but everything to do with us. In his teaching on Deuteronomy 22:6, he elaborates: "the reason for the prohibition [against taking the dam with its nest, or against killing the dam with its young in one day] is to teach us the trait of compassion and that we should not be cruel."

Going beyond compassion, scholar Adele Berlin in her introduction to Ki Teitzei in "Torah: A Women's Commentary," offers:

"Whereas Parashat Shoftim concentrates on public officials, most of the laws in Ki Tetzei are directed at ordinary individuals. What may once have been considered family matters-such as the rights of a lesser-loved wife, the punishment of wayward children, the finding of lost objects-here are matters of concern to the society at large."

Ki Teitzei is certainly a random compendium of laws. At the same time, we might see a common thread that is carried through the parashah. It might not connect everything, but as we read the litany of laws in Ki Teitzei-laws about wartime morality, sexual boundaries, and forbidden relationships-we find laws aimed at balancing the scales between the haves and the have-nots, protecting the most vulnerable people, and creating an ideal Israelite society.

Maybe even more basically, these laws about lost property, baby birds, unloved second wives, and even (perhaps) gender norms are meant to teach us compassion; they are there to remind us that we are obligated to love and care for each other.

Originally published: