The Weekly Shtikle - Ki Seitzei

This week's parsha contains the well-know mitzvah of shiluach hakein (kan? No, you kannot. See Dikdukian post below.) In a video shiur last year, Baltimore's own Rabbi Shmuel Silver explored some very fundamental questions regarding this mitzvah. Among them, what is so special about this act that the reward is so great? Why is this commandment specific to birds?

He quotes a beautiful answer from Aznayim LaTorah by R' Zalman Sorotzkin. Other animals give birth to live babies and can very easily see themselves in these precious little ones as there is always a significant resemblance. This allows for an instinctual care and love. For a bird, however, the egg that the mother lays looks like nothing at all, certainly not a progeny to be cherished and nurtured. HaShem therefore imbued mother birds with a special – almost supernatural – love that inspires it to dote on this round mystery and ultimately allow it to hatch and develop. Not interfering with this process and sending away the mother bird so it does not suffer the agony of watching the egg be taken away is an act that is indeed packed with so much more meaning than originally perceived.

R' Sorotzkin goes on to explain that the bird teaches us a tremendous lesson in the true meaning of love – the ability to show true love to someone/something that is not like you. It's so much easier to show love to someone who is just like you. But when someone is different in many ways, that task is much more daunting. R' Silber goes on to explain how appropriate this lesson is for the month of Elul.

As usual, I highly recommend hearing this beautiful thought straigh from the source.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: Shiluah Ha...

Dikdukian: Shva vs Kamatz by R' Ari Storch

 

        Shiluach HaKein Game

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