Ki Teitzei 5773

Send away the mother bird and take the fledglings to you in order that it be good for you and that you will live long.” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 22:7)

Rabbi Yissocher Frand notes that only two of the mitzvot (commandments) in Torah promise good and long life as a reward for fulfilling them – the above mitzvah (commandment) to send away the mother bird, and the mitzvah to honor one’s parents. What do these mitzvot have in common?

Rav Yaakov Weinberg suggests that both of these mitzvot acknowledge self-sacrifice. We honor our parents because we must show that we appreciate their sacrifice of time, energy, financial resources, hearts and souls. (The Hebrew for self-sacrifice is mesirat nefesh, literally sacrifice of the soul.)

Likewise, the mother bird sacrifices for her fledglings. She will not fly away when her nest is full but would rather sacrifice her own life. If we were to capture her, we would disrespect and take advantage of the self-sacrifice of maternal instinct. When we shoo her away, we show appreciation for her self-sacrifice, in the same way we honor our parents’ self-sacrifice.

The Midrash says that sending away the mother bird is the easiest mitzvah, while honoring one’s parents is the most difficult.

The Ramban teaches that performing the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird imbues in us compassion, which is an instinctive human emotion at the sight of an animal in distress. Writes Rav Frand: “When we develop and reinforce our natural faculty of mercy through a compassionate act towards a mother bird, we will feel a stronger impulse to be merciful when we see a person suffering.” He explains that sending away the mother bird is the easiest mitzvah because it taps into a natural tendency in human nature.

On the other hand, honoring parents goes against human nature, so it is the hardest mitzvah. It requires an acknowledgement of our parents’ self-sacrifice and of the fact that we needed them to the point that we owe them our lives. The mitzvah demands that we humble ourselves and admit that as children we were neither independent, self-sufficient nor invincible. Therefore, we must show our parents eternal gratitude.

As parents, we must be prepared to sacrifice everything for our children. Eventually, our children will be mature enough to realize what we have done for them and they will be able to acknowledge our loving self-sacrifice.  For some children, this may not happen until they, themselves, become parents and we become grandparents.   

http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5757/kiseitzei.html