[Avodah] [Areivim] Ken Tzipor and Peter Chamor

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:27:13 EDT T613K at aol.com wrote [on Areivim,
redirected here with permission]:

...

> circumstantial din, that IF such and such happens, this is how you have to do  it.  What 
> about Shiluach Hakan?  Is there some positive mitzva in  looking for a nest 
> just so you can shoo the mother bird away, or is it just a  circumstantial 
> mitzva, that IF you should happen to desire eggs that you happen  to see, 
> this is what you have to do?  [That is an actual question, not a  rhetorical 
> question, BTW, so I would like to see how people answer it.]

No need for "people" to answer; Rishonim (Aharonim, in this case)
Ke'Malachim have already dealt with the question - see Resp. Hasam
Sofer (OH 100 s.v. ve'ayen Ramban, amnam).

> It strikes me that if you want the eggs, it is a midah of kindness or  
> rachmanus to shoo the mother away before taking her eggs, but if you don't  want 
> the eggs and you go looking for them davka, it is the opposite of kindness  
> to shoo her away and take her eggs.  It defeats the purpose of the mitzva!  
> (That is assuming of course that we actually know the purpose of the  
> mitzva -- maybe inculcating the midah of rachmanus has nothing to do with  it and 
> it is just a chok?)

Hasam Sofer says exactly that; insofar as the root of the Mizvah is
compassion, then if one doesn't actually want the chicks, not only is
there no obligation to perform the Mizvah, but it is actually cruelty
to do so!  He does subsequently cite Havos Yair who cites Zohar that
the reason for the Mizvah is to arouse the crying of the Celestial
Mother over her children, and if so, there's no problem of cruelty, but
he concludes that Bavli disagrees, and "it is known that when there is
disagreement between the Revealed [Torah] and the Hidden, we have no
involvement with the Hidden, and the Revealed are for us and for our
children."  I recommend reading this fascinating responsum.

Yitzhak
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