[Avodah] Ki Teitzei "NOT STRICTLY FOR THE BIRDS"

[Cantor Wolberg]

> THE MOTHER BIRD
> This is considered to be the easiest mitzvah in the Torah. It costs  
> no money, requires no preparation, and takes a minimal effort. If  
> one happens to come upon a bird's nest in the wild and desires to  
> take the eggs or the chicks, he must first shoo away the mother and  
> then take the eggs or chicks.
>
> The concept is that even in the animal world, there exists motherly  
> feelings (which Rabbi Hirsch refers to as "the noblest profession in  
> the world"), and the Torah wants us to be sensitive to these  
> feelings. We may not cause the mother anguish by taking her  
> offspring before her eyes. God wants people to be merciful. If we  
> are sensitive to the feelings of a bird, then it should follow that  
> we would be even more sensitive to the feelings of a human being.
>
> The reward for this mitzvah is long life. The only other positive  
> mitzvah which the Torah specifies the same reward, is kibud av  
> va'aim -- which is considered one of the most difficult mitzvahs.  
> From the fact that the easiest and hardest mitzvah both receive the  
> same reward, we realize that the reward for mitzvahs or the  
> punishment for aveiros is beyond our ability to rate.
>
ri

> We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but  
> have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.  
> 											            Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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