<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1; ">THE MOTHER BIRD</span></div></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p><span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">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.</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><o:p></o:p></font></span></p><p><span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">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. </font><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">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.</font></o:p></span></p><p><span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">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.</font></span></p></div></blockquote>ri<div><br></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; "><i>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. </i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><i> </i> </span> Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.</span></blockquote></div></body></html>