In this week’s parsha we have the mitzvah of sheeluach ha’ken. The Torah says that if a person finds a mother bird sitting on her eggs, “you shall surely send away the mother and the offspring you shall take for yourself.” (Devorim 22:7) We may not remove the eggs or the chicks in the presence of the mother bird.
There is a famous interpretation offered by the Netziv and others: Why is it that the Torah gave us this mitzvah forbidding us to take the young birds and the mother simultaneously? Think about it. Have you ever tried to catch a bird? It is virtually impossible. When I was a little boy, they used to tell me that the way to catch a bird is to put salt on its tail. Of course, being a small innocent child – it never worked. Why did it never work? Because you can never put salt on the tail of a bird!
So why are we ever confronted with the situation where it is necessary to send away the mother bird? Why isn’t the mother bird flying away like every other bird naturally does when approached by a human being? The answer is, says the Netziv, that because of the motherly instincts of compassion that the bird has for its brood, it sticks around. The mother bird defies her natural instinct to flee because of her stronger natural instinct to protect her offspring!
Taking the mother would be taking unfair advantage of her maternal instincts to sacrifice her own well-being for the sake of her brood. The Torah does not want to allow this. The mother is doing what mothers should do. She is exhibiting compassion and we are not allowed to take advantage of this.
The Avnei Nezer presents a similar idea to that of the Netziv, but with one difference, which is a tremendous insight. Until the time of Noach, mankind was forbidden to eat meat. Only after the Flood did meat become permitted to human beings (Bereishis 9:3). The Flood triggered a tremendous change in man’s diet – animals were now permitted for consumption. The Torah sums up the newly decreed permission to consume meat with the explanation: “...for in the image of G-d He made man” (Bereishis 9:6). The simple reading of the pesukim is that these last words come to explain the first part of pasuk 9 (“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed...”). In other words, the Torah is explaining why we may not kill another human being. However, the sefer Agra v’Kallah says it is saying more than that. He interprets: Do you know why we are allowed to kill animals for our benefit? It is because we (mankind) are the apex of creation. “For man was created in the image of G-d” does not only explain why homicide is prohibited; it also explains why we are allowed to kill animals for our food. It is because man is on top of the pyramid creation and animals are inferior to him.
Until the Flood (when “all flesh corrupted their ways upon the earth” (Bereishis 6:12)) animals were on a higher spiritual level and therefore they could not be killed for consumption. After the sins that triggered the Flood, animals descended from their elevated spiritual status.
What does it mean that a person is created “in the image of G-d” (b’tselem Elokim)? The Abarbanel writes that the word tselem comes from the word tsel [shadow]. We all know the nature of a shadow: When a person raises his arm, his shadow also raises its arm; when a person turns his head; his shadow turns its head. B’tselem Elokim asa es ha’adam means that we were created with the capacity to mimic the Master of the Universe. How does one mimic the Master of the Universe? Just as He is compassionate, so too we need to be compassionate; just as He is generous, so too we need to be generous; just as He buries the dead, so too we need to bury the dead; just as He clothes the naked, so too we need to cloth the naked. We who are created b’Tselem Elokim have the capacity to imitate the Attributes of the Almighty.
The Avnei Nezer says the following beautiful idea: When the mother bird does not fly away, she is not merely exhibiting compassion for her brood by protecting them. At that very moment that the bird exhibits the attribute of compassion, the bird is not just a bird any more – it is a higher form of creature. The bird is being a me’rachem [exhibiting compassion]. In a miniscule sense, it is now imitating and mimicking the Master of the Universe. The Avnei Nezer concludes: We are forbidden to take such a bird; we are forbidden to kill it. At that moment, it is not the same type of bird as we find in the marketplace. The whole heter [dispensation] to take birds, slaughter them, and eat them is because MAN was created in the “image of G-d” (but not animals or birds!). However, at this particular moment in time, when the bird is in fact acting with compassion, that bird becomes elevated. Therefore, “Thou shalt not take the mother; send away first the mother and then take the offspring.” (Devorim 22:7) (R’ Frand)
