Falling With Purpose
Before collecting eggs or chicks from a nest, we are commanded to chase away the mother bird. “You must send away the mother [bird], and take the children for yourself ” (Ki Teitzei 22:7).
Mystically, this verse describes how to act in a spiritually undesirable situation. When we sense that the “mother”—the Divine presence—has departed from our lives, this is a signal that G‑d has sent us into His lowest and most vile worlds with the express intent that we elevate those worlds to holiness. This mission is very important to G‑d, and we accomplish it by “taking the children”: reinvesting in love and fear of G‑d (termed offspring in Kabbalah), in spite of the darkness.
Based on this we can understand why, when a potential convert asked Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while he stood on one foot, Hillel responded: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to others. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary. Go study” (Tractate Shabbos 31a).
On a deeper level, the potential convert was asking for a guarantee that he would always remain in a good state, never falling spiritually. Only then would he agree to convert. Hillel responded with a message of loving your neighbor: when you were in a vile, lowly world, G‑d made a good person fall just to lift you up. As a Jew you should expect to return that favor, and await the day that G‑d casts you down into a lowly, vile world. There, far from the “mother bird,” you will reinvest in “the children” (love and fear of G‑d) and spiritually rescue someone in need.
Par. 175
Translated by: Yechiel Krisch
Adapted from the teachings of the Mezritcher Maggid
