A man once came to the Gaon Rebbe Chaim Kanievsky zt”l and wept bitterly that his wife was very ill. Rebbe Chaim zt”l said to him: “I have good advice for you. Accept upon yourself to learn the entire mesechta Bava Basra until you know it thoroughly, with all the Tosafos, by heart.” The man was very astonished: What connection is there between mesechta Bava Basra and the illness of his wife, and how would his salvation come through this? The Steipler explained to him: “Do you not understand? In order for a Jew to be able to know Bava Basra by heart, he needs a calm mind, and consequently he must have his wife healthy, and he must have livelihood without worries, and all his needs must be arranged so that he will be free to learn the entire mesechta.”
In our parasha we see two cases whose outcomes are similar, even though they are opposite from one another. At the beginning of the parasha the Torah says (21:11): ’בה וחשקת תואר יפת אשת בשביה וראית - “And you will see among the captives a woman of beautiful form, and you will desire her.” Rashi says: “The Torah spoke only against the yetzer hara, for if HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not permit her, he would take her in prohibition. But if he married her, in the end he will come to hate her, as it says afterwards: כי‘ ’וכו לאיש תהיין - ‘If a man will have...,’ and in the end he will father from her a wayward and rebellious son. Therefore, these passages were placed next to one another.” And later in the parasha, in the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, the Torah says (22:7): תקח הבנים ואת האם את תשלח שלח לך ייטב למען לך’ - “You shall surely send away the mother, and the young you shall take for yourself, in order that it will be good for you.” And immediately afterwards: ’לגגך מעקה ועשית חדש בית תבנה כי‘ - “When you build a new house you shall make a guardrail for your roof.” Rashi explains: “If you fulfilled the mitzvah of sending away the mother, in the end you will build a new house and fulfill the mitzvah of a guardrail, for one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah, and you will come to have a vineyard, and a field, and fine garments. Therefore, these passages were placed next to one another.”
In both cases we see something wondrous: the actions of a person affect both his material life and his spiritual life, for good and for bad. Although in both cases we are dealing with things permitted by the Torah, nevertheless, if a person did not succeed in conquering his yetzer and he took for himself the woman of beautiful form, as a result, troubles come upon him one after another and he pays dearly. But with the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, about which Rashi says that it is “a light mitzvah, with no financial loss,” the results are: great success in spirituality and also immense material abundance. And this we must always remember: sin drags along another sin, but a mitzvah drags along another mitzvah, and with it also comes great abundance in the material realm.
