שלח תשלח את האם ואת הבנים תקח לך למען ייטב לך והארכת ימים
“You shall send away the mother, and [then] you may take the young for yourself, in order that it should be good for you, and you should lengthen your days” (Devorim 22:7).
The mitzvah of shiluach hakan, sending the mother bird away from her nest and taking the young, is the subject of many life lessons. A relatively easy mitzvah to do, the reward promised for it is on par with that of honoring one’s parents, a mitzvah so difficult that Chazal say Queen Esther was only successful because she had not failed in it (she was an orphan from birth.)
While some say that the purpose of the mitzvah is to be compassionate to the mother bird, they are wrong. The Mishnah explicitly tells us that a chazan who prays that Hashem is compassionate to the birds (and other animals) and should similarly be compassionate to us is removed from leading the service.
Rather, it IS about compassion, but not for the bird. It’s about training ourselves to sense the pain our actions may cause to others, like the bird who instinctively loves her young. We are careful not to cause unnecessary pain so that we will become more aware and accustomed to not wishing to hurt anyone.
Another reason given is that taking both the mother and the chicks shows a certain gluttony. One is willing to destroy an entire species (symbolized by progenitor and progeny) for his desires. Therefore, we are told not to take all the birds.
There’s another level as well. The Torah says not to take the mother from on her nest. Rashi says “as long as she’s upon it” which the Sifsei Chachomim explains to mean that once the mother bird has flown above it, she can be taken. It seems that the fellow wishes to take the mother bird, yet the Torah commands us to send her away and take the chicks or eggs. In that case, we are learning that we don’t always have to have what we desire. The man wants the full-grown bird, but Hashem tells him to take the young chicks instead. It develops maturity in the person to be satisfied with what Hashem wants him to have instead of what he wanted on his own. By shooing away the mother, the man shows his willingness to forego his wishes for Hashem’s. This is a secret to a good life.
One who constantly feels stymied in his goals will always be unhappy. However, one who understands that Hashem’s plans for us are better than what we can imagine will be happy with whatever he gets and enjoy each day to the fullest. Then, he will live a life of pleasantness in this world and one that earns him much joy and length of days in the next.
The mother of a boy with Down Syndrome wrote an essay describing her experiences. She likened it to planning a trip to Italy. “You make your wonderful plans deciding all the sights you will see. But when your plane arrives, you are in Holland and, despite your protests and plans, there you must stay.”
“The important thing,” she writes, “is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills... and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.”
“For the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, I was supposed to go to Italy. That's what I had planned." But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things... about Holland.” (Rabbi Gewirtz, Migdal Ohr)
