Dear Friends,
Among all the 613 mitzvot in the Torah, I can honestly say that this commandment stirs me the most. It rattles my intellectual sensibilities, and it captures my emotional fancies.
“If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or one the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.” [Deut. 22:6]
The simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the charge is powerful. Simply, we are only allowed to take the young, because the mother can beget more offspring. But, compellingly, we are charged to follow this command in order that our own lives may be long and good; the link between this mitzvah and a good, long life is not so obvious.
The late Rabbi Milton Steinberg, one of the leading lights of the Conservative Movement in the early-mid 20th century, wrote a magnificent, best-selling novel, As a Driven Leaf, based on the encounter of a rabbinic sage with this Mitzvah. The sage, Elisha ben Abuyah, happened upon a father and his son strolling along the road, when they discovered a bird’s nest in a tree. The father instructed the son in the Torah’s laws, and then sent the lad up the tree to shoo the mother and take the young. As the boy reached his hand to dispatch the mother, the boy fell from the tree to his death. Thereupon, Elisha foreswore Judaism, as he had observed the boy follow the law to the letter, but was rewarded with death instead of long life. The remainder of the novel details Steinberg’s fictional account of Elisha’s remaining lifetime of soul-searching.
Tragically, also, Steinberg, himself, died very young while engaged in the mitzvot of rabbinic life.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the world always followed preset, proper patterns? Yes, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. But, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People, exploring the random nature of the universe, and how even a boy well-schooled in Torah may suffer an inexplicable accident, just when God should be protecting him.
The real secret to life is not learning to live with the rules and the patterns, it is learning to accept when the rules and patterns do not hold true, and our faith and comfort are shattered. It is living with fires in Hawaiian paradise, unjust war in Ukraine, elected officials betraying our trust. That is the task of living.
At this season, we look inwards for will to renewal, even in the face of challenge.
Shabbat Shalom, and Shanah Tovah Um’tukah (A Good and Sweet Year),
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Among all the 613 mitzvot in the Torah, I can honestly say that this commandment stirs me the most. It rattles my intellectual sensibilities, and it captures my emotional fancies.
“If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or one the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life.” [Deut. 22:6]
The simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the charge is powerful. Simply, we are only allowed to take the young, because the mother can beget more offspring. But, compellingly, we are charged to follow this command in order that our own lives may be long and good; the link between this mitzvah and a good, long life is not so obvious.
The late Rabbi Milton Steinberg, one of the leading lights of the Conservative Movement in the early-mid 20th century, wrote a magnificent, best-selling novel, As a Driven Leaf, based on the encounter of a rabbinic sage with this Mitzvah. The sage, Elisha ben Abuyah, happened upon a father and his son strolling along the road, when they discovered a bird’s nest in a tree. The father instructed the son in the Torah’s laws, and then sent the lad up the tree to shoo the mother and take the young. As the boy reached his hand to dispatch the mother, the boy fell from the tree to his death. Thereupon, Elisha foreswore Judaism, as he had observed the boy follow the law to the letter, but was rewarded with death instead of long life. The remainder of the novel details Steinberg’s fictional account of Elisha’s remaining lifetime of soul-searching.
Tragically, also, Steinberg, himself, died very young while engaged in the mitzvot of rabbinic life.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the world always followed preset, proper patterns? Yes, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. But, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People, exploring the random nature of the universe, and how even a boy well-schooled in Torah may suffer an inexplicable accident, just when God should be protecting him.
The real secret to life is not learning to live with the rules and the patterns, it is learning to accept when the rules and patterns do not hold true, and our faith and comfort are shattered. It is living with fires in Hawaiian paradise, unjust war in Ukraine, elected officials betraying our trust. That is the task of living.
At this season, we look inwards for will to renewal, even in the face of challenge.
Shabbat Shalom, and Shanah Tovah Um’tukah (A Good and Sweet Year),
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
