Shiluach haken
Halakhic texts relating to this article | |
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Torah: | Deuteronomy 22:6 |
Babylonian Talmud: | Chullin 140b |
Mishneh Torah: | Hilchot Schechita 13 |
Shulchan Aruch: | Yoreh Deah 292 |
Shiluach haken (
Sources
The commandment is found in Deuteronomy 22:6–7:
Should a bird's nest appear before you on the way, on any tree or on the earth, chicks or eggs, and the mother resting on the chicks or the eggs: You shall not take the mother with the offspring. You shall send away the mother, and take the offspring for yourself, so that it be good for you, and your days be long.
Theological ramifications
Compassion or cruelty?
Rabbi
This dispute has practical ramifications, as the rationalist approach rules the commandment can only be done when one plans to eat the eggs (thus minimizing the birds' pain when pain is unavoidable), while the mystical approach calls on Jews to shoo away any mother bird even if they do not plan to take the eggs (thus maximizing the birds' pain).[1]
Theodicy
As this is one of the few individual commandments for which a specific reward is promised in the text, it became a locus classicus in Talmudic literature for discussion of theodicy.
One example of this is in Kiddushin 39b which discusses the problem whether the reward for commandments is in this world or the next. The explanation given in
In addition, the Talmud famously records that Elisha ben Abuyah saw a child fall off the ladder while performing this commandment at the behest of his parents: so, while performing two mitzvot,[clarification needed] both of which are notable for their unusual promise of a reward of longevity. This irreconcilable lack of theodicy led him away from Judaism. The Talmud says had Elisha known that reward for a Mitzva is only in the next world, he would not have left Judaism.
Cultural references
The metaphor of Shiluach haken is used in David Vollach's 2007 movie My Father My Lord, where the main character shoos away a mother bird just before the death of his own son, after the mother was "sent away" from the boy.
References
External links
- List of sources on the reasoning behind Shiluach haken (Hebrew)
- The Mitzvah of Shiluach Ha-Kan Heavily cited with halakhic sources, by Rabbi Doniel Neustadt (Modern Orthodox, Young Israel, Cleveland Heights)