August 23, 2018
The Kabbalah of Birds’ Nests
By Sarah RindnerIs a biblical commandment against taking a mother bird with her young intended to teach mercy, or is it about something else?
Several years ago, my mother texted me a picture of a pigeon that was roosting on a nest on her balcony. For many, this might have been a simple annoyance. But for her, as for other religiously observant Jews, it represented a rare and exciting opportunity to fulfill the will of God.
The reason? The commandment detailed in this week’s Torah reading of Ki Teitsei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19), which carries with it an unusually specific reward: happiness and long life. While my mother was well aware of the reward attached to this commandment, she was apprehensive about executing it properly and wanted a second opinion.
The text of the law is as follows: