Ki Teitzei
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
Isaiah 54:1-10
This week’s portion contains the remarkable mitzvah (commandment) of shiluach ha-kan. The relevant verses read, in translation:
“If there will occur a bird’s nest [kan tzippor] before you on the way, in any tree or on the ground, chicks or eggs, and the mother is couching on the chicks or on the eggs; you may not take the mother with the young. You will surely send away the mother and take the young, in order that it will be good for you and you will have longevity” (Deuteronomy 22:6-7).
The Midrash Tanchuma compares this mitzvah with that of kibbud av va-em, honoring one’s parents (Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16), and observes: “Each and every mitzvah’s reward is mentioned [in the Torah] such as [in the case of] kibbud av va-em and shilluach ha-kan, concerning which longevity [arichut yamim] is written.”
Rabbi Chanoch Zundel ben Yosef, in his commentary “Etz Yosef” notes that our midrash cannot be suggesting that the reward for each of the 613 mitzvot is stipulated in the Torah, for it is plainly not so.
He concludes that, since the reward for the least consequential mitzvah (shiluach ha-kan) and that for the mitzvah with the most serious ramifications (kibbud av va-em) is clearly stated, we may therefore rest assured that a reward for everything in between is also in line.
This raises a couple of questions:
• In what way is arichut yamim a reward? The idea flies in the face of the Talmud’s pronouncement that “There is no reward for a mitzvah in this world” (Kiddushin 39b).
Even if one tries to interpret the language “creatively” to make it refer to the next world, the language concerning kibbud av va-em is unambiguous: “in order that your days will be long upon the earth.” How can we reconcile these two concepts?
• Why are these two mitzvot singled out in this way? What is there in these two to characterize them as a guide for granting rewards elsewhere?
To answer these questions, it is first necessary to contemplate the reason for our existence.
Perfecting and sanctifying
Humanity was created for the purpose of perfecting and sanctifying the created universe by elevating and clarifying the nitzotzot ha-kidusha, the “sparks of sanctity,” found in all created things.
We do this by using Creation to perform G-d’s mitzvot. As the Talmud points out, humanity was designed for the performance of those mitzvot, not angels, since unlike angels humans need to eat and drink, and therefore can observe kashrut, humans have a sexual nature, etc. (Shabbat 88b-89a).
With this in mind, we note that arichut yamim is not always a blessing. Earlier in our portion we encounter the case of the rebellious son (21:18-21).
Imagine a child so utterly unresponsive and insubordinate that his parents bring him to court and declare to the judges that he has responded neither to persuasion nor to punishment, knowing full well that if the court validates and verifies the matter, the boy will be stoned.
What crimes must our rebel commit to merit such an end? The medieval French commentator Rashi explains (following the Talmud, Sanhedrin 72a): “He is not guilty until he steals and eats a certain measure of meat, and a certain half-measure of wine.” For this he gets death?
The Talmud responds that the Torah is looking at the boy’s future course: A son so wildly rebellious can only be at the beginning of a vicious criminal career. There is little hope of awakening remorse and repentance in him.
Rashi, continuing in the steps of the Talmud, lays out that future: he will squander his father’s property on revelry, will learn nothing, and in the end will resort to pillage and brigandage.
Far better for the world, as well as for him, that such a life not be led, that he die now, with this small stain, rather than later with all the accumulated guilt of such a misspent life.
It is comforting that the Talmud assures us that such a case has never arisen. It is an azhara, a warning, that the potential exists.
“Drosh v’qabbel sachar,” says the Talmud: Study the case, heed the warning, and the reward is that the nightmare does not occur (cf. Maharsha ad loc. in Sanhedrin).
So arichut yamim is a blessing only for those who use it properly, carrying out the duties prescribed by the Al-mighty in the holy Torah. It is to define whom the recipient of such a blessing might be that the Torah associates aruchut yamim with kibbud av va-em and shilluach ha-kan.
Anyone who conscientiously performs the onerous duties required to fulfill the mitzvah of kibbud av va-em, in middle age as in youth, despite the competing pressures of family and career, is not likely to be neglectful of any easier and less troublesome mitzvot which come his way.
Similarly, someone so aware of the possibilities for mitzvot that he recognizes an opportunity for shiluach ha-kan will have performed every other mitzvah which has presented itself to him with gusto and care.
The reward for these mitzvot, then, is the opportunity to perform many more mitzvot. “Mitzvah goreret mitzvah,” one mitzvah leads to another (Sayings of the Sages 4:2).
It is in that spirit, with the opportunity to amass a reward in the eternal, next world, that we can speak of arichut yamim as a s’char mitzvah (reward for a mitzvah). May all of Israel merit such a sachar.
Milwaukeean Rabbi Avner Zarmi is Midwest regional vice president of Agudath Israel of America.
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