פרשת כי תצא
This week’s Parsha contains a very unique commandment in the Torah, and had it not been written, it would have been hard to imagine that God commanded it. The Torah instructs us that when we would like to gather the fledgling birds or eggs from a nest, we must first chase away the mother bird and only then, take her chicks for consumption. The Torah goes so far as to inform us that if we perform this commandment properly, we are guaranteed a long life. The Midrash explains the reason for this seemingly strange commandment. The Midrash says that just as God has mercy on the human inhabitants of this earth, His mercy extends to the animal life on the planet as well. The Ramban explains this Midrash to mean that this Mitzvah contains within it two aspects of God’s mercy. Firstly, the mother bird does not have to suffer while she watches her offspring be taken away, thus Hashem’s mercy has been extended to her. And secondly, there is mercy displayed toward the species itself, i.e. by leaving at least one remnant of this bird family, Hashem ensures that this species will be perpetuated.
However the Ramban points out a great difficulty with both this Midrash. There is a Mishnah in Berachos which says, “Anyone who says that God’s mercy extends even to the birds, must be silenced”, and the Gemorah comments on this Mishnah, “Because when a person says this, he implies that God’s commandments are there to show mercy, when in fact, they are only decrees from the King and should be viewed as such”. With this Mishnah and Gemorah in mind, asks the Ramban, how can we justify the above quoted Midrash?
The Ramban answers, we must explain that the Midrash didn’t mean that the purpose for the Mitzvah is for God to express His mercy, as this is absurd. If Hashem wanted to show mercy, He would save the bird – and all of its offspring – Himself. Rather the intent of the Midrash is that the Torah is coming to teach us the trait of mercy and to inculcate this important attribute into our hearts. We know that all of our actions affect our personality greatly, and by us taking the time to care for the mother bird’s feelings, this deed will help instill in us the crucial characteristic of empathy. If we can manage to habituate ourselves to care for even a small and seemingly insignificant creature, this will train us to care for all of God’s creatures.
I believe that there is another Mitzvah in the Parsha which helps us to train us in this critical trait of kindness. The Torah teaches us that if we loan somebody money, and take a collateral in exchange for that money, we are not to enter the person’s house to collect that collateral ourselves, but rather must wait for him to bring it to us. Rashi comments strangely on this verse, “That we are even referring to a ‘nothing’ loan”. This is a puzzling Rashi. Wouldn’t it be a greater chidush that the person must conquer his inclination to enter the house when the loan is for a large sum? Why would a person want to enter into a house to collect a petty loan? The Chofetz Chaim answers that Rashi is teaching us a fundamental principle about doing kindness for other people. Rashi certainly is referring to a large loan. But Rashi is teaching us that we should view a kindness that we do for another Jew, even a difficult one, as if it were “nothing” for us. Even if we lend someone a large sum of money, and we ourselves are struggling, we shouldn’t enter that person’s home to get the collateral, because we should look at it as if we didn’t really do anything for that person at all. The Chofetz Chaim continues by quoting Rashi in Parshas Mishpatim on a similar topic. Rashi tells us that the way to achieve this lofty level is to remember that each and every evening Hashem collects our souls and asks them to give an accounting for how they spent their day. Needless to say, most souls are slightly embarrassed by the results which they are forced to reveal. Hashem nevertheless allows them to return each morning. We too should realize that although we do kindness for other people, we ourselves are so much “in the red” that it shouldn’t be difficult for us to help our fellow Jew and not think much of it.
R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz was known to reiterate this point over and over again each Elul how important it is to improve our level of kindness during this time of year. He would explain that the basis for all of our prayers during Rosh Hashana and the surrounding days is that we ask Hashem to have mercy on us and overlook our wrongdoings and allow us to enter into the next year unharmed. But how can we expect Hashem to have mercy on us, it we do not show mercy to His creatures? The Gemorah in Shabbos (151b) says that anyone who shows mercy to Hashem’s creatures will be pardoned from the Heavens, but anybody who doesn’t, won’t. It goes without saying how it behooves us to really excel in this particular trait, specifically during this moth of Elul.
How does one improve his level of compassion? R’ Volbe suggests that we sit down and really ponder what it is that our friend is lacking. It is easy to superimpose our own needs onto others, and fill those needs, even though they may be a complete figment of our imagination. But it takes a bit more time to sincerely contemplate what it is that our friend is lacking, and to try earnestly to fill that need. When we can do this, R’ Volbe explains, we will truly earn the title of a “Baal Chessed”. Most people could use a good smile in the morning, but for some, a smile might be devastating. Some people around us need a job and we may be totally oblivious to this. R’ Volbe would tell over a story about a certain Rabbi who was approached with the Halachic question about whether they could perform the Mitzvah of the four cups on Pesach with milk. The Rabbi responded by handing the person an envelope full of money. When asked for his rationale, the Rabbi told his students, if this person is asking me about milk on Pesach, that means that he has no meat for the holiday, and is therefore in dire straights. This Rabbi’s sensitivity to his fellow man was clear.
I would just like to conclude with the poignant words of R’ Yerucham from Mir. R’ Yerucham would quote the famous verse, “The world is built on kindness”, and say that most people understand this to mean that the world is upheld in the merit of kindness, and these people are not wrong. But there is perhaps another facet to this verse which is crucial to understand. Hashem built a world in which we are completely dependant on each other, and without one another, we would die. For example, we cannot live without food. But since we ourselves do not produce the food, we rely on the farmer and the storekeepers to eat. They in turn take that money, and purchase another service which they are in need of. It comes out that Hashem designed a world in which the socioeconomic dynamics create a state in which all the earth’s inhabitants are interdependent. However, R’ Yerucham continued, there are two ways to view this situation. Let us take two taxi drivers. One of them views his occupation as an opportunity to help people all day long. He takes people exactly where they need to go, and attempts to make them comfortable during the ride. Sure this person takes money for his services, because he needs to feed his family, but he essentially spends his entire day giving. The second taxi driver also takes people where they need to go. But he curses them incessantly under his breath, and wishes that he didn’t need to take them. He saves money wherever he can, and he overcharges whenever he can get away with it. This second person spends his entire day taking, even though he is offering the same service as the first person. R’ Yerucham would conclude from this example, that we are already doing the work, but depending on our attitude, we can either spend the entire day giving, growing in kindness and compassion, or the entire day being egotistical, selfishly trying to take everything we can from this world and distancing ourselves from the lofty trait of Chessed, all we have to do is choose!
May we all merit, during this crucial time, to evolve into kinder and more compassionate human beings!