Shiluach Ha-ken (Sending Away the Mother Bird)

Deuteronomy 22:7 "You shall surely let the mother go (before taking her young)" Davy and Eli were constructing a tree house in their back yard. They nailed boards and hammered panels, working hard at their project. "Hey, Eli!" Davy suddenly said in an ...

Deuteronomy 22:6 "You shall not take the mother bird together with her young" This Negative Mitzvah teaches us the proper way of taking eggs or young birds from a nest (see Positive Mitzvah 148). We must first send the mother bird away because we are not ...

The Divine Presence rests upon the sukka like a mother bird.

If you chance upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, and the mother is sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go and take only the young... ...

The Kabbalistic approach to the weekly Torah reading

Each soul should fulfill all 613 commandments, and some must reincarnate to do so.

A basic principle of Jewish belief is that G‑d rewards us when we carry out His commands. G‑d will "do good to you, and give you length of days." But does it always work like this?