Shiluach haken (, "sending-away the nest") is the
Jewish law
''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...
derived from the
Torah
The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...
that enjoins one to scare away the mother bird before taking her young or her eggs. This only applies to
Kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...
birds in the wild. The Torah promises
longevity
Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined Statistics, statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth ...
to someone who performs this commandment.
Sources
The commandment is found in :
Theological ramifications
Compassion or cruelty?
Rabbi
Natan Slifkin
Natan Slifkin (also Nosson Slifkin) (; born 25 June 1975 in Manchester, England), popularly known as the "Zoo Rabbi", is a British-born Israeli Modern Orthodox community rabbi, and the director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Sh ...
has described two different approaches which Jewish thinkers have historically taken to this commandment. According to the
rationalist approach, the purpose of the commandment is compassion: either to spare the mother bird the distress of seeing its eggs taken, or to limit the greed inherent in killing animals for one's use, or a similar reason. Conversely, the
mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...
approach sees the commandment as an act of cruelty to the bird rather than compassion: in fact, the bird's suffering causes God to consider Israel's suffering at the hands of its enemies, and thus leads God to rescue Israel.
[Shiluach haKein: The Transformation of a Mitzvah]
/ref>
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).[
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Theodicy
As this is one of the few individual commandments for which a specific reward is promised in the text, it became a ''