Ki Teitze
What are you taking in?
Reflection on parashat Ki Teitze by Michal Fox, Or HaLev Teacher
כִּי יִקָּרֵא קַן צִפּוֹר לְפָנֶיךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּכׇל עֵץ אוֹ עַל הָאָרֶץ אֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ בֵיצִים וְהָאֵם רֹבֶצֶת עַל הָאֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ עַל הַבֵּיצִים לֹא תִקַּח הָאֵם עַל הַבָּנִים. דברים, כ"ב ו'-ז
"If a bird's nest happens to be before you on the road, in a tree, or on the ground, with chicks inside it, or eggs, and the mother is sitting on them, you shall not take the mother with the young." Deuteronomy 22:6-7
It's complex.
The Torah is actually allowing us to collect and eat the young, but with a degree of restraint. I want to share one interpretation brought by the Ramban. He says,
“The Torah does not permit us to cause destruction, to eradicate the species…for one who kills the mother and the young on the same day, it is as if they destroyed the species.”
It’s remarkable to see a concern for ecological sustainability in the Torah, and in a commentary 800 years old. And it’s such a complex and delicate practice of life, to take from the world for our own sustenance, even our own pleasure, but not carelessly, not too much, not in a way that becomes destructive.
That's the awareness which I invite you into this week, gently to notice your own patterns of consumption. What is it that drives you to eat or to buy something? Do you take more than you need? Can you cultivate mindfulness of your impact and notice places of excess, or where you act with a lack of awareness and numbing? I invite you to do so gently. This is a place where we can be judgmental.
Along with that I invite you to notice other species this week. See if you can extend your compassion and care to a wider community of people, and even other species. As the Torah says, may this practice indeed be good and enlivening. Shabbat Shalom.