Obscure Laws Part II

Shiluach haken (Hebrew: שילוח הקן‎, "sending-away the nest") is the Jewish law derived from the Torah that enjoins one to scare away the mother bird before taking her young or her eggs. This only applies to Kosher birds in the wild. The Torah promises longevity to someone who performs this commandment. It is also understood as a sign of compassion.

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

This is one of the few individual commandments for which a specific reward is promised in the text.

What is the purpose of this law?

• Maimonides, state that the prohibition was a case of the general law (Leviticus 20:23) against imitating Canaanite customs.
  • Maimonides wrote: "the heathen priests adorned themselves with garments containing vegetable and animal materials, while they held in their hand a seal of mineral. This you will find written in their books".

• Classical Kabbalah regarded such combinations as a defiance of God, because according to them, God had given each species individuality.
• Modern Biblical Scholars:
  • Because the priest's girdle, and the tzitzit which every man wore, are preferably made from shatnez, the prohibition was a way of setting aside this fiber blend only for holy purposes.
  • the rules against these mixtures are survivals of the clothing of the ancient Jewish temple and that these mixtures were considered to be holy and/or were forfeited to a sanctuary
• Linen is a product of a riverine agricultural economy, such as that of the Nile Valley, while wool is a product of a desert, pastoral economy, such as that of the Hebrew tribes.
  • Mixing the two together symbolically mixes Egypt and the Hebrews.
• Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook suggested that shearing wool from sheep is, at some level, "a form of theft, the oppression of the weak at the hands of the strong." Since utilizing the flax plant and sheep are not – in absolute terms – morally equivalent, the Torah sought to distinguish between them, to instill a sensitivity towards animal welfare.
• Practical Reasoning:
  • It all has to do with how linen and wool respond to water... linen is best spun wet and gets softer over time and loosens a bit with water. Wool cannot be spun wet, because the fibers will felt (get fuzzy) and get hard.
  • Therefore they can’t really be mixed together due to their different processes and reactions. (Rabbi Paula Winnig)

Borer - Sorting

• Selecting an item from a mixture is a form of labor, and therefore cannot be done on Shabbat.

• • What is deemed a mixture?

  • In halacha, a 'mixture' can come about in a few ways. Items can be mixed by being

    • mingled together, or
    • attached to each other, or
    • absorbed into each other.

  • For example,

    • a mingled mixture would be: a bowl containing mixed nuts; mixed silverware (that is, spoons, knives and forks) in a drawer or rack.
    • an attached mixture would be: bones in chicken or fish; peels of fruits.
    • an absorbed mixture would be: bread crumbs in soup; an inedible item, like a hair or a pebble, in soup or other liquid.
• The two basic criteria for distinguishing between food items are taste and description or function.
• The key element in non-food items is function. Are the items used in the same way? Let's take the example of silverware.
  • When it comes to Borer, we take the question of function to the most detailed level. Therefore, for example, a butter knife is considered a different 'type' than a steak knife, despite the obvious similarities between them.

The Sages identified three conditions for permitting selecting on Shabbat. They are:

1. you select the item by hand
   • If you want to eat the pretzels, then you remove them from the bowl by hand. The idea is not to use any utensil that is specifically made for selecting, such as a strainer or funnel,​​​​​​​
2. you plan to use the selected item right away, and
   • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​If he only likes pretzels, he couldn't pick those out ahead of time. Instead, when he wants to eat some, he can take whatever pretzels he wants from the bowl. The idea is that we should take only what we want at the time.
3. you select the item you want from the item(s) you don't want (rather than the other way around)¹
   • ^{​​​​​​​​​​​​​​}a person needs to choose what he or she wants, rather than removing what he or she does not want. If Dan wants to eat pretzels, but not chex, then the pretzels can be picked out but he cannot remove the chex. If his son wants the chex, then for him it's the other way around.

Tzad - Trapping

It is forbidden to confine an animal on Shabbat

Trapping is prohibited when:

1. Prior to trapping, the animal had freedom of movement, and
2. Your action will cause the animal to be more easily caught.

But, it is not forbidden to trap a very slow-moving creature (ie turtle, earthworm, snail, or ant)

• Wild animals -Tzad generally applies only to wild creatures such as deer, birds and fish, as well as to hard-to-catch things like insects. These creatures are naturally in a free state, able to move about and instinctively afraid of being caught.
• This law does not apply to domesticated animals
  • Applying this rule depends on context. You may have a dog who is usually compliant, but on one particular day, he is bad-tempered and disobedient. In this case, he does not fit the criterion of "domesticated." And if he tries to run away on Shabbat, you would not be able to capture him.

What do we mean when we speak of "confining" an animal? How confined does it have to be?

For these purposes, we'll refer to three levels of confinement:

• Level-1 – Not Confined – the animal has the natural freedom of movement to which it is accustomed.
• Level-2 – Loose Confinement – the animal's movement has been restricted, but it cannot be grabbed without being chased and outmaneuvered.
• Level-3 – Narrow Confinement – the animal is in a place where you could actually take hold of it with 'one lunge'.

On Shabbat, it is prohibited to restrict an animal's movement from one degree to the next.

Practical Applications

• If a bird flies into your house, you cannot close the window, since that will somewhat restrict its movement. With the window open, the bird can fly anywhere; with the window closed it is "loosely confined" to your house.

• If a deer walks into your living room, you could not close the door, as this effectively restricts the deer's movement. And it would not help you to leave the window open, since the deer is unlikely to leave the house through the window.

• During the warm months, a bee, fly or other insect will often get into the house. Capturing the bee in a cup, for example, would be an act of Tzad. However, you can close the bee up in one large room of the house and then shut the door. Even though the bee has less room to buzz around, it is too small to be considered 'confined' in so large an area. You could not, however, shoo the bee into a closet and then shut the closet door, as this reaches the level of 'loose confinement.'

• If a caterpillar is crawling across your Shabbat table, you could place a bowl over it. Because the caterpillar is so slow-moving, it is already considered 'trapped.'

https://www.aish.com/jl/jewish-law/shabbat/31-Tzad-Catch-Me-if-You-Can.html

Orlah - Forbidden Fruit

Fruits cannot be eaten during the first three years the tree produces fruit.

Mystical Explanation for this Law

The very first failing of the very first human beings was the desire for instant gratification. Self-control and discipline remind us that there is more to life than just eating delicious fruitThe first transgression recorded in the Torah is when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit. Although this story is famous, what is not so well known is that the fruit of the forbidden tree was not intended to be eternally prohibited. Adam and Eve were created on Friday afternoon. They were instructed not to eat the fruit for only three hours, until Shabbat. Once Friday night had arrived, the fruit would have been theirs to enjoy. They lacked the self-control to delay that pleasure.

The three years that we wait before eating fruit of any tree is a reminder of the three hours that Adam and Eve did not wait to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

The commandment to wait three years before enjoying them is an even greater gift, the gift of discipline and self-control.

https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/1196398/jewish/Can-You-Wait.htm