Selflessness and Globalism (Ki Teitzei 09/14/24)

Selflessness and Globalism

This past Shabbat, Parshat Ki Teitzei, I read a Midrash, a homily on the Parsha.

This Midrash is thirteen hundred years old, but it could have been an Op-ed in this week’s NY Times.

Midway through his farewell address (which is the whole book of Deuteronomy), Moses reviews many mitzvot and introduces a few new ones.

One of the new mitzvot is known as Shiluach Hakan, sending away the mother bird.

“If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young.

שַׁלֵּ֤חַ תְּשַׁלַּח֙ אֶת־הָאֵ֔ם וְאֶת־הַבָּנִ֖ים תִּֽקַּֽח־לָ֑ךְ לְמַ֙עַן֙ יִ֣יטַב לָ֔ךְ וְהַאֲרַכְתָּ֖ יָמִֽים׃

Let the mother go and take only the young; it’ll be good for you and will give you a long life.”

Rarely are rewards mentioned in the mitzvot. We do God’s will, not because we expect to be paid in this world or the next, but because we believe God knows best. This act has to be good for the doer and the world in ways we can’t even imagine.

So, when a mitzvah has a reward attached, it must be extraordinary.

Furthermore, the Midrash elaborates on this mitzvah’s reward, saying, “If you have no children, G-d will give you children. By keeping this command, you hasten the coming of the Messiah and the Prophet Elijah.”

So, this mitzvah is a real doozy. Yet why should it be so?

You come across a nest. Instead of taking a bird and its eggs, you just take the eggs. What’s so special about that?

It’s because this act epitomizes selflessness.

Let’s think about it. So much of what’s wrong in our world is because of selfishness.

We suffer from pollution and global warming because factories didn’t consider the environmental effects of their practices (because preventing them would have been more expensive).

Cars were produced knowing they were dangerous but weren’t corrected because paying a handful of lawsuits was cheaper than recalling millions of vehicles.

Social media companies resist deleting conspiracy theories and racist comments because those posts make them lots of money.

Most of the evils we see in our world can be pinpointed to selfishness.

In opposition, this mitzvah espouses selflessness.

Here, we have the mother bird refusing to run away in order to stand by her young. We have her captive in our hands. She could be used for food, taxidermy, or other personal gains. But the Torah commands us to consider the welfare of others and send her away so that she can produce more young and the species does not become extinct.

Thus, the observance of this command teaches a person to withdraw their personal gains for the sake of the common good. That’s why its reward is so great.

Now, the Midrash begins to make sense. Why will one who is barren have children? Because this act enables that mother bird to have offspring once more. In Hebrew, it’s called midah keneged midah, one good deed deserves another. The person enabled the motherbird to continue having offspring; therefore, so will the doer.

Why does this act bring us closer to the messianic era? The messianic era represents the unity of humankind. We’ll only have unity when we think beyond ourselves. If we only consider our best interests, the world will never unite. But if we sacrifice our needs to ensure all benefit, we’ll achieve a world of grace, expansiveness, and peace.

Who would have thought a Midrash written so many years ago would be suddenly relevant? Countries are now torn between nationalism, which prioritizes their interests, and internationalism, which sacrifices some internal interests for ideals that benefit a more significant part of the world.

If the Midrash is correct, that only selflessness will ultimately unite the world, then perhaps Jewish tradition has an opinion on this debate.

Even if we’d like to distance ourselves from policies beyond our ken, following this model can unite our families and communities. There will be times when we’re caught between personal gain and family or communal gain. The mitzvot are not meant to be singular cases but rather models. The Torah is teaching us that when we live with an awareness of the greater good, we will not only benefit others but also be blessed.

Wishing you a wonderful week,

R’ Neil