Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Jeremias 17:11

כי יקרא כן צפור לפניך בדרך, “if you encounter by chance a bird’s nest on your way, etc.;” the reason why these paragraphs follow one another is that the performance of one commandment brings in its wake the performance of additional commandments. (Compare Devarim Rabbah, 6,4 on our portion). Seeing that the reward for the performance of the commandment just discussed results in your enjoying long life, you will have the opportunity to devote yourself for more years to Torah study. When you build a house for yourself, you will be able to perform the commandment of erecting a fence on the edges of its roof to protect anyone from falling off it. When the Torah follows with the warning not to mix seeds of different plants when planting a vineyard, you will enjoy harvesting the fruit of that vineyard. When you are warned not to harness an ox and a donkey to the same plough, [as it would result in the donkey suffering pain, seeing it is so much weaker. Ed.] you will enjoy owning many oxen and many donkeys as a result of observing that commandment. When the Torah subsequently warns you not to wear garments in which linen and wool have been woven in the same cloth [except when commanded to do so for the tzitzit in certain situations], you will be able to afford buying a beautiful tallit on which to perform the commandment to attach these fringes. (Compare Tanchuma, section 2). The commandment to own garments which qualify for the attaching of these fringes is extremely important as we know from the Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 32. According to a statement on that folio, anyone who is meticulous about the observance of that commandment will eventually be in command of 2800 servants. This statement is based on Zecharyah 8,23: בימים ההמה אשר יחזיקו עשרה אנשים מכל לשונות הגוים והחזיקו בכנף איש יהודי לאמר נלכה עמכם כי שמענו אלוקים עמכם, “in those days ten men from nations of every tongue will take hold,-they will take hold of every Jew by a corner of his cloak and say: ‘let us go with you, for we have heard that G–d is with you.’ [There are 70 tongues, multiplied by ten multiplied by four corners on each garment of a Jew adorned with tzitzit. Ed.] This is also the interpretation of Jeremiah 17,11-12: קורא דגר ולא ילד, עושה עושר ולא במשפט, “like a partridge announcing that it has hatched young when this is not true, or like amassing riches illegally;” this is followed by the line: “כסא כבוד מרום מראשון, “o throne of glory exalted from of old;” how does this line connect with the line preceding it?” it teaches that the partridge proclaiming to have hatched young from its eggs had stolen those eggs from another species of bird sitting on them only after they had already been hatched. Then they proceed to eat those chicks which belong to another category of bird. When the chicks try to fly and are unable to, they become victims to predators. Who caused this sequence? Whoever steals eggs that are not his own. The prophet uses this simile to describe the gentiles who boast about their ill gotten gains which are the result of robbery. These gentiles, who destroyed the Holy Temple by burning it, will eventually have to pay for their crime by becoming totally extinct. (Compare Tanchuma, section two on our portion)

A Midrashic approach based on Tanchuma Ki Teytze 2: There is no commandment which is easier to fulfill than sending away the mother bird. Compare the reward offered by the Torah for a commandment which requires so little effort to fulfill: “in order that it will be good for you and will prolong your days.” We may appreciate this better by reference to a parable. A king employed a number of labourers to work in his field to plant there and he did not tell them exactly what their wages would be. In the evening, every labourer who had planted a tree was given one gold coin. When the labourers observed this (extraordinarily large payment) they were amazed and concluded that if planting a single tree, an undemanding task, was worth a gold coin to the king, how much greater would be the payment for labourers who planted a number of trees per day. The commandment of שלוח הקן, the sending off of the mother bird, is similar. It does not require financial cost in order for us to fulfill it and yet the reward is great. We may extrapolate from that what kind of reward G’d will grant us for the fulfillment of commandments which require the spending of a lot of money, physical exertion, and possibly involve saving someone’s life. The reason that G’d spelled out the reward for only a few of the commandments is to encourage us to fulfill all of them. We may compare the commandments to trees producing fruit. Some tree may produce a fruit which is superior to the fruit of another tree. Similarly, there are commandments the reward for which is greater than the reward for fulfilling some other commandment.
We know, for instance that the reward for being hospitable and providing food and shelter for strangers is having children. We have proof of this from our matriarch Sarah (Genesis 18, 6-10) and we also know this from the woman in Shunam who was blessed with a child by a promise from the prophet Elisha whom she hosted on a regular basis (Kings II, 4-16). Other commandments such as honoring father and mother are rewarded by long life (Exodus 20,12), as is the commandment to send away the mother bird even though the principal meaning of this long life is understood to refer to life in a world beyond this terrestrial life on earth,
[In the following list of verses from scripture the author illustrates allegorically the eventual fate of the Gentile nations as retribution for their not having observed this commandment in their relationship to the Jewish people. Ed.]. Isaiah 16,2 writes: “like fugitive birds, like nestlings driven away, Moav’s villagers linger by the fords of Arnon.” The prophet refers to Jeremiah 17,11: “like a partridge hatching what she did not lay, so is one who amasses wealth by unjust means, in the middle of his life it will leave him, and in the end he will be proved a fool.” Immediately after this Jeremiah continues: “O throne of Glory exalted from of old. Our sacred shrine! O Hope of Israel, O Lord!” How do these verses form a continuation from what the prophet wrote before? The partridge brings eggs belonging to other species of birds and broods on them until they hatch from their shells. When these chicks hatch, the chicks feed on the partridge plucking its feathers and making it defenseless until they eventually devour it. Who is the cause of the partridge’s misfortune? None other than the partridge itself. If it had not stolen other birds’ eggs this would never have happened to it. This is what is going to happen to the nations of the world who dared stretch out their talons against the throne of G’d, i.e. destroy our Temple. They destroyed and burned G’d’s Sanctuary, exiled the Jewish people and, as a result, in the words of Tzefaniah 2,9, “Assuredly, as I live, declares the Lord of Hosts, the G’d of Israel: ‘Moav shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah; clumps of weeds and patches of salt and desolation evermore. The remnants of My people shall plunder them, the remainder of My nation shall possess them.’” Thus far the Midrash.

ודגרה And gather. Comp. דגר he gathereth²⁸A. V., Sitteth on eggs. (Jer. 17:11).

and gathered This is the call that the bird calls with its throat to draw the chicks after it, gloussera in French. Comp. (Jer. 17:11) “A cuckoo gathers (דָגָר) what it did not lay.”

As the partridge. A bird named קוֹרֵא, and in O.F. perdriz; and similarly, "as the partridge calls together [offspring] it did not bear"⁷Yirmiyahu 17:11. and it seeks the nests of other birds, and sits on their eggs.⁸Maseches Chulin 140b. Dovid compared Shaul’s fate to that of the partridge. Just as the partridge seeks the nests of other birds but the young return to their natural mother and the partridge is unable to keep them, so too, Shaul who chased after Dovid will be unable to keep his kingship.