Ki Seitzei (3): Using Hints, Sending Away the "Mother"

Divrei Chazal are full of Eitzos, pieces of advice on everything. Through out Shas and Midrash we are told how to serve Hasehm, how to Daven, how to eat... the list goes on and on. Sometimes Chazal back up their statements with a Remez, a hint from a Pasuk. But oftentimes we are bereft of a source.

Chazal say in Pesachim that a person should serve Hashem at first SheLo L'Shma, for personal gain, because it is Geshmak. Why? Because Avodas Hashem straightens a person out and even if he starts for te wrong reasons, it will eventually give birth to a more honest and sincere service of the Divine. לעולם יעסוק אדם בתורה אפילו שלא לשמה, כי מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה.

In the lens of the Tzadikim, the advice of the sages is often seen as an outgrowth of an actual concrete Torah commandment. The advice of Chazal is not random, rather rooted in the words of the Torah itself. No only this, but by upkeeping the words of Chazal, that itself is a way of doing the Mitzvah that their words stem from!

R' Shlomo of Karlin Hy"d zy"a explained that the rare Mitzvah of Shiluach HaKein is the source for the statement of Chazal mentioned above. How is this so?

The Mitzvah of Shiluach HaKein tells us to send away the  mother bird and take only the children. It doesn't often avails itself to us. It's a rare Mitzvah. But let's look at the words of Chazal from before with new eyes.

If we are told that doing a Mitzvah for the wrong reasons will, over time, bring one to true Avodas Hashem then serving Hashem SheLo L'Shma can be likened to a mother, a mother who eventually gives birth to real Mitzvah observance that is L'Shma.

When we leave the "mother", and take the "children", meaning that when we leave behind the SheLo L'Shma and transform ourselves into true Ovdei Hashem then we are - in a sense - being Mekayem the Mitzvah of Shiluach HaKein, the source for the advice that we started with.