7 Elul, 5780

Rabbi David N. Young

Doing the Easy Things and the Right Things

In this week’s Parashah, Ki Teitze, we read a variety of rules and laws. One that has always caught my attention is: “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. Let the mother go, and take only the young, and the result will be that you will fare well and have a long life” (Deuteronomy 22:6-7).

Rashi points out that this is such an easy mitzvah to accomplish, and yet there is a stated reward “...you will fare well and have a long life.” If this easy mitzvah provides the reward of a good, long life, all the other, more difficult mitzvot should, too. He determines this must be the reward for doing any and all mitzvot--a good, long life.

Whenever we do good for another person, we are doing a mitzvah. Whenever we show others that we care, we are doing a mitzvah. When we make others feel good by doing good, we are living a good life. In turn, when we dedicate ourselves to a life of mitzvot, we will be remembered by all those whose lives we touched, and therefore our life will be long.

As we close out the first week of Elul 5780, may we rededicate ourselves to a life of doing good for others, dedicating ourselves to a life of mitzvot, and guaranteeing for ourselves good, long lives.