(Devarim 22:7) "Send, shall you send away the mother-bird": This is a positive commandment. If he sent her away and she returned — even four or five times — he is obligated to continue sending her, it being written "Send shall you send." But if he sent her and she returned to his hand, he is exempt from sending her again.

2. Ducks or chickens that got loose and nested in an orchard— one is under obligation to send the dam away. If the birds are nesting in the house— he need not send the dam away.

“The fledglings or the eggs” (Dt.22:6)— fledglings are useful as food. Therefore we exclude from the rule dead fledglings, which are useless. Similarly, eggs are useful as food. Therefore we exclude from the rule abnormal eggs, which are useless. The minimum number intended by the plural, fledglings, is two. **and the minimum of eggs is two.**¹⁰⁵ 227.2. Even if there is but one fledgling or one egg, he is obliged to send off the dam. 3. Another word: “If you happen across a bird’s nest” (Dt.22:6)— any place.

footnotes: ¹⁰⁵ Cf. Pisqa’

“In the path, in any tree, or upon the ground” (Dt.22:6)— just as the term, in the path, implies that the birds are free-ranging, we exclude from the rule birds that are tied together, for they obviously have limited range.

“You must definitely send away the dam” (Dt.22:7)— the verse discusses a clean bird. Or, [perhaps,] is it also [discussing] an unclean bird?

“Every clean bird shall you eat” (Dt.14:11). This permits us to recognize **a family resemblance among scriptural verses,**¹⁰⁶. A hermeneutical principle whereby usage of a word in a primary context clarifies secondary usages. Thus, wherever the term, “bird,” is used [as in Dt.22:7, where “dam” appears], the verse is referring to the clean bird [indicated at Dt.14:11]— as in the words of R. Josiah. Indeed, if he sent her away and returned to his journey, he is under no obligation to repeatedly send her away.

footnotes: ¹⁰⁶ Heb: binyan ‘ av

"Send shall you send the mother-bird": Scripture speaks of (sending away) females and not males.

A male partridge (which is wont to hatch the eggs of other birds) — R. Eliezer says: It is subject to being sent away, it being written "Send shall you send." The sages say: It is exempt, it being written "the mother-bird" — to exclude the male partridge.

If one takes the mother-bird together with the young, (transgressing a negative commandment) — R. Yehudah says: He is lashed and does not send it away. The sages say: He sends it away and does not get lashes. This is the rule: All negative commandments annexed to positive commandments are not liable to stripes, (awaiting the fulfillment of the positive commandment). "You shall not take" — even to cleanse the leper. (Ibid. 7) "so that it shall be good for you and you prolong days": Now does this not follow a fortiori, viz.: If of a (monetarily) negligible mitzvah, (the expense involved in its performance) being no more than an issar, the Torah writes "so that it shall be good for you and you shall prolong days," how much more so is this true of the "formidable" mitzvoth of the Torah! (Ibid. 8).