Mercy Implanted In Creation

במדרש כשם שנתן רחמיו על האדם כך על הבהמה ועל העוף כו' ומקשים דאיתא במשנה האומר על קן צפור יגיעו רחמיך משתקין אותו

In the Midrash it states that just as Hashem bestowed His mercy upon man, so too upon the animal and upon the bird, etc. And they raise a difficulty, for it is taught in a Mishnah that one who says "Your mercy extends even to a bird's nest" is silenced.

The Midrash teaches that Hashem extended His mercy not only to man but to animals and birds as well, yet this seems to clash with the Mishnah that silences one who attributes the mitzvah of shiluach haken to Hashem's mercy on the bird.

ובגמ' שעושה מדותיו של הקב"ה רחמים ואינם אלא גזירות ע"ש

And in the Gemara it explains that such a person makes the attributes of the Holy One, Blessed is He, into expressions of mercy, when in truth they are nothing but decrees; see there.

The Gemara objects that treating Hashem's mitzvos as motivated by mercy wrongly recasts what are really divine decrees as acts of compassion.

אכן נראה דכוונת המד' שנתן רחמיו בכל הברואים כדכ' ורחמיו על כל מעשיו

Indeed, it appears that the intent of the Midrash is that Hashem placed His mercy within all of the creatures, as it is written, "and His mercy is upon all His works" (Tehillim 145:9).

The Sfas Emes resolves this by reading the Midrash to mean that Hashem embedded mercy into every creature, as the pasuk says His mercy rests on all His works.

פי' הענין כי האדם מרחם על האדם ולא על הבהמה כי אין האדם יודע ומשיג דעת הבהמה כלל

The explanation of the matter is that a person has mercy upon another person but not upon an animal, for a person does not know or grasp the awareness of the animal at all.

A person can feel compassion only for another person, because he cannot enter into or grasp the inner awareness of an animal.

לכן אין בו רחמנות עלי'

Therefore he has no mercy upon it.

Lacking that access, a human being simply has no mercy aroused toward the animal.

כי אין ענין דעת ורחמנות של הבהמה משגת להאדם

For the matter of the awareness and the mercy belonging to the animal is not something that man is able to comprehend.

The animal's own form of awareness and its own experience of mercy lie beyond what a human can perceive.

וכמו כן מלאכים אין מבינים דעת האדם וכבהמה המה להם

And likewise the angels do not understand the awareness of man, and he is to them as an animal.

By the same measure, angels cannot grasp the awareness of a human being, so that man appears to them as a mere animal appears to us.

אכן הש"י היודע הכל הוא יודע דעת המלאכים והאדם והבהמה וכל בריאה

Indeed, Hashem, who knows everything, knows the awareness of the angels and of man and of the animal and of every created being.

Only Hashem, who knows all, has full knowledge of the inner awareness of angels, of man, of animals, and of every creature.

לכן רחמיו על כל מעשיו

Therefore His mercy is upon all His works.

Because His knowledge reaches into all of them, His mercy can truly rest upon all His works.

והש"י יודע כי רחמנות של האם על האפרוחים בענין זה אם תלקח אם על הבנים

And Hashem knows that the mercy of the mother bird upon her chicks lies in this matter, of whether she will be taken together with her young.

Hashem knows that the mother bird's compassion for her chicks is bound up precisely in this situation of whether she is taken away along with her young.

וכמו כן אם ישחט אותו ואת בנו ביום א'

And likewise whether one slaughters it and its offspring on a single day.

The same applies to the prohibition of slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.

ובאמת זה עצמו שהטביע הקב"ה ענין רחמים בכל ברי' במדה ידוע

And in truth, this very thing, that the Holy One, Blessed is He, implanted the matter of mercy within every created being in a known measure, is itself the point.

The real point is that the Holy One, Blessed is He, implanted a fixed measure of mercy into every created thing.

ואדרבא מחמת אלה המצות שנתן הש"י בבהמה ובעוף מחמת זה נמצא בהם ענין זה הרחמים

And on the contrary, it is precisely on account of these mitzvos that Hashem placed within the animal and the bird that, by reason of them, this matter of mercy is found within them.

Far from contradicting mercy, these very mitzvos are the means by which Hashem caused this quality of mercy to reside within the animal and the bird.

ובאמת כל קיום הבריאה הוא ברחמים כמ"ש המנהג כו' ובריותיו ברחמים לכן נמצא הרחמים בכל הבריאה ובנ"י שהם עיקר הבריאה הם רחמנים ביותר

And in truth, the entire existence of the creation stands through mercy, as it is written, "He conducts the world... and His creatures with mercy"; therefore mercy is found within all of creation, and Bnei Yisrael, who are the very essence of the creation, are merciful above all.

Since the entire creation is sustained through mercy, as we say that Hashem governs His world and His creatures with mercy, that mercy is woven into all creation - and Bnei Yisrael, the core of creation, are the most merciful of all.

אך בכל בריאה יש מן הרחמים כפי גזירתו ית' וז"ש המד' שנתן רחמיו כו'

But within every created being there is something of mercy according to the decree of Hashem, and this is what the Midrash means in saying that He placed His mercy, etc.

Every creature contains a portion of mercy fixed by Hashem's decree, and this is exactly what the Midrash means when it says He placed His mercy in them.

ובגמ' הפי' מי שאומר שטעם המצוה ע"י שהש"י מרחם על הקן צפור

And in the Gemara the explanation is that one who says that the reason for the mitzvah is because Hashem has mercy upon the bird's nest -

The Gemara is addressing the one who claims the mitzvah's reason is that Hashem feels pity for the bird's nest.

וזה אינו אדרבא במצוה זו נתן הש"י הרחמים בהציפור עצמו כמ"ש

this is not so; on the contrary, through this very mitzvah Hashem placed the mercy within the bird itself, as explained.

That framing is mistaken; rather, through this mitzvah Hashem instilled the very quality of mercy into the bird itself.

וז"ש שאינם אלא גזירות שגזר להיות נמצא רחמים בכל ברי' במדה ידוע כנ"ל:

And this is what is meant by saying that they are nothing but decrees - that He decreed that mercy should be found within every created being in a known measure, as above.

When the Gemara calls the mitzvos mere decrees, it means that Hashem decreed a fixed measure of mercy to be present within every creature.

Summary: The Sfas Emes confronts the apparent clash between a Midrash that says Hashem extended His mercy to man, beast, and bird, and the Mishnah and Gemara that silence one who attributes the mitzvah of shiluach haken to Hashem's mercy on the bird, calling the mitzvos mere decrees. He resolves it by explaining that a creature can feel mercy only toward what it can grasp - man cannot perceive the animal's awareness, and even angels cannot perceive man's - but Hashem, who knows all, fixed a measure of mercy into every creature, so that His mercy truly rests upon all His works. The mitzvos of shiluach haken and of not slaughtering an animal and its young on one day are precisely the channels through which Hashem implanted that mercy within the bird and the animal themselves. Thus the Gemara's statement that these are "decrees" is no contradiction: Hashem decreed that a known measure of mercy reside within every created being. Since all of creation is sustained through mercy, Bnei Yisrael, the essence of creation, are the most merciful of all.