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what’s wrong with eating the Chassidah bird?

Written by Anonymous

[heard this short vort from my friend Yoni Sagal]. The Torah says that one of the non-kosher birds is the ‘chassidah’ (11;19). Rashi there tells us that its name is from the root ‘chesed,’ for it does kindness with its friends by bringing them food. But if this is such a noble bird why can we not eat it; surely we should want to ingest this spiritual quality? He quoted someone who answered that the Chassidah bird had one major problem; it only does this chesed for its close friends [its immediate ‘chevra’]. To everyone else, the Chassidah does not help nor care about. And such a species, which uses its chesed discriminatoraly and excludes others, we do not want to ingest [eat].

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