Q. I have heard that doing the mitzvah of shiluach haKen is a segulah for fertility. Do you know where in Toronto I can go to perform the mitzvah?
A. Indeed the Midrash Rabbah (Ki Tetze 6) and Yalkut Shimoni (630) quoted also in Chinuch (545) mention that the reward for performing this mitzvah is: "And you may take the young for yourself" (Devarim 23: 7) or having children. Although guide s'forim for Shiluach Hakan mention the nests of doves or pigeons under highway underpasses (such as the 401) this may prove quite difficult in practice.
You may try using bird feeders to attract doves or pigeons (they have to be kosher birds) to nest on a ledge in your property. (I did hear about one individual who had a nest on top of an A.C. unit and thus was able to comply with this mitzvah)
Igrois Moishe (Y.D. 4: 45) rules that if you have no intention of acquiring the eggs when they are laid and you declare so, your property will not attain them for you against your expressed will.
However Mishne Halochos (16: 104) opines that one must be mafkir or set ownerless the property itself where the nest rests. (See also Minchas Shlomo 2: 100: 6)
Most Poskim maintain that no brocho is recited. (Birchei Yosef Y.D. 292:1 quoting Rishonim. )
Shiluach Hakan (p.11), Tzipor Hasholem (p. 190) and Habonim Tikach (p. 55) mention that Cabalists advice not to observe this mitzvah from Rosh Hashana until after Shmini Atzeres.
Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a agreed that you do not have to be mafkir your property. He added that similarly to the limud of kodshim, just by learning the halochos of this mitzvah, it might be considered as if you complied with the mitzvah itself.
Rabbi A Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
