This week we will finish Masechet Chulin with the twelfth perek on shiluach hakan (sending away the mother bird), establishing that the mitzvah applies only to kosher birds encountered incidentally in the wild (ki yikarei). The Gemara asks the major question of whether one must proactively seek out a nest to perform the mitzvah or whether it only applies when one actually wants the eggs. We end the masechet with the conclusion that if the light mitzvah of shiluach hakan earns the promise of long life, how much more so do the weightier mitzvos, with the Gemara resolving that these rewards are fulfilled in olam haba, the next world.
