For the source text click/tap here: Megillah 25
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Our Mishnah teaches that a number of seemingly innocuous expressions should be avoided. The most alarming is if one claims:
Al kan tzipor yagi’u rahamekha – “Your mercy even extends to the bird’s nest” – is a statement that should not be said.
Two reasons for this are posed by the Gemara. One suggestion is that this statement will create envy among the creations, i.e. that it appears as though God shows favoritism to one creature over the rest.
The other opinion in the Gemara is that one who says this is, in effect, suggesting that God’s commandments are based on mercy, when, in fact, they are gezerot – laws whose reasoning is not ours to understand.
This statement, which appears to limit any study of te’amei ha-mitzvot (the “taste of,” or reasoning behind, the commandments), is the subject of much discussion among Jewish thinkers and philosophers.
We review the extremes of these positions from the Rambam on the rational side to the Hassidic Masters (Izshbitz) on the other.