Noting the juxtaposition of the law of maakeh, fence for a roof, upon the previous law of shiluach ha’kein, Rashi comments, “If you fulfilled the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird from the nest, your end will be to (merit to) build a new house and will fulfill the mitzvah of maakeh, for mitzvah goreres mitzvah, a mitzvah engenders another mitzvah after it.” One wonders: Is it possible to live without a house? Obviously not. If so, why does Rashi emphasize that the house is the result of mitzvas shiluach ha’kein, which will now engender the mitzvah of maakeh? Is the house due to the maakeh, or vice versa?
Horav Yosef Leib Nendick, zl, explains that, indeed, the cause and effect are reversed, with the house the result of a need to fulfill the mitzvah of maakeh. Cause and effect are not always straightforward, and can, at times, be counterintuitive. What we often perceive as an effect may, in fact, be the cause. Everything in this world was created for a Divine purpose: Torah. Thus, the order of sequence must be: kiyum, maintenance, of the Torah, which in this instance is the necessity to have a maakeh, necessitating a house. Thus, the maakeh is the cause, the reason for the house. In the Divine sequence of cause and effect, the Torah is always the cause.
