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I read a story in Hamodia this week about someone who would feed the birds all their leftover bread, since they had learned that if one throws out bread it is bad for their parnassa.
What is the source for this? Do you do this?
yeah, i dont know the source, but thats what we do in our charedi neighborhood. You always see the birds having a seuda Sunday morning in the parks and alleys around here.
it sounds like a segula for having mice and bugs.
It’s a mitzva and a minhug.
I thought Birds like Millet and Bird Seed.
Not sure of the source but my neighbor does this all the time and it drives me nuts. They put bread on their porch and it usually flys all over and people step on the crumbs. In an ironic twist; by them giving the bread to the birds, it may cause themselves to not have bad Parnassa but causes their neighbors TO have the bad Parnassah instead as there is another Segula that stepping on bread is also bad for Parnassah. Go figure.
I believe the bread can no longer be edible. Otherwise, it works backwards & is bad for parnasah. And there is also something in kabbalah about never throwing ANYTHING out that is still useable/edible. It’s very bad & we’ll leave it at that.
Either way, I’ve seen people hear this segula on Shabbos & they get so excited that they throw the crumbs out to the birds. I’m pretty sure it says in the Shulchan Aruch that you can’t feed birds that you don’t own on Shabbos. But I would ask a rabbi to make sure.
Either way, I prefer to feed fish.
It’s done AFTER Shabbos, not during.
I don’t know if this is or is not actual halacha. I will tell you, though, that every Sunday morning my husband throws out for the birds the leftover challah crumbs and pieces that we cannot eat. The birds actually seem to have come to expect him to be there every Sunday morning, and they have begun to congregate on our lawn, waiting patiently for him to come out with their goodies. It’s really fascinating to see this and happens almost every week. When he comes out, they don’t fly off as birds usually do at the sight of a person, but wait for him to throw it out for them.
For all the people doing this, I request you to ask your rav whether or not it is permissible for you to ignore the Health Department which says that putting out bread attracts rodents and raccoons, thus endangering your neighbors.
(I live in Borough Park so I know it’s unrealistic to ask people to stop committing the offense of littering even though I never read the heter for that either.)
the neighbours upstairs put out bread for the birds. Birds take to sitting permanently on their sill. We get the mess.
I know of those who never throw crumbs or food directly into the garbage; they use a separate, closed bag for those foods and insert that into the garbage.
AYC. Yes, i do that.
I thouht placing Bread Pieces was used for Shabbas Shira. Are any Posters Vets? Is Bread suitable Bird Food for the Birds?
as a kid we always went sunday to feed the ducks in the local park, much better than all the problems mentioned here.
i dont know where they have ducks in BP or FB but maybe on the boardwalk or somewhere close. it saves the mess and the uneaten bread falls in the water to be eaten later or by the fish.
no neighbors complain and so everyone is happy.
Homeowner, it’s also illegal in some places that have canals & other waterways.
I’ll save you the details of how too much bread & too many birds/ducks can clog up certain things in a waterway, but I think chocandpatience knows what happens.
Your point about rodents and racoons is well-taken, however, not all places have this problem, and if a racoon is coming out in the daytime because of the bread, then you have a much more serious safety and health problem than you think.
we do it–but not near our house. instead we put the crumbs at places where birds are known to congregate
If you do it, you should be aware that there are halachic problems with feeding animals that aren’t dependent on you for survival on shabbos. Most rabbonim hold that birds are in that category because they generally live off of what they find elsewhere.
“Is Bread suitable Bird Food for the Birds?”
Depends on the bird.
Great for pigeons.
Horrible for parakeets.
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