Shiluach haken (Hebrew: שילוח הקן, "sending-away the nest") is the Jewish law derived from the Torah that enjoins one to scare away the mother bird before taking her young or her eggs.

You shall send away the mother, and take the offspring for yourself, so that it be good for you, and your days be long.Rabbi Natan Slifkin has described two different approaches which Jewish thinkers have historically taken to this commandment.

According to the rationalist approach, the purpose of the commandment is compassion: either to spare the mother bird the distress of seeing its eggs taken, or to limit the greed inherent in killing animals for one's use, or a similar reason.

[1] As this is one of the few individual commandments for which a specific reward is promised in the text, it became a locus classicus in Talmudic literature for discussion of theodicy.

In addition, the Talmud famously records that Elisha ben Abuyah saw a child fall off the ladder while performing this commandment at the behest of his parents: so, while performing two mitzvot (that is, both "sending-away the nest" and obeying one's parents), both of which are notable for their unusual promise of a reward of longevity.