Rabbi Robin Nafshi
director of Rimon, Collaborative Jewish Learning in MetroWest
11.15.07

In parashat Chayei Sarah, which we read just a few weeks ago, Abraham sends his servant Eliezar to find a wife for his son, Isaac. Eliezar, overwhelmed by the task ahead of him, sets his sights high. He is traveling with 10 camels and declares in advance that the right woman will be the one who not only gives him water but also provides water for all of his animals.

Eliezar meets Rebecca at a well. He asks her for water and she says, "Drink, my lord." And when he is done, she says, "I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking."

Rebecca's providing water for the camels is considered an act of tremendous kindness and generosity, and sets the standard for how Jews are to treat animals.

This is not the only story in the Torah that teaches us how we are to act with animals. In Exodus, we read of the prohibition against boiling a kid in its mother's milk. This law is a part of a larger body of Jewish law developed by the rabbis known as tsa'ar ba'alei chayim — avoiding causing pain to animals.

The pain with which the rabbis are concerned is toward the mother animal, who birthed the kid, and then would watch it die as it was boiled in her own milk, the milk that sustained the kid when it was first born. The rabbis liken this commandment to the one that requires shooing away a mother bird before taking her eggs. Again, the rabbis fear the pain, the broken heart, that the mother bird would feel in watching her young taken away.

The Talmud contains several other teachings for those of us who have animals in our care: First, we must feed our animals before feeding ourselves. This law is meant to assure that our animals are not neglected. Second, we are prohibited from keeping animals if we cannot properly care for them. If we lack the time, resources, or interest, we must find a more appropriate home.

If animals work for us, we must allow them, like humans, to rest on Shabbat. And we are forbidden to muzzle an ox while it is working in the field, just as we must allow human workers to eat from the produce they are harvesting.

Throughout Judaism we find halakhot, midrashim, and parables that emphasize how we are to value the nonhumans who are a part of God's creation.

This past summer, I was invited by Best Friends Animal Society to join with religious leaders representing more than 20 religious traditions at the Best Friends' sanctuary in Utah to begin drafting A Religious Proclamation for Animal Compassion. We continued our work through phone calls and over e-mail. On Nov. 7 we unveiled the proclamation in Washington, DC. I was one of the three religious leaders who spoke. I talked about Judaism's commitment to animal compassion and why it was important for Jews to be involved in the drafting (and signing) of the proclamation.

But I also issued a challenge to the Jewish community — for while our tradition is clear regarding our obligation toward animals, many Jews are unaware of these teachings or have creatively come up with ways to work around them. Thus, we must do the following:

Call on all owners of kosher slaughterhouses to immediately put an end to the inhumane conditions in which animals are kept, transported, and hoisted.



Support the work of the Conservative movement to create new standards of kashrut — standards that would consider not only how the animal is slaughtered, but also the conditions under which the animals are kept, transported, and hoisted.



Call for the universal adoption of alternatives to kaparot, the cruel treatment of a chicken in a pre-Yom Kippur ritual.



Encourage manufacturers of ritual products made from animals, such as shofarot and parchment, to use only those animals raised without cruelty and that died a natural death.



Join with our Israeli brothers and sisters in banning the production — and therefore the consumption — of foie gras.



Call upon clergy to provide pastoral counseling to congregants whose animals are ill or have died, and to take seriously all questions asked about animals and animal well-being.



Call upon clergy to provide adoption and end-of-life rituals for individuals and families who bring animals into their lives or suffer the loss of a pet.

In Proverbs (12:10) we read, yodei-ah tzadik nefesh b'hemto, "a righteous person knows the soul of his animal." I implore the Jewish community to go forward using that knowledge in ways that will put an end to animal suffering, cruelty, and exploitation.