The last time my Savta was here she told me a story about a woman she met who survived the Holocaust. She ran away into the forest with a dog who saved her life. She was only 8 years old when this happened. Her parents were both killed during the Holocaust. The dog would go and get eggs, bread, water and other food from the farmers that lived nearby. He would bring these things in his mouth to her and then would set out for more things. This young girl survived because the dog brought food to her in his mouth.
Animals are very important in my life. They bring smiles to my face and I feel sad when anything bad happens to them. But they mostly bring smiles. Animals are important even though they are different from humans. We have a lot in common with animals.
I did some research to find out about how Judaism treats animals. I used a book called Judaism & Animal Rights. In this book I read about how Judaism is the first religion to consider the importance of animals. Before Judaism one of the Pagan religions considered the animals to be like gods but they were afraid of them because they felt like the animals had power over them. Jews never worshipped or were afraid of animals.
In the torah there are lots of laws about animals like which ones you can and can't eat and which ones are allowed to plow your fields. If you're plowing a field and you have an ox and a goat pulling the plow you would be breaking one of the many laws of torah. You must have animals of the exact same strength, so one doesn't overpower the other and maybe hurt the weaker one. In the book Why Be Different I learned that the Talmud forbids eating meat and milk together. The Talmud wants you to think about the fact that the meat you are eating was once a living animal. Milk represents life and meat represents death. When you separate meat and milk you are separating life from death. In the amidah prayer we say "Kol ha'chayim yoducha sela, ve'yehalelu et shimcha be'emet."
"May every living creature thank you and praise you faithfully, throughout the Universe." The important word here is "every". Not only do we as humans praise God so do the other living creatures.
The book Judaism & Animals Rights told about a Jewish source that says when you get something new you say a prayer called the She-hech-eyanu. You also say this prayer for a special occasion. However you don't say this prayer when you put on something made out of leather. The enjoyment of having those new shoes or jacket is lessened because it cost an animals life.
When Moses flees from Egypt he gets a job tending his father-in law's flock of sheep. As soon as Moses took over the flock, it was blessed. Wild beasts never came to eat or attack the sheep. It was important for Moses to be a shepherd if he wanted to be a leader of his people. A shepherd has a lot of responsibility caring for his flock. In the story of Noah God told him to save the animals as well as his family. The story of Noah is one of my favorites in the torah. Did you ever think about how Noah took care of all those animals? My mom found the following midrash, a story about what's between the lines in the torah which is found in the book The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg: The assembling of the animals in the ark was the smaller part of the task imposed upon Noah. His chief difficulty was to provide food for a year and accommodations for them. Long afterwards, Shem, the son of Noah told the following story to Eliezer the servant of Abraham:
"We had sore troubles in the ark. The day animals had to be fed by day and the night animals had to be fed by night. My father knew not what food to give to the little Zikta. Once he cut a pomegranate in half and a worm dropped out of the fruit and was devoured by the Zikta. After that my father would knead bran and let it stand until it bred worms which were fed to the animal. The lion suffered with a fever all the time and therefore he did not annoy the others, because he did not like dry food. The animal Urshana, my father found sleeping in the corner of the vessel and he asked him whether he needed nothing to eat. He answered and said, " I saw that you were very busy and did not wish to add to your troubles." So my father said, "May it be the will of God to keep you alive forever, and the blessing was realized."
Just imagine how many different foods Noah had to prepare for all those animals. In Judaism and Animal Rights there is a discussion about knowing the "soul of an animal." This means things like not leaving a dog alone all day when its nature is to need human company and not keeping exotic animals in city apartments when their nature is to roam the woods. Noah understood the animals' souls.
It seems like some adults don't really care for animals. Some just don't really notice that they're eating animals or if they're walking in nature and they see a deer sometimes they just keep walking. It seems like baby animals have a lot in common with kids because they're growing up too. They're soft and furry and so kids like to play with them. Adults have a lot of other things going on in their lives. They have a lot of other things to do besides noticing animals and playing with them.
In the service you notice lots of different things with each prayer. We notice breathing, being awake, where we're sitting, our community, how we are dressed and noticing the world around us. It seems like everyone should notice animals because they're a part of the world just like breathing. Maybe they're having a service inside of our service or along with it. It seems like every living thing lives in God's Universe and we're thankful to live there because it's blessed. The next prayer we are going to chant is "Nishmat" which begins by saying that "The soul of every living thing gives praise to your name." While we're singing, let's think about animals who are praising right along with us.
Copyright 1999 Yael Berenson
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Updated 07/17/1999 (rge)