Responsum: On the Treatment of Animals

You asked: “Concerning the story of the sufferings which were inflicted upon Rabbi for one act but were removed from him for another—is it the right thing not to slaughter an animal or not to kill kittens or animals doing harm? Let our Master instruct us.”

Our finding is as follows and this was found by us: Animals that do harm, such as snakes, scorpions, lions, and wolves, may be killed in any way. On the other hand, living creatures that do not hurt us and that are also not needed for food or healing should not be killed and it is even forbidden to make them suffer. The kittens that Rabbi’s housemaid was about to throw aside and that were saved by Rabbi, do not belong to the harmful creatures, and such animals rightly may be saved from destruction. We are, however, not ordered to rescue a calf that is necessary for food. If nevertheless sufferings came upon Rabbi as a consequence of the act mentioned, we have to recognize them not as a retributive punishment for a trespass but as the kind of chastisement that the Lord is wont to send upon great and chosen men, because he treats them in a more rigorous way than other people, who have to learn from them and take example from their deeds.

Rabbi Ahai said in this sense: “It is said: “And round about Him it stormeth mightily” (Psalms 50:3); this means that God the Holy One is particular to a hair-breadth with those who dwell closest to Him.” Rabbi Hanina explains in this sense the verse of the Scripture: O Lord of hosts, who is a mighty one like unto Thee, O Lord? And Thy faithfulness is round about Thee (Psalms 89:8).

If therefore that calf had fled before the knife of the slaughterer and buried its head between the knees of Rabbi in order to be saved, then the immediate delivery to the slaughterer appeared as a particular cruelty. If he had acted mercifully, he would at least have allowed the calf to stay for a while, and anybody who had seen him act in such a way, would have taken this as an example for his own behaviour, and have learnt to be merciful himself. He, however, who saw that Rabbi delivered the animal immediately, and that no pity was stirred in his heart by the living creature that sought shelter with him, might have become more hard-hearted in his behaviour towards other people and towards animals which are not needed and harmless.

It may perhaps also be that the sufferings came upon Rabbi because he had uttered the words: “Thou art created for this!” (b. Bava Meẓi‘a 85a). It is true that animals have been created for this destiny, and that men have been permitted to slaughter them; but the Creator did not deprive the animals of a due reward, and we may believe that all creatures, the killing of which has been permitted, will be rewarded for their pains, for there is no doubt that God the Holy One does not deny just recompense to any of His creatures. In this sense the animal has, therefore, not been created in order that evil should be inflicted upon it but in order that good should be done to it; nor is it by any means created for the purpose of being slaughtered, although this has been permitted to man.