Hello and welcome to another episode of Covenant and Conversation with me, Rabbi Sachs.

In each new episode, we'll explore a Jewish idea from the Hebrew Bible based on the Torah reading of the week.

Kitezai, animal welfare. Ketetze is about relationships between men and women, parents and children,

employers and employees, lenders and borrowers. Strikingly, though, it's also about relationships

between humans and animals.

Descartes thought that animals didn't have souls,

therefore you could do with them as you pleased.

Judaism certainly doesn't believe that animals lack souls.

The righteous person, says the book of proverbs,

cares about the nefesh, the soul of their animal. At least nefish here probably means life

rather than so, but Tanakh does regard animals as sentient beings. They may not think and speak,

but they do feel. They're capable of distress.

Therefore, there is such a thing as Tzabal Eichheim, animal distress, and as far as possible, it should be avoided.

So we read in Ketetze, don't muzzle an ox when it's treading grain. What's intriguing about this law is that it parallels provisions for human

beings as well. When you come to work in your neighbour's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes

as you desire to satisfy your hunger. When you come to work in your neighbour's standing grain,

you may take the ears with your hand. The principle is the same in both cases.

It's cruel to prevent those working with food from eating some of it. The parallel is instructive.

Animals, not just humans, have feelings, and they must be respected. Another law is don't plow

with an ox and donkey together. The ox is stronger than a donkey.

So expecting the donkey to match the work of an ox is cruel. Each animal species has its unique

role in the scheme of creation that we must respect. The most fascinating animal legislation in this

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