Encyclopedia of animal rights and animal 515

472 | Religion and Animals: Judaism and Animal Sacrifice Cohen, Norman J 1976 Tsa’ar Ba’ale Hayim: The prevention of cruelty to animals, its bases, development and legislation in Hebrew literature Jerusalem and New York: Feldheim Publishers HaLevi, Aharon (traditional attribution) 1988–9 Sefer haHinnuch (5 volumes, translated with notes by Charles Wengrov) Jerusalem and New York: Feldheim Publishers Kalechofsky, Roberta, ed 1992 Judaism and animal rights: Classical and contemporary responses Marblehead, MA: Micah Publications Maimonides, Moses 1963 A guide for the perplexed, S Pines, trans Chicago: University of Chicago Press Maimonides, Moses (volumes published at various dates) Maimonides’ Code (Mishneh Torah) (Various trans.) New Haven: Yale University Press Schochet, Elijah Judah 1984 Animal life in Jewish tradition: Attitudes and relationships New York: Ktav Publishing Berel Dov Lerner RELIGION AND ANIMALS: JUDAISM AND ANIMAL SACRIFICE During biblical times animal sacrifice or zebach was practiced as part of Jewish religious observance As happened in so many other religions at the time, domesticated animals were offered to God as an institutionalized means of relief from the impurity generated by human violations of moral rules or purity taboos The animals selected for sacrifice were those that were deemed useful to humans, and both anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism can be seen in the description of these animals and not others as pleasing to God The well-known “Thou shall not kill” was not thereby violated because, in the Hebrew tradition, this moral rule is interpreted as “Thou shall not kill un- lawfully.” Methods for lawful killing are defined by the Torah, which contains a written code with 613 laws of ethical human behavior, and by the later oral tradition and rabbinical commentary The practice of animal sacrifice was discontinued after the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in 70 ce, although Orthodox Jewish prayer books to this day ask for a reestablishment of the temple sacrifices Another view of sacrifice appears in the criticism of the tradition, although in this criticism of sacrifice there was little emphasis on the obvious point that it was cruel to the individual animal Maimonides, a 12th-century Jewish philosopher, argued that sacrifices were a concession to barbarism Some modern theologians continue to argue that sacrifice in its way represented respect for animal life A more balanced observation is that sacrifice does not necessarily involve a low view of the sacrificed animals’ lives (Linzey, Christianity and the Rights of Animals, p 41) This is plausible, given that the tradition contains powerful passages recognizing that the blood of humans and animals is sacred (for example, Leviticus 17:10) Ultimately, Judaism moved away from the practice of animal sacrifice, although there remain rules governing ritual slaughter or shechita by a specially trained religious functionary called a shochet when an animal is killed for food purposes The occurrence of these instrumental uses of animals and the ultimate rejection of the old sacrificial practices are of limited value in assessing Judaism’s views of animals, as they deal with only a few domestic animals Far more helpful in assessing Jewish views of animals is an evaluation of the ways in which Jews in their diverse communities have treated