Outline for a New Year for Animals (Aleph b’Elul) Seder

The Seder will be divided into four parts. Each part will end with the drinking of a cup of grape juice or wine and the eating of a vegan food. If conducted via Zoom, drinking and eating would be optional and up to each participant. Since the entire Seder should be about 90 minutes, each of the four parts should be about 20 minutes, leaving some time for opening and closing statements by the moderator. Thus, the moderator should decide which quotations should be read and discussed.

The Seder will start with a brief introduction by the moderator.

Part 1 consists of the reading by the participants of some of the following Jewish quotations about the proper treatment of animals, with brief discussions of some of them.

1. “A righteous person regards the life of his or her animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”     Proverbs 12:10

2. “The Lord is good to all, and His compassion is over all His works.”  Psalms 145:9

3. “The tzaddik (righteous person) acts according to the laws of justice; not only does he act according to these laws with human beings, but also with animals.” The Malbim

4. “Living creatures possess a soul and a certain spiritual superiority which in this respect make them similar to those who possess intellect (people) and have the power of affecting their welfare and their food and they flee from pain and death.”     Nachmanides, commentary on Genesis 1:29

5. “There is no difference between the pain of humans and the pain of other living beings since the love and tenderness of the mother for the young are not produced by reasoning, but by feeling, and this faculty exists not only in humans but in most living beings.”     Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed

6. “For that which befalls the sons of men befalls animals; even one thing befalls them; as the one dies, so dies the other; yes, they all have one breath; so that man has no preeminence above an animal; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are of the dust. Who knows the spirit of men whether it goes upward; and the spirit of the animal whether it goes downward to the earth?”     Ecclesiastes 3:19-21

7. “It is forbidden, according to the law of the Torah, to inflict pain upon any living creature. On the contrary, it is our duty to relieve the pain of any creature, even if it is ownerless or belongs to a non Jew.”      Code of Jewish Law

8. “When horses, drawing a cart, come to a rough road or a steep hill, and it is hard for them to draw the cart without help, it is our duty to help them, even when they belong to a non-Jew, because of the precept not to be cruel to animals, lest the owner smite them to force them to draw more than their strength permits.”     Code of Jewish Law

9. “It is forbidden to tie the legs of a beast or of a bird in a manner as to cause them pain.”     Code of Jewish Law

10. “While our teacher Moses was tending the flock of Jethro in the wilderness a kid ran away from him. He ran after the kid until it reached Hasuah. Upon reaching Hasuah, the kid came upon a body of water and began to drink. When Moses reached him he said,  ‘I did not know that you were running because [you were] thirsty. You must be tired.’ He placed the kid on his shoulder and began to walk. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘You are compassionate in leading flocks belonging to mortals; I swear you will similarly shepherd my flock, Israel.’”     Midrash Exodus Rabbah 2:2

11 “As God is merciful, so you also be merciful. As he loves and cares for all His creatures and His children and are related to Him, because He is their Father, so you also love all His creatures as your brethren. Let their joys be your joys, and their sorrows yours. Love them and with every power which God gives you, work for their welfare and benefit, because they are the children of your God, because they are your brothers and sisters.”

     Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter 72, Section 482.

12. Here you are faced with God’s teaching, which obliges you not only to refrain from inflicting unnecessary pain on any animal, but to help and, when you can, to lessen the pain whenever you see an animal suffering, even through no fault of yours.”      Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter 60, Section 416.

13. “There are probably no creatures that require more the protective Divine word against the presumption of man than the animals, which like man have sensations and instincts, but whose body and powers are nevertheless subservient to man. In relation to them man so easily forgets that injured animal muscle twitches just like human muscle, that the maltreated nerves of an animal sicken like human nerves, that the animal being is just as sensitive to cuts, blows, and beating as man. Thus man becomes the torturer of the animal soul.”   Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter 60, Section 415

14. “Therefore, compassion for all creatures, including animals, is not only God’s business; it is a virtue that we too must emulate. Moreover, compassion must not be viewed as an isolated phenomenon, one of a number of religious duties in the Judaic conception of the Divine service. It is central to our entire approach to life.”

      Rabbi David Sears in The Vision of Eden: Animal Welfare and Vegetarianism in Jewish Law and Mysticism

This will be followed by the drinking of a cup of grape juice or wine and the eating of a fruit, preceded by proper blessings led by the moderator. Again, the eating and drinking would be optional if the Seder is on Zoom.

Part 2 involves the participants reading some of the following verses with biblical teachings about compassion for animals, with brief discussions of some of them.

1. “You shall not muzzle the ox when he threshes out the corn.”

     Deuteronomy 25:4

2. “You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together.”  Deuteronomy 22:10

3.  Animals, as well as people, must be allowed to rest on the Sabbath day. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord, your God; in it you shall not do any manner of work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates.” (Exodus 20:8–10)

4. Based on the question of the angel of God to Bilaam, “Why have you hit your donkey these three times?” (Numbers 22:32), the Talmud states that animals are to be treated humanely. [tsa’ar ba’alei chaim]

5. Based on Deuteronomy 11:15, “And I will give grass in the fields for your cattle and you shall eat and be satisfied,” the Talmud teaches that a Jew should not eat before first feeding his or her animals.

6. Animals should not be allowed to suffer discomfort from a heavy burden.

“If you see the ass of him who hates you fallen due to its burden, you shall surely not pass him by; you shall surely unload it with him.”   Exodus 23:5

7. We must be vigilant concerning the well-being of a lost animal. “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep driven away and hide yourself from them; you shall surely bring them back unto your brother.” (Deuteronomy 22:1)

8. “If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.” Deuteronomy 27:6

This will be followed by the drinking of a 2nd cup of grape juice or wine and the eating of a vegetable, preceded by a blessing over the vegetable. No need for further blessings over the grape juice or wine.

Part 3 involves the participants reading some of the following verses about various aspects of Jewish teachings related to animals, vegetarianism, and veganism, with brief discussions of some of them.

God’s Original Dietary Law

1. And God said: “Behold, I have given you every herb-yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit – to you it shall be for food.”    Genesis 1:29

2. God did not permit Adam and his wife to kill a creature to eat its flesh. Only every green herb shall they all eat together.”    Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 1:29

3. “You are permitted to use the animals and employ them for work, have dominion over them in order to utilize their services for your subsistence, but must not hold their life cheap nor slaughter them for food. Your natural diet is vegetarian.”

Moses Cassuto (1883 -1951) in his commentary From Adam to Noah

4. “Adam was not permitted meat for purposes of eating.”

     Sanhedrin 59b

5. “The high moral level in the vegetarianism of the generations before Noah is a virtue of such value that it cannot be lost forever. In the future ideal state, just as in the initial period, people and animals will not eat flesh. No one shall hurt nor destroy another living creature. People’s lives will not be supported at the expense of the lives of animals.

       Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, in A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace

 Messianic Times

1. “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

And the calf and the young lion and the falling together;

And a little child shall lead them

And the cow and the bear shall feed;

Their young ones shall lie down together,

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox . . . .

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain…”

     Isaiah 11:6-9

2. “The progress of dynamic ideals will not be eternally blocked. Through general, moral and intellectual advancement… shall the latent aspiration of justice for the animal kingdom come out into the open, when the time is ripe.”

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace

Covenants With Animals

1. ”As for me,” says the Lord, “behold I establish My Covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the fowl, the cattle, and every animal of the earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every animal of the earth.”      Genesis 9: 9-10

2. “And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the animals of the field and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land and I will make them to lie down safely.”     Hosea 2:20

Prophets’ Views on Sacrifices

1. “For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, saying, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.”      Jeremiah 7:22 -23

2. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”     Hosea 6:6

3. ”To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?” says the Lord. “I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs or of he-goats. . . bring no more vain oblations… Your new moon and your appointed feasts my soul hates; … and when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.” Isaiah 1:11-16

4. “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from me the noise of your song; and let Me not hear the melody of your psalteries. But let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”  Amos 5:21- 24

5. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow before God on high?

Shall I come before God with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my first born for my transgression,m the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you

Only to do justice, to love mercy. and walk humbly with your God.”

7.  Reinforcing the above material are the words of Israeli Orthodox rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: 

Does Judaism really need animal sacrifices? Would it not be better off without them? After all, the sacrificial cult compromises Judaism. What does a highly ethical religion have to do with the collection of blood in vessels and the burning of animal limbs on an altar? 

     No doubt Judaism should be sacrifice-free. Yet it is not. . . . How much more beautiful the Torah would be without sacrifices. 

If Judaism had the chance, it would have dropped the entire institution of sacrifices in a second. Better yet, it would have had no part in it to begin with. How much more beautiful the Torah would be without sacrifices! How wonderful it would be if a good part of Sefer Vayikra [the portion of the Torah that refers initially to sacrifices] were removed from the biblical text, or had never been there in the first place.

 Attitudes Toward Vegetarianism and Veganism

1. “The removal of blood which kashrut teaches is one of the most powerful means of making us constantly aware of the concession and compromise which the whole act of eating meat, in reality, is. Again, it teaches us reverence for life.”

Samuel Dresner, The Jewish Dietary Laws, 29

2. “Apparently the Torah was in principle opposed to the eating of meat. When Noah and his descendants were permitted to eat meat this was a concession conditional on the prohibition of the blood. This prohibition implied respect for the principle of life (“for the blood is the life”) and an allusion to the fact that in reality all meat should have been prohibited. This partial prohibition was designed to call to mind the previously total one.”

    Rabbi Moses Cassutto, quoted by Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Genesis, 77.

3. “The Torah teaches a lesson in moral conduct, that man shall not eat meat unless he has a special craving for it… and shall eat it only occasionally and sparingly.”   Chulin 84a

4. “Only a scholar of Torah may eat meat, but one who is ignorant of Torah is forbidden to eat meat.”    Sanhedrin 49b

5. “What was the necessity for the entire procedure of ritual slaughter? For the sake of self discipline. It is far more appropriate for man not to eat meat; only if he has a strong desire for meat does the Torah permit it, and even this only after the trouble and inconvenience necessary to satisfy his desire. Perhaps because of the bother and annoyance of the whole procedure, he will be restrained from such a strong and uncontrollable desire for meat.”

    Rabbi Solomon Efraim Lunchitz, Kli Yakar

6. “Accordingly, the laws of kashrut come to teach us that a Jew’s first preference should be a vegetarian meal. If, however, one cannot control a craving for meat, it should be kosher meat, which would serve as a reminder that the animal being eaten is a creature of God, that the death of such a creature cannot be taken lightly, that hunting for sport is forbidden, that we cannot treat any living thing callously, and that we are responsible for what happens to other beings (human or animal) even if we did not personally come into contact with them.”

     Rabbi Pinchas Peli, Torah Today, Washington, D.C.: B’nai B’rith Books, 1987, 118.

This will be followed by the drinking a 3rd cup of grape juice or wine and the eating of some nuts. The blessing for nuts is  the same as that for fruit so no further blessing is needed.

Part 4 involves the reading by the participant of some of the following verses about the current treatment of animals and how they violate the above teachings

1. “How far have we the right to take our domination of the animal world? Have we the right to rob them of all pleasure in life simply to make more money more quickly out of their carcasses? Have we the right to treat living creatures solely as food converting machines? At what point do we acknowledge cruelty?

     Farm animals have always been exploited by man in that

he rears them specifically for food. But until recently they were individuals, allowed their birthright of green fields, sunlight, and fresh air; they were allowed to forage, to exercise, to watch the world go by, in fact to live. Even at its worst . . . the animal had\some enjoyment in life before it died. Today the exploitation has been taken to a degree that involves not only the elimination of all enjoyment, the frustration of all natural instincts, but replacement with acute discomfort, boredom, and the actual denial of health. It has been taken to a degree where the animal is not allowed to live before it dies.”

     Ruth Harrison Animal Machines, London, Vincent Street, 1964, 3.

3. “Every year millions of animals are born and bred for the sole purpose of satisfying those who like the taste of meat. Their lives vary in length from a few weeks to a few years; most live a fraction of the time they would in more natural conditions. They die in slaughterhouses where, if the tranquilizers have their effect, they know only a few moments of the awful fear of death before they are stunned and their throats cut. This is what all meat-eaters actively support, for there would be no batteries, no sweatboxes, no need to castrate male animals or artificially inseminate females, no cattle markets and no slaughterhouses if there was no one insensitive enough to buy their products.”

     John Harris, “Killing for Food,” in Animals, Men, and Morals, S. R. Godolovith and John Harris, editors. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1972, 98.

4. “Aren’t humans amazing? They kill wildlife—birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.

     Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them.

     This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative—and fatal—health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer. So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases.

     Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.

     Meanwhile, few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once a year send out cards praying for’Peace on Earth.’”

     C. David Coats, in the preface of his book, Old McDonald’s Factory Farm.

5. “It seems doubtful from all that has been said whether the Torah would sanction factory farming, which treats animals as machines, with apparent insensitivity to their natural needs and instincts. This is a matter for decision by halachic authorities.”    Rabbi Aryeh Carmell, a twentieth-century Torah scholar who lived in Jerusalem

6. “The current treatment of animals in the livestock trade. definitely renders the consumption of meat as halachically unacceptable as the product of illegitimate means.”  Rabbi David Rosen. This and the next quotations by Rabbi Rosen are from Rabbi David Rosen, “Vegetarianism: An Orthodox Jewish Perspective,” in Rabbis and Vegetarianism: An Evolving Tradition, Roberta Kalechofsky, ed. (Marblehead, MA: MicahPublications, 1995), 53–60. Rabbi Rosen has told me that if he wrte these words today, he would use the word veganism, rather than vegetarianism.

7. “Indeed a central precept regarding the relationship between humans and animals in halacha [ Jewish law] is the prohibition against causing cruelty to animals, tza’ar ba’alei chayim. . .  Practices in the livestock trade today constitute a flagrant violation of this prohibition. I refer not only to the most obvious and outrageous of these, such as the production of veal and goose liver, but also to common practices in the livestock trade, such as hormonal treatment and massive drug dosing.”    Rabbi David Rosen

8. “Today not only are we able to enjoy a healthy balanced vegetarian diet as perhaps never before, and not only are therein fact the above-mentioned compelling halachic reasons for not eating meat, but above all, if we strive for that which Judaism aspires to—namely the ennoblement of the spirit—then avegetarian diet becomes a moral imperative . . . [an] authentic

Jewish ethical dietary way of life for our time and for all times.”

          Rabbi David Rosen

9. “Since when is the actual shechita [ritual slaughter] more important than the laws of tza’ar ba’alei chayim. . . Are not [mistreated farmed animals] as treif (non-kosher) as any other animal that is not slaughtered according to Halacha ( Jewish law)? Can we hide behind the laws of shechita and look the other way when the laws of tzar ba’alei chaim are violated?

     In all honesty: How many of our glatt [strictly] kosher kitchens, including my own, are still truthfully kosher?”   Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Jewish Law as Rebellion: A Plea For Religious Authnticity and Halachic Courage,\\

This will be followed by drinking a fourth cup of grape juice or wine and eating some seeds. The blessing before eating seeds is the same as fruit’s, so no further blessings are necessary.

Concluding comments by the moderator.

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