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Kedoshim ".... And you shall love your fellow as yourself." (19:18) The Tanna (sage of the Mishnah) Hillel said, "'What is hateful to you do not do to your friend.' This is the whole Torah-the rest is commentary." R' Chaim Friedlander, zatzal (died 1986) explained that the basis of our service of Hashem is to see ourselves as His slaves. Our neighbours, too, are Hashem's slaves. If we are all the same and our goal is the same-only to serve Hashem, the possibility of harming another will never cross our minds. (Siftei Chaim p.16) One of the mitzvos in this week's parashah (17:13) is "kisui hadam" covering the blood of certain animals after shechitah. This mitzvah applies to those species that are classified as "chayot" (e.g., deer) and to birds. However, it does not apply to behemot-domesticated animals such as sheep and cows. The Sefer Chassidim (R' Yehuda heChassid; 1150-1217) writes that the reason for kisui hadam is so that the angel which watches over wildlife will not see the blood and complain that the innocent animals under his charge are being murdered. Why is this a concern only regarding birds and not regarding behemot? R' Chaim Eliezer Shapiro (the Munkatcher Rebbe) zatz'l writes that Hashem permitted the eating of animals and birds because by doing so one makes the animal or bird part of himself. Thus, one raises the slaughtered creature from the lower level of spirituality which a non-human organism possesses to the human's much higher level. However, this is the case only if the creature is eaten for the express purpose of achieving spirituality; if the one eating is a rasha and eats only to fulfil his gluttonous desires, then the animal's spirituality is not raised. One person cannot eat a sheep or cow; it is therefore inevitable that at least one person who will possess the proper intent will eat some part of the animal. Thus, the blood of a cow or sheep need not be covered because one who slaughters one of those animals is doing it a favour. One person, however, can eat a bird, if he does not eat it properly, the angel that watches over the birds will complain. (Divrei Torah II 103) R' Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook zatz'l notes a common thread which connects kisui hadam with the shemittah, particularly with the law that the fruits of shemittah may not be eaten by humans after the time of year when they are no longer available in the wild for animals. Both of these laws increase our sensitivity towards animals, which, in turn, refines our souls. [Note that sensitivity towards animals is not an end in itself-see Ramban, Devarim 22:6.] In particular, man must understand that it is not might, i.e., man's ability to kill animals at will, which makes man superior to other living things. Rather, it is man's ethical sensibilities and pursuits, which make him the superior creature. (Orot haMitzvot) Many commentaries struggle with understanding one of the details of this mitzvah, specifically: why are the creatures that we call "beheimot" (i.e., cows, sheep, and goats) exempted from this law? The answer of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook zatz'l may be summarised as follows: Man is permitted to eat meat, but such is not his ideal state. Indeed, before the Flood, eating meat was prohibited. The mitzvah of kisui ha'dam should ingrain in man that he should hesitate to spill the blood of a living being for his own use; only man's lowly state makes this permitted. Man does not feel the same way about slaughtering cows, sheep, and goats as he does about slaughtering wild animals and birds. After all, the same man who sends the former to the shochet has raised them from their infancy. He thus feels-to some extent correctly-that he is entitled to use them as he sees fit. The best tool for reminding man of the darker side of eating meat is an animal over which he does not feel such lordship, explains Rav Kook. Does this mean that man should stop eating meat? No, says Rav Kook. No one ever attained the status of "chassid" (pious one) through undertaking stringencies for which he was not ready. First man must fulfil what the Torah requires. (Ein Ayah, Shabbat II:15) |
