Dear DAF:

I have been studying your daf yomis since Nedarim 45 as part of my study persuant to Orthodox conversion in about a year's time, and all I have learned is fascinating -- with the exception of the following background from Nazir 25a --

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b) [line 22] VELAD CHATAS, HU D'GEMIRIN BAH MISAH (CHAMESH CHATA'OS MESOS) There are five Chata'os that are put to death by locking them up without food until they die: 1. The offspring of a Chatas 2 . The Temurah (see Background to Yoma 50:10) of a Chatas 3. A Chatas, the owner of which has died 4. A Chatas of a sheep or goat that became a year old (and is therefore invalid as a Korban Chatas), the owner of which brought a different Chatas to atone for his sins 5. A Chatas that was lost and was later found with a Mum, the owner of which brought a different Chatas to atone for his sins (Temurah 21b)

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I had pride (even though not yet a Jew) in the humane way that sacrifices were dispatched (and, too, in the swift, nearly painless ritual slaughter of kosher animals). Humaneness toward animals, I have been taught, is a Mitzvah every bit as important as the Mitzvah relating to other people in our environment.

I was therefore shocked and saddened to learn that the above animals intended for sacrifice, but no longer able to be offered ritually, were starved and dehydrated to death!

Can you offer some justification or additional mitigating background for this? I find no reference in the Written Torah that mandates this treatment, and I find it difficult to believe that this is a valid oral tradition, from Moshe or anyone else - as it goes so much against the grain of the rest of Torah that I have learned, and against the Judaic "heart".

Thank you,

B'H

Rob Shaw, Altus, OK USA

Animals exist for the service of mankind and are for food or sacrifice or for other positive function. This includes the performance of Mitzvos and also reasonable experimentation for medical purposes for the benefit of mankind (Rema, Even ha'Ezer 5:14).

Thus, the goat to Azazel of the Avodah on Yom Kipur (Vayikra 1610) was necessary for the sake of Hash-m's commandment, however cruel it might seem to us. Another good example is in the Shulchan Orech, Yoreh Deah 24:8, Rema and Shach (#8), quoting the Mordechai and others, and see also the Pri Megadim in Sifsei Da'as there, regarding plucking the wool or feathers from an animal that interfere with the Shechitah.

It should be noted also that the Noda b'Yehudah (Mahadura Tinyana, YD #10) holds that Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim, the prohibition against cruelty to animals, has no application where the animal is being put to death. Others, though, disagree.

Hence, there is no problem with Chato'os ha'Meisos, as there is no alternative possibility with sound Halachic reasons as to what to do with the animal. (Since it is being left to starve for the sake of serving a Halachic purpose as mandated by G-d, it is not considered Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim.)

However, where these considerations do not apply, one is certainly obligated to treat animals with kindness, as a number of sources in the Gemara and Halachah clearly indicate. Moreover, apart from all of the specific Mitzvos in the Torah (such as lifting the heavy burden off of an animal that has fallen down, the prohibition against muzzling an animal to prevent it from eating while working, letting one's animal rest from work on Shabbos, the prohibition against working two different types of animals together, the requirement to feed one's animals first before eating, and Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim), there is the general overriding principle of emulating G-d's trait of "v'Rachamav Al Kol Ma'asav," Hash-m "is merciful upon all of His creations."

Joseph Pearlman