Further Rabbinical Pet Dilemmas
Jan, 2019
As we know –and we discussed last week in some detail-people become very attached to their pets, and sometimes rabbanim are approached with issues relating to pets in ways both fascinating and unusual.
My kids have always wanted a pet. I always answer them in the negative, explaining that there are just too many halachik issues in owning a dog or other animal –from feeding it before we eat, to complicated shailos of muktzah, and beyond. However, privately I explain to my wife that aside for those concerns, I have another: having a pet is an invitation to tragedy. The kids will fall in love with their pet, and yet the pet is destined to die in a matter of a few short years. I just do not wish to deal with that trauma and drama!
Rabbi Shalom Hochberg, the wonderful rav of the neighboring shul of mine, shared with me the following story.
A family in his shul had a pet dog for a number of years. This dog was a part of their family life. They took it on walks every day, the kids played with it when home for school, and went along on family trips.
After close to a decade of having their wonderful dog, its time came and it passed away.
Not knowing how to deal with this loss –and in particular, how to inform their children when they arrived home soon after school –they called their rav for an eitzah.
Rabbi Hochberg, a sweet, sincere and caring man, said he will come over and speak to the children.
As he was repeating this story to me, I wondered what he would say to the kids, what role could a rabbi possibly have in this case?
What he decided upon doing was nothing short of brilliant.
After hugging the children, he took out a perek shirah, which describes the assorted pesukim and praises that various entities and animals sing and praise to Hashem.
He slowly explained each one, with the knowledge that he was building up to the final entry in perek shirah –the kelav/dog.
“kelavim omrim, ‘bo’u nishtachaveh v’nichra’ah nivrichah lifnei Hashem oseinu’” “The dogs say ‘Come, let us prostrate ourselves and bow down; let us kneel before Hashem, our Maker.’”
He then asked that the each of the children separately read that entry. One after the other, each child read from that segment of perek shira through some tears. Rabbi Hochberg then embraced each child once more and left.
The children, now grown up, have never forgotten that special moment with their rav, and how Torah and mesorah helped comfort them.
Pet dogs may have a most ancient history in yiddeshkeit.
The pasuk tells us that after Kayin killed his brother Hevel Hashem placed a sign or mark upon him (Bereishis 4:15). The Midrash cites a number of views as to what this ‘sign’ was. Rashi, for example, quotes the view that Hashem etched His name unto the forehead of Kayin. The Midrash (Berishis Rabba 22) lists many other opinions as to what precisely was this sign. One of the views brought there is curious, to say the least.
“Rav said: Hashem gave Kayin a (pet) dog”.
What an astounding midrash! How would this be a punishment for the killing of his brother?!
I heard a wonderful original idea in the name of the famed orator Rav Yissachar Frand, which I later discovered was also offered by the Choftez Chaim. There is no animal as loyal as a dog. As the saying goes, “Dogs are man’s best friend”. Kayin should have been by his brother’s side always, fighting for him, defending him, and certainly not harming him. The greatest constant reminder of what he should have been for his brother was to have the loyal dog next to him for the rest of his life. It was as if he had a constant rebuke by his side, “this is what type of brother you should have been!”
I have on more than one occasion been approached couples debating if they should buy a dog. “Does hashkafa or halacha have anything to add to our discussion?” they ask.
I share with them that, in fact, the gemara itself discusses the idea of owning a dog (Bava Kama 83) and warns against owing an evil dog, that could potentially cause damage and scare-off people, and even cause a miscarriage, R’l.
As a side point, I have always felt that gemara may be the source of the mingag that some have of pregnant women not visiting the zoo.
While Rav Yaakov Emden (Sheilas Yaavetz) discourages ever owning a pet dog unless it serves a very specific purpose, the Shulchan Aruch (c’m 409:3) and most others only warn against dangerous or evil dogs.
Each spouse walks away hearing from my response what they wish to hear.
But we live in strange times, and its one thing to believe that we have what to learn from all of Hashem’s creations, and another to turn pets into a member of the family. According to a Harris poll, 95% of pet owners view their dog as a member of their family! Even more disturbing, is a poll recorded several years ago in The Wall Street Journal:
“A recent paper by Richard Topolski at George Regents University and colleagues, published in the journal Anthrozoos, demonstrates this human involvement with pets to a startling extent. Participants in the study were told a hypothetical scenario in which a bus is hurtling out of control, bearing down on a dog and a human. Which do you save? With responses from more than 500 people, the answer was that it depended: What kind of human and what kind of dog? Everyone would save a sibling, grandparent or close friend rather than a strange dog. But when people considered their own dog versus people less connected with them — a distant cousin or a hometown stranger — votes in favor of saving the dog came rolling in. And an astonishing 40 percent of respondents, including 46 percent of women, voted to save their dog over a foreign tourist.”
Whoa!
We saw the seeds of this shift in culture about twenty-years ago when The New York Times published an article that could only be classified as Purim Torah. Instead of copying here what they reported, I will instead include a response to that article that they received:
To the Editor:
I was surprised that The Times would publish an article about a woman who arranges parties known as ”bark mitzvahs” (On the Map, Jan. 5). She indicates that she provides everything, including a tallis, or prayer shawl, which I assume is draped over the dog.
This is nothing less than a desecration of a cherished Jewish tradition and degrades some of the central principles of Jewish life. I urge readers to reject such practices.
I enjoy a good time as much as the next person. But not at the expense of religious traditions that need strengthening, not desecrating.
This letter was signed by a Reform rabbi. Sadly, now twenty-years later, and as the earlier poll indicated, I am not convinced that a reform Jew–always moving in whatever direction the winds of culture happen to be blowing – will still recognize the sheer ridiculousness, and even disgusting nature of such a ceremony.
Indeed, it is the dog itself that reminds us of this lesson. Chazal teach (Sanhedrin 97) that “U’pnei Hador K’pnei Ha’kelev –the face of the generation (before Moshiach’s arrival) will be like the face of a dog”
Rav Yitzchok Volozion explained that just like a dog will loyally chase after a stick that is thrown, so too will some Jews chase after whatever culture throws their way.
Let us instead always use the Torah alone as our yardstick of morality.
Shul Chronicles 
Leave a comment