Judaism and Animal Welfare: Overview and Some Questions

Writers about Judaism have often extolled its humaneness towards animals: from Josephus, who wrote of Moses, “So thorough a lesson has he given us in gentleness and humanity that he does not overlook even the brute beasts, authorizing their use only in accordance with the Law, and forbidding all other employment of them,”¹ to Joseph Hertz, who saw in its consideration for animals a characteristic of the Hebrew Bible that has been strangely overlooked in most ethical systems, not excluding Christianity.² In these eulogies there is much truth but also some exaggeration. Not everything in the Jewish garden is lovely,