{"id":12317,"date":"2026-07-14T00:06:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T21:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=12317"},"modified":"2026-08-09T08:31:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T05:31:51","slug":"17-14-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/17-14-06\/","title":{"rendered":"06. Mitzvot of Compassion When Animals Are Slaughtered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"direction: ltr\">Although eating animal flesh is permitted, the Torah guides us through several mitzvot to treat animals with compassion. In doing so, it also directs us to recognize the moral difficulty involved in eating meat, preparing us for the future era when we will no longer eat it. We will briefly review six Torah mitzvot that address this concern.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The first is the prohibition against eating a limb from a living animal (<em>ever min ha-\u1e25ai<\/em>). The cruelty is clear: one may not take flesh from a creature still in pain, let alone eat it. This mitzva applies to Noa\u1e25\u2019s descendants as well. Although they may eat any living creature and do not require <em>she\u1e25ita<\/em>, they may take meat from it only after it has died.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The second is the mitzva of <em>she\u1e25ita<\/em>. We are commanded to slaughter an animal at the neck, and any animal that has not undergone <em>she\u1e25ita<\/em> is a <em>neveila<\/em> and forbidden to eat. This law applies to birds and wild animals as well. Although <em>she\u1e25ita<\/em> is a divine statute whose full reason we do not understand, it clearly expresses compassion, as will be explained below (18:3). Birds are less developed than domesticated and wild animals, and therefore the Torah requires only one of the two <em>simanim<\/em> to be cut. Fish and locusts, whose brains and nervous systems are less developed, and whose experience of pain is presumably more limited, require no <em>she\u1e25ita<\/em> at all. The prohibition against eating a limb from a living animal also does not apply to them (below, 15:1, principle 2; 17:7\u20138; 18:11).<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The third is the prohibition against eating the blood of domesticated animals, wild animals, and birds. <em>Sefer ha-\u1e24inukh<\/em> explains that eating blood is especially cruel, because an animal\u2019s blood resembles human blood, and its life-force is bound up with it (<em>Sefer ha-\u1e24inukh<\/em>, mitzva 148).<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The fourth is the mitzva to cover the blood of a wild animal or bird after <em>she\u1e25ita<\/em> (below, 18:9\u201310). There is an element of cruelty in eating meat while the animal\u2019s blood lies spilled on the ground. Additionally, covering the blood expresses a certain shame over the fact that we must slaughter animals in order to eat their flesh.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The fifth is the prohibition against slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day (below, 18:8). Although we are permitted to slaughter an animal for food, the Torah commanded us not to slaughter a mother animal and its young on the same day, as doing so contains an element of cruelty (<em>Sefer ha-\u1e24inukh<\/em>, mitzva 294). There is also concern that the slaughterer might kill the young in front of its mother, or the mother in front of its young, thereby greatly increasing their suffering (<em>Moreh Nevukhim<\/em> 3:48).<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">The sixth is the mitzva of sending away the mother bird. According to many commentators, this mitzva too is meant to prevent the mother\u2019s suffering (below, chapter 16).<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">We see, then, that although the Torah permitted us to eat meat, it sought to prevent that permission from making us cruel or indifferent to animal suffering. It therefore gave us several mitzvot that limit animals\u2019 pain and keep us from adding to it unnecessarily (see below, 15:9, regarding cruelty to animals in the food industry).<sup><a id=\"_te01ftnref14_3\" class=\"aup1\" href=\"#_te01ftn14_3\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr style=\"direction: ltr\" size=\"1\" \/>\n<div style=\"direction: ltr\"><a id=\"_te01ftn14_3\" href=\"#_te01ftnref14_3\">[3]<\/a>. Some claim that eating meat today is dangerous to one\u2019s health, because animals are raised in unnatural conditions and are injected with various medications that may endanger health. Such claims must be examined with great seriousness by the relevant experts: physicians and scientific researchers. When experts disagree, halakha follows the majority of recognized medical experts. Therefore, since the accepted view among physicians and researchers is that moderate meat consumption has health benefits, while practitioners of alternative medicine maintain that meat should not be eaten, the halakha follows the majority of physicians and researchers. Beyond being the majority, they are also considered the greater experts, since their conclusions are based on serious studies. Still, if a person is personally convinced that the alternative view is correct, it is proper for him to follow it, unless physicians maintain that by doing so he would be harming himself (see SA, O\u1e24 618; Rema 618:4; <em>Mateh Efrayim<\/em> 618:3; MB 618:12; AHS, O\u1e24 618:5\u20136). Some argue that physicians and researchers are biased by various interests. This is a grave accusation. Many of us personally know physicians and researchers, and we know them to be God-fearing people who seek truth in their research.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although eating animal flesh is permitted, the Torah guides us through several mitzvot to treat animals with compassion. In doing so, it also directs us to recognize the moral difficulty involved in eating meat, preparing us for the future era when we will no longer eat it. We will briefly review six Torah mitzvot that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-14"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>06. Mitzvot of Compassion When Animals Are Slaughtered - Peninei Halakha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/17-14-06\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"06. Mitzvot of Compassion When Animals Are Slaughtered - Peninei Halakha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although eating animal flesh is permitted, the Torah guides us through several mitzvot to treat animals with compassion. In doing so, it also directs us to recognize the moral difficulty involved in eating meat, preparing us for the future era when we will no longer eat it. We will briefly review six Torah mitzvot that [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/17-14-06\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Peninei Halakha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-13T21:06:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-09T05:31:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u05e6\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05d0\u05ea\u05e8\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u05e6\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05d0\u05ea\u05e8\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ph.yhb.org.il\\\/en\\\/17-14-06\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ph.yhb.org.il\\\/en\\\/17-14-06\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\u05e6\u05d5\u05d5\u05ea \u05d4\u05d0\u05ea\u05e8\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ph.yhb.org.il\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7866b763cf3f205e4ae075eebce0d674\"},\"headline\":\"06. 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