There is a Torah mitzva not to prevent an animal from eating the produce it is working with, as it is stated (Devarim 25:4): \u201cYou shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.\u201d To separate kernels of grain from the stalks and chaff, people would lead an ox, a heavy animal, back and forth over the sheaves. This act is called threshing: treading and pressing to release the kernels. The Torah forbids muzzling the ox while it threshes, because the smell of the grain rises to its nostrils and it longs to eat; when it tries to eat and meets the muzzle instead, its eyes grow dim with distress. It is not right for the ox to labor on our behalf while we deny it a share in the benefit produced by its labor. Although the Torah mentions an ox, this does not exclude other animals. Rather, the ox is the example of an animal that works with food. Therefore, all domesticated and wild animals that work with produce growing from the ground, whether still attached or already detached, must be allowed to eat from it. This includes the prohibition against preventing a donkey from eating the grain it carries on its back. The exception is food that would harm the animal: if eating it is likely to cause intestinal illness and suffering, one may prevent it from eating, since the restraint is for its benefit (MT, Laws of Hiring 13:1\u20133). If the owner of the ox is concerned for the wheat, he may tie a basket filled with cheap wheat stalks to the ox\u2019s head so that it can eat from them while threshing. Since the prohibition is against causing it suffering, this satisfies the law (ibid. 13:6).<\/p>\n
A related law permits milking cows that are full of milk on Shabbat. Although milking is prohibited by Torah law as the melakha<\/em> of threshing, if the cows are not milked they will suffer greatly; the Sages therefore permitted setting aside a rabbinic prohibition in order to relieve their suffering. The simplest method is to ask a gentile to milk them. If no gentile is available, a Jew may milk the cow and let the milk go to waste, since in that manner the milking does not involve a Torah prohibition (Peninei Halakha: Shabbat<\/em> 20:4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a Torah mitzva not to prevent an animal from eating the produce it is working with, as it is stated (Devarim 25:4): \u201cYou shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.\u201d To separate kernels of grain from the stalks and chaff, people would lead an ox, a heavy animal, back and forth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-15"],"yoast_head":"\n