Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio

In our parashah, Bil’am’s donkey doesn’t get treated very well. When it tries to avoid the angel, Bil’am hits the donkey over and over. The donkey defends itself, and tells Bil’am that the beatings aren’t fair. Then the angel appears to Bil’am, and criticizes Bil’am for mistreating his donkey (Bemidbar 22:32).

There are other places in the Torah where we can also see concern for treating animals properly. For example, in Parashat Mishpatim, the Torah says that if you see an animal struggling under a heavy load, you cannot ignore it. You need to step in and help it, even if the animal belongs to your enemy (this will come up again in Ki Teitzei).

In the Gemara (Bava Metzia 32b), the obligation to prevent animals from suffering is based on a concern called צַעַר בַּעֲלֵי חַיִּים (tza’ar ba’alei hayyim, the suffering of living things). Rambam explains that tza’ar ba’alei hayyim is behind a number of halakhot regarding kashrut. For example, the rules for how to slaughter animals are designed to minimize their pain.

Rambam also explains that the principle of tza’ar ba’alei hayyim is the reason the Torah doesn’t allow us to slaughter an animal and its child on the same day (Vayikra 22:28). This is like the rule that you can’t take eggs from a nest while the mother bird is present (Devarim 22:6). In these cases, Rambam says, if an animal parent sees its child being killed, it suffers tremendously. Rambam even says this emotional pain is no different than the pain that a human being would experience (Moreh Nevukhim 3:48)!

The Rema says that if you have to cause pain to an animal for human health (like maybe to make a medicine), then that is allowed. Still, we should never act with cruelty towards any of God’s creatures (Even Ha-Ezer 5:14).

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