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tag: domesticated animals Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? In the period following the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, rabbinic Jewish liturgy reïfied the teaching to replace sacrificial offerings with offerings of the lips (per Psalms 51:18) by directly quoting those verses from the Torah dictating those sacrifices. This formula is evident in the the blessing meqadesh hashabbat for the musaf Shabbat Amidah, in which the musaf offering is invoked directly via Numbers 28:9, while blessing Hashem, hallower of the Shabbat. For this blessing, my ḥavrutah Jonathan Schachter would remind those davvening with him musaf that they could follow the recitation of this verse with that of Hosea 14:3, our oldest scriptural witness to a counter-tradition of prayer as a surrogate for animal sacrifice. We offer this amendment to the Shabbat musaf Amidah as a corrective to the notion that the return of the Temple cult must necessarily bring a return of animal sacrifice and to bolster long extant Jewish traditions that regard with love and dignify with inclusion all those tame animals (behemot) within our shabbat boundaries as respected members of our community (find Deuteronomy 5:14). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is a portion of the tenth gate from ספר תחכמוני Sefer Taḥkemoni of Yehudah Al-Harizi (ca. 1179-1235), narrated by The Farmer. The transcription and English translation was made by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. Isaac adds, “While Israel Davidson in Parody in Jewish Literature (1907) considered this satire, the imagery of a rooster so desperate not to be killed and eaten that he is begging humans to kill and eat his children instead is horrifying.” This is a kavvanah for kosher slaughterers to say prior to the blessing over sheḥitah, first published in the early 18th century, and composed within the school of the ARI z”l. Categories: Tags: 18th century C.E., 55th century A.M., בהמות behemot, domesticated animals, גלגול נפשות gilgul nefashot, Lurianic, Lurianic Kabbalah, Mazal Taleh, Ottoman Jewry, post-Temple animal slaughter, reincarnation, school of the ARI z"l, שחיטה sheḥitah, Smyrna, transmigration of souls Contributor(s): This is a prayer for the welfare of domesticated animals (behemot), specifically cattle. “Tefilat mashbit milḥamot v’ha-dever min ha-behemot” (HUC MS 465) was composed by an unknown author, sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century, and possibly in a Jewish community in Italy. The text contains the following clues: 1) a prayer for a local Duke (instead of the Emperor Napoleon), 2) mention of warfare, and 3) mention of some variety of epizootic contagious disease among cattle. Rinderpest, known since ancient times, is the most likely candidate for the latter, especially in Italy in the 18th century (where it was first described by early veterinary science) but it was also in Europe following the defeat of Napoleon. While typhus and hoof-and-mouth disease are also possible, Dr. Susan Einbinder, who brought our attention to this prayer via a lecture on epidemic prayers for the HUC Klau Library, notes that the biblical reference to the “bellowing of the cattle” evokes the actual tortuous lived experience of the afflicted animals, and the suffering of their human minders, helpless to relieve them. The tragedy of rinderpest only ended in the 20th century after a concerted multi-national effort to eradicate the disease — one of the earliest modern multinational initiatives to improve the world. (A related disease, Ovine Rinderpest, first described in the 20th century, has not yet been eradicated and affects goats and sheep as well as cattle.) Categories: Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., animal protection, domesticated animals, epizootic contagion, Italian Jewry Contributor(s): This is a prayer for cattle afflicted by an epizootic contagion (in this case, Rinderpest, a/k/a cattle plague), and for the protection of human beings from cholera, prescribed by the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain, Nathan Marcus Adler, and published in The Hebrew Leader (24 November 1865), p. 1. Categories: Tags: 1863–1875 cholera pandemic, 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., animal protection, British Jewry, domesticated animals, English vernacular prayer, epizootic contagion Contributor(s): A prayer for a beloved animal first compiled in English by Aharon N. Varady for Nethaniel Puzael, his family’s cat, in 1994. Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., animals, בהמות behemot, burial service, domesticated animals, Grief, interspecies relationships Contributor(s): A reading for the New Year’s Day for Animals — Rosh haShanah laBehemot — on Rosh Ḥodesh Elul. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., animal protection, animal welfare, animals, בלק Balaq, domesticated animals, giving voice to the voiceless, צער באלי חיים tsa'ar baalei ḥayyim Contributor(s): | ||
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