This sheet on Genesis 9 was written by Shmuly Yanklowitz for 929 and can also be found here
How do we repair the broken state of humanity’s relationship to all of God’s creatures? In the Garden of Eden, no animal was eaten. Yet, humanity failed and God permitted a circumscribed allowance of flesh: “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, in everything that moves on earth and in the fish of the sea; in your hand they are given” (Genesis 9:2).
Contrast this concern for animals with how we slaughter God’s creatures today. In 2015, over nine billion land animals were slaughtered for food purposes. It’s estimated that in 2009, 4.8 billion pounds of fish were consumed in the United States alone. And every day, 50 million animals lose their lives for human use. Can any heart remain unmoved in the face of such shocking figures, and the ensuing, incalculable moral suffering?
Though cruelty flourished, Noah could not have imagined a world without animals existing in it. The Midrash teaches that Noah not only heroically saved two from each species by giving them shelter on the ark, but for all those weeks, he would run tirelessly from one to the next to give them proper care. The rabbis suggest that Noah and his sons didn’t sleep at all since they were so preoccupied with the needs of the animals (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 9). Reading the story of the flood each year reminds us that to live in a redeemed world, we must prioritize care for the most vulnerable sentient beings on our planet.
Let Noah be our model, for the rabbis considered Noah righteous precisely because of his care for animals (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 4). Today, let’s follow Noah’s compassionate spirit to end the rampant abuse and neglect shown to animals. Even more so, let us, as fervently committed Jews, return to the Garden of Eden and a world where eating sentient beings is not imaginable but anathema. We are to be a people of mercy and compassion, which the rabbis consider to be essential characteristics of the Jewish soul (BT Beitzah 32b).
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the President & Dean of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek
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