Ask Around Your Shabbos Table

Ask Around Your Shabbos Table

...וּבָּשָּר בַשָּדֶה טְרֵפָּה לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ לַכֶלֶב תַשְלִכוּן אֹתוֹ. [שמות כב:ל]
...and flesh torn in the field you shall not eat; you shall throw it to the dog. [Shemos 22:30]

Ask around your Shabbos table: Typically a sheep gets attacked by a wild animal as a result of the dog that protects the herd not doing its job “well”. If so, why does the Torah tell the shepherd to reward the dog for “a bad job”?

Menucha’s Answer: Although the dog did “a bad job” now, he did “a good job” on many other occasions. The Torah is teaching us a fundamental lesson: Focus on successes. And a time to recall those successes is specifically after a failure.