Dog’s best friend
“I would like to eat an apple. Must I first feed Fido?”
An anonymous questioner asked the great eighteenth-century halachic authority, Rav Yaakov Emden, whether one may eat before feeding his dog or cat. The Yaavetz (She’eilas Yaavetz #17), an acronym by which Rav Emden was often called, responded that he is uncertain as to why the questioner thought that dogs and cats should be treated differently from any other of G-d’s creatures. He then suggests two reasons that might explain why the questioner thought that one may eat before feeding one’s dog or cat. Each of these reasons requires an introduction.
Beheimah versus chayah
For certain laws, the Torah divides animals into two categories, beheimos and chayos. These two categories defy a clear translation in English, although often beheimos are called domesticated animal species and chayos are called wild species. Rav Yaakov Emden suggested that perhaps the questioner thought that the requirement to feed your animals before you eat applies only to species of animal that qualify as beheimah and not to those that are chayah, and that the questioner thought that both dogs and cats are categorized as chayos, thereby exempting the owner from the obligation of feeding his animals before eating. The Yaavetz does agree that both dogs and cats are categorized as chayos — the Mishnah (Kelayim 8:6) quotes a dispute between Rabbi Meir and the Sages as to whether a dog is considered a chayah or a beheimah. According to the Sages, whose ruling is the halachic conclusion, dogs qualify as chayos, and the Yaavetz endeavors to demonstrate that cats also qualify as chayos.
However, the Yaavetz notes that the prohibition to eat before feeding your animals applies equally to beheimos and chayos. Although there are several areas of halachah in which there is a difference between kosher beheimos and kosher chayos, there is only one Talmudic source that discusses what halachic difference it makes whether a non-kosher animal is categorized as a chayah or as a beheimah. This source is a Tosefta (Kelayim 5:5) that discusses the above-mentioned dispute between Rabbi Meir and the Sages whether a dog qualifies as a chayah or as a beheimah. The Tosefta’s question is, what difference does it make whether a dog is a chayah or a beheimah. The Tosefta explains that the difference in halachah is germane to someone who gives all his chayos to his son, whether his dogs are included in the gift. According to the Sages, the dogs have now been given to the son, whereas according to Rabbi Meir, they remain property of the father.
The Rash, one of the early Baalei Tosafos, adds another similar halachic difference that will result from the question as to whether a creature is a beheimah or a chayah: The case where someone declared all his chayos to be kodesh, which means that they have all become property of the Beis Hamikdash. According to Rabbi Meir, since dogs are beheimos, in this situation his dogs will remain his property, whereas, according to the Sages, Fido and his buddies have now become property of the Beis Hamikdash and require redemption.
Both the Tosefta and the Rash imply that the mitzvah of feeding your animals before you eat applies equally to beheimos and to chayos.
This Tosefta answers another question, which arises from a mishnah that states that a pig qualifies as a beheimah, whereas the elephant, the monkey and the arod, a type of wild-ass (probably an onager) are chayos. Since these are all non-kosher species, what difference does it make in halachah whether these species qualify as beheimah or as chayah? The answer is that after Mr. Goldberg gave all the chayos in his personal zoo and petting farm to his son as a gift, who owns the pigs, the elephants, the monkeys and the onagers? The halachah is that Mr. Goldberg still owns the pigs, but he has given the elephants, the monkeys and the onagers to his son.
Feed your workers!
Having rejected this attempt to explain why his questioner thought one may eat before he feeds his dogs and cats, the Yaavetz suggests another possibility why dogs and cats would be excluded from the requirements of this mitzvah. Perhaps the requirement to feed your animal before you eat is because it is working for you, and the questioner thought that dogs and cats are not considered workers. According to this approach, one would be permitted to eat before feeding the fish or the canaries, since they are basically pension receivers, whereas one would be required to feed his carrier pigeons, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys and gaming falcons before eating.
However, the Yaavetz rejects both suppositions of this approach.
First, he contends that both dogs and cats qualify as workers, dogs because they serve as loyal watchmen and cats because they clear the house of mice.
Second, the requirement to feed your animal has nothing to do with whether the animal works for you; once you are responsible for the animal, the rules of tzaar baalei chayim, not to cause an animal to suffer, require you to provide it with food. Thus, even pension-receiving animals are entitled to be fed, and the owner must attend to them before he is permitted to eat.
Man’s best friend
So, is there any reason to treat dogs and cats differently from other animals?
Notwithstanding the Yaavetz‘s rejection of both of his suggestions why dogs and cats should be treated differently from other animals, he concludes that, although one is required to make sure that one’s dogs and cats are fed, one is not required to feed them prior to his own eating. He presents the following novel suggestion: Since both of these species do not have difficulty finding food on their own, the responsibility to feed them does not lie so heavily on the owner to feed them before eating. The prohibition to eat before feeding your animals is restricted to animals that, once domesticated, would not be able to find food without the owner feeding them. The Yaavetz contends that only animals that may have difficulty finding food on their own create an onus on the owner to the extent that he may have to go hungry until he provides them with victuals.
By the way, very few later authorities who quote this position of the Yaavetz authoritatively.
Returning to Noach
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 108b) records that Shem, the son of Noach, was once telling Eliezer, Avraham’s servant, how difficult life was in the teivah. Shem recounted: “It was quite difficult. A creature that usually eats in the daytime, we fed by day. One that eats at night, we fed by night. My father did not know what to feed the zekisa. One day, he was sitting and slicing a pomegranate, and a worm fell out, and the zekisa ate it. From that day on, we made a mix of bran and allowed it to turn wormy, after which time the zekisa ate it.”
Conclusion
Why are we required to feed one’s animals before we eat? The Yad Efrayim (on Orach Chayim, Magen Avraham 167:18) suggests the following: One should always look at himself as unworthy to receive HaShem’s bounty. Perhaps one’s only merit to be fed is that we feed the animals that are dependent upon us. Thus, this mitzvah has a secondary goal – not only to teach us to be concerned about HaShem’s creatures, but also to teach us humility.
