חומר צער בעלי חיים
The severity of causing suffering to animals
וַיִּשָּׁאֶר אַךְ נֹחַ (ז, כג)
Only Noach survived (7:23)
Rashi explains: Only Noach – and Medrash Aggadah says he was coughing and retching blood because of the trouble of caring for the animals and beasts. And there are those who say he was injured because he delayed giving food to the lion, and the lion attacked him. About Noach it was said (Mishlei 11:31), 'הן צדיק בארץ ישלם' – ‘Behold, the righteous one is paid on earth.’
We see from Rashi’s words that there was some flaw in Noah since he was late in bringing food to the lion. We see that Heaven is very particular regarding the pain caused to animals. There is no doubt that Noah did not intend to cause pain, rather he was busy taking care of the needs of all the other animals and he simply was not able to take care od the lion’s needs at it’s exact time, nevertheless he required atonement.
This is one of the things that we must pay attention to, for many people trample this prohibition and it seems to them that there is no prohibition. But the truth is that we must be very careful with this.
Chazal relate to s in the Gemara (Bava Metzia 85a) about the difficult challenges of Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi who suffered for thirteen years. Six or seven years he suffered from a stone blocking his urinary tract, and the other years he suffered from thrush [a disease of the mouth]. His troubles were too difficult to bear, and when he went to the bathroom, he screamed due to his discomfort. In order to cover for the noise, the stableman would feed his animals when Rebbe went to the bathroom for the noise of the animals would travel three mil, but Rebbe’s screams were louder than the animals until even the seafarers heard it.
The Gemara relates that all this was because of ‘tzar baalei chaim’ – cruelty to animals. This is what happened: There was once this calf that they were leading to slaughter. Since it did not want to be slaughtered, it hid itself among the folds of Rebbe’s garment. Rebbe understood what it was trying to do, and he told it to go to be slaughtered for it was created for this purpose. When Heaven heard this, they wondered how he could not show mercy to an animal, and as a result he was punished with terrible troubles.
As the Gemara continues, just as cruelty to animals causes troubles to come upon the person, so too, this is the reason for them to leave a person. One day, Rebbe’s maidservant was sweeping the house, there was a litter of baby weasels that had been cast upon the floor and she was sweeping them up. Rebbe told her, “Leave them be, it is written (Tehillim 145:9) 'ורחמיו על כל מעשיו' – ‘and His mercy is upon all His creations’”. They said in Heaven, “Since he shows mercy, let us show mercy to him” and the troubles ceased.
We see from this story how incumbent it is on the person to be careful with cruelty to animals [tzar baalei chaim], for Rabeinu HaKadosh did not actually harm the animal, he just told it to agree to be slaughtered since this is the purpose of its creation. Still, he had suffer difficult and bitter troubles, certainly if we actually hurt them.
[It is appropriate to point out that the Gemara goes into more detail, that even without this, Rabeinu HaKadosh wanted the troubles, and the story of the calf was the reason he could attribute the suffering to, and this fulfilled his request. Still, the matter must awaken us since this was the way to fulfill his request and suffer these terrible troubles.]
An incident happened by the Ari HaKadosh. A man came to him who had not merited to have children, and he presented his distress before him. The Arizal revealed to him with Ruach HaKodesh that the reason for this was because of animals that were being distressed in his garden. He had chickens in his house, and they had a small ladder that they used to go up and down from place to place. For some reason this man was not happy that they were using the ladder, and he took it from there. The result was that the chickens were distressed whenever they had to go up, and this distress held back his salvation. Therefore, the Ari HaKadosh instructed him to put the ladder back, and he guaranteed him that by doing this he would see salvation.
I heard from Rebbe Eliyahu Roth zt”l, who served in holiness by HaRav HaKadosh Rebbe Shoimke of Zvhil, that his Rav Rebbe Shloimke initially refused to have others serve him, and so, he did not let anyone take care of his needs for what he could do for himself.
Rebbe Shloimke had a habit that when he went to bed, he would look into a particular sefer. It once happened that after he went to bed, he realized that he did not have the sefer, and he called to his attendant, Rebbe Elya and asked him to bring the sefer. To Rebbe Elya this was amazing, since Rebbe Shloimke refused help from others, and he was concerned for the health of Rebbe Shloimke since he could not get off his bed. When Rebbe Shloimke realized he was concerned, he showed him that when he got into bed, a cat also got into his bed and fell asleep, and he was afraid of waking it by getting off the bed...
I also heard about that tzaddik that once in the middle of the seudah one Friday night, he turned to his attendant and instructed him to go to the house of the gabbai of shtieblach in the Bais Yisrael neighborhood and ask him to open a door in the shul because a cat was hiding under the Aron Kodesh and it was afraid to come out while people were there. It waited for everyone to go out, and then it hoped to go out unharmed... When the cat sensed that all the congregants left the shul, it also tried to go out, but to its dismay, the door was locked. It was in great distress. Therefore, help it by opening a door so it could go out.
I once told this story and one of the listeners told me that this story is in a collection of stories that testified about the tzaddik that he had Ruach HaKodesh, but we learn an even higher level than Ruach HaKodesh over here, that even at this elevated time when the tzaddik was having his seudas Shabbos – the seudah of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he thought about a non-kosher animal in distress.
Nowadays, we hardly have contact with animals, and the obligation to avoid harming them is now as relevant. But we must earn a kal v’chomer not to cause people distress, as they are on a higher plane, and we should be very careful from anything that might offend anyone for this reason.
