Cordovero's Extension of Inter-human Ethics to Animals as a Model for Animal Rights

• In Event: Potpourri: Mysticism and Rabbinic Literature

Abstract

In TOMER DEVORAH, Cordovero uses coded language to tell his readers that important ethical principles should be extended to apply to animals as well as human beings. He does this by describing the method of proper slaughter as a MITAH YAFAH, an easy death. This term is used in TOSEFTA only to refer to methods of capital punishment, and is derived from the principle of "Love your fellow as yourself". Later kabbalists like Isaiah Horowitz indeed interpreted his formulation to signify that the principle of “love your fellow” applied to animals and not just human beings. This paper will explore in detail this and other cases in Cordovero’s work where inter-human ethical ideas are expanded to animals, as well as to what degree such expansions resonated in later Kabbalah. It will examine the fundamental ethical problem of how slaughter can be regarded as an example of “loving your fellow,” and how Cordovero resolves this difficulty by using two frameworks: the elevation of the soul, and covenantal responsibility. Finally, it will discuss a new model, based on Cordovero’s principles, that can frame our ethical relationships with other species. This framework, it will be shown, can dynamically resolve the tension between animal rights and our use of animals for human purposes and needs.

Author

• David Mevorach Seidenberg, neohasid.org