I learned about this message only by the replies in V3#61, which came from
two people, Moishe K and Laizer G. Both replies claimed that "there is
really nothing to answer".
I would like to communicate to the woman who approached Eshetchail that it
is my humble opinion that the question is a good one - all sincere
questions are good and questions that emanate from someone's sensitivity
are perhaps the greatest of all questions and deserve our utmost and
genuine attention. The woman who is troubled by the seeming insensitivity
to animals is using her Devaykus LaHashem (connection to G-d) when she
asks such a question, and we probably do not nor ever will have a truly
satisfactory answer.
Harav Shlomo Goren, ZT"L, became a vegetarian early in his life, and
boasted that his Rebbetzin, may she be blessed with Arichas Yomim, never
tasted the flesh of an animal or a bird. Surely, such a decision on the
part of such a Godol Hador is evidence of wrestling with mitzvos like
korbonos. I don't think he dismissed this issue with "if G-d tells us in
the Torah to sacrifice an animal, then the greatest kindness we can do for
the animal is to sacrifice it".
Perhaps we may approach an answer by what I vaguely remember being told
about the Rambam. (Does anyone know if there is a correct source for this
comment, if I am not completely mistaken?) That the Rambam regarded
Korbonos as G-d's attempt to wean us away from the widely practiced ritual
of Cana'an in idolatry, by saying that "If I ask Bnai Yisroel to abandon
the killing of my creatures entirely, they will refuse to obey, because the
people around them commune with their gods in this manner. So I will allow
them to bring me sacrifices, but I shall limit them. And when Korbonos
were suspended with the Churban Habayis (the Destruction of the Holy
Temple), and Tefillos (Prayers) were substituted in their place, it was
understood that we had been given a more exalted means of relating to
Hakadosh Boruch Hu."
I do not propose to quote the Rambam by using quotation marks. I am not
even certain that I remember correctly what I was taught. Perhaps you do.
But in any case, let's not dismiss such questions with statements that our
sense of right and wrong mean nothing when we see what appears to be a
stirah (contradiction) between what our Torah and Mesorah (tradition) says,
and what we also believe is the nature of The Holy One, Blessed be He, who
is just, compassionate and merciful, loving all His creatures.
Then came this comment: "we humans have no understanding whatsoever of what
it means to be an animal, and we are therefore unable to determine what
causes psychological pain to an animal. For all we know animals are "dying"
to be slaughtered."
Suggesting that animals die joyfully because they are doing G-d's will, I
believe, numbs one's sensitivities to life and simultaneously dismisses the
concept of Tza'ar Ba'aley Chayim, the prohibition of causing pain to
animals. Do animals feel pain when turned into hamburgers and joy when
becoming the Korban Pesach? And I say all this without being a vegetarian.
moshelevin@aol.com