{"id":52721,"date":"2019-03-31T22:23:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T19:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=52721"},"modified":"2019-03-31T22:23:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T19:23:31","slug":"exercise-in-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/exercise-in-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise In Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"52721","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33926,"related_cahpter":"2005","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Deuteronomy 25:4 - \u201cDo not muzzle the ox on the threshing floor.\u201d","content":"

This is one of my all-time favorite mitzvot. I find myself referring to this commandment surprisingly often. For while it speaks to an arcane act of a bygone era, it can be extrapolated to teach about the ethical treatment of all animals, deeper insights into the parameters of self-restraint and asceticism, the exercise of empathy and clarity of purpose even in the most unexpected situations.<\/span><\/p>\n

First to explain the plain meaning of the commandment: in the biblical period, to separate grains from their husks, farmers would spread the grain on the threshing floor and have oxen tread there. Using their feet and perhaps a wooden cart dragged behind them, the oxen would break the bonds of grain to husk preparing the grain for the next step in the production of flour.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not hard work for the animals, perhaps even pleasant work, for while the mass underfoot may not be edible by humans, it is quite edible by the oxen. \u00a0The problem for the farmer, of course, is that his workers are desirous of eating the very thing they are working to produce. The farmer\u2019s impulse, then, is to protect his investment by muzzling them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Torah quite adamantly forbids that. That would be inhumane. (One might ask then why God put the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden and then forbade Adam from eating it! But that would take us further afield.)<\/span><\/p>\n

I have invoked this commandment, for example, when baking cookies with my grandchildren. It always happens, somewhere in the midst of the decorating portion, that my little bakers will turn to me with an imploring look, silently asking if they can divert a few chocolate chips from the cookies to their mouths. I cannot say no, for I know that I am not allowed to muzzle the ox on the threshing floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or at the Passover seder, when the table is spread with all sorts of good foods yet we can\u2019t eat until the meal. So our family has begun the tradition \u2013 as others have too \u2013 of turning \u201ckarpas,\u201d dipping the greens into salt water, into a smorgasbord of appetizers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other times I think of this commandment are not as benign, such as when laborers build or clean magnificent buildings and yet themselves can only afford to live in substandard housing. Or when workers in the food industry can hardly afford to feed their own children. \u00a0Or when we adults stomp around in this wondrous world of ours trampling it for some extractive goods yet have so muzzled our desires that we deprive ourselves of nature\u2019s glories all the while.<\/span><\/p>\n

In which case, the question we must ask ourselves is: what do we gain at the end of all our threshing? And what do we lose?<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Jews\/Verses\/Tanakh","main_caption":"Exercise In Empathy","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Deuteronomy 25:4 - \u201cDo not muzzle the ox on the threshing floor.\u201d","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52722,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52721\/revisions\/52722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}