What Animals Teach Us About Families (eBook)

Kinship and Species in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature

Beth A. Berkowitz (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2026
280 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-40524-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Reading the Bible and rabbinic literature to reimagine the bonds between animals.
 
Moving beyond debates about the ethics of animal consumption to focus on animals' intimate lives, Beth A. Berkowitz examines the contribution of religious traditions and sacred texts to contemporary conversations about animals. Reading the four "animal family" laws of the Bible alongside their rabbinic interpretations from ancient times to today, she examines the bonds that animals form with each other and reimagines family to include new forms of life and alternative modes of kinship.
 
Humanitarian politics—and biblical law—tend to take for granted that human interests supersede animal interests and that our moral obligation extends only to avoiding unnecessary suffering, but necessity is determined by humans. What Animals Teach Us About Families looks at animal emotions, animal agency, family diversity, and human response to reconsider the obligations and opportunities the animal family presents.

Inhalt

Contents
 
Introduction: What Animals Teach Us About Families
1. Do Animals Love Their Children? The Science of Animal Families
2. The Bible's Animal-Family Laws: What Are They, Are They Related, and Are They Humanitarian?
3. Animal Grandmothers: The Prohibition Against Same-Day Slaughter
4. Animal Mothers: The Prohibition Against Cooking a Kid in His Mother's Milk
5. Animal Fathers and Other Caregivers: Sending Off the Mother Bird
6. Animal Orphans: Keeping the Baby with the Mother for the First Week of Life
Conclusion: What Families Teach Us About Animals
Epilogue: Five Ways to Support Animal Families
With Rabbi Melissa Hoffman
 
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Sources
General Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.1.2026
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Bibelausgaben / Bibelkommentare
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: animal welfare science • Comparative religious studies • cross-cultural • Ethics of Care • faith-based community building • interdenominationa • Interfaith • marriage • relationships • religious kinship models • sacred family structures • Sacred Texts • spiritual interpretations • spirituality and family life
• ISBN-10: 0-520-40524-2 / 0520405242
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-40524-0 / 9780520405240