Animals, Empathy, andRaẖamimin the Study of Religion

A Case Study of Jewish Opposition to Hunting

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5140643
AutoresAaron S Gro (0009-0007-5373-7881, University of San Diego, autor de correspondencia), Aaron S Gross (University of San Diego, California, USA)
Año2017
Volumen46
Número4
Páginas511-535
Fecha de publicación2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaStudies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0008-4298 • E-ISSN: 2042-0587
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0008429817732031
OpenAlexW2782594300
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas21

Both classical and contemporary Jewish texts, surveyed here, articulate a religious opposition to hunting for sport. This essay interprets compassion-based rabbinic opposition to hunting as reflecting a pragmatic concern with cultivating a regard and even a reverence for the capacities of empathy and sympathy. In particular, this "redescription" will analyze the rabbinic opposition to hunting in terms of more basic "building blocks" of religion, specifically empathy and sympathy as defined by the life sciences. I conclude that the most complete way to understand compassion-based rabbinic opposition to hunting is as, simultaneously, a society-forming performance, a symbolic statement about human attitudes towards life, and-the focus of the present essay-a vehicle for responding to the "building block" capacities for empathy and sympathy. A concluding section considers the implications of this case study for religious studies, arguing for the value of considering animals as participants in religious ritual

Aesthetics · Compassion · Empathy · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Opposition (politics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sympathy · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Halal products and consumer behavior · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology