Animals, Empathy, andRaẖamimin the Study of Religion

A Case Study of Jewish Opposition to Hunting

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5140643
AutoresAaron S Gro (0009-0007-5373-7881, University of San Diego, autor correspondente), Aaron S Gross (University of San Diego, California, USA)
Ano2017
Volume46
Fascículo4
Páginas511-535
Data de publicação2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoStudies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0008-4298 • E-ISSN: 2042-0587
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0008429817732031
OpenAlexW2782594300
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências 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