"#Berkowitz, now the chair of #Jewish studies and a #professor of #religion at #BarnardCollege, the path between pre-adolescent #vegetarianism and ancient legal texts was neither straight nor obvious. But the throughline is what she explores in her new #book about #animalkinship and #Jewishlaw. “What Animals Teach Us About Families” insists that animals are living beings with family relationships of their own.
What’s more, Jewish laws about treating animals invite a conversation about these relationships and what they mean to leading a commanded and #ethicallife.
It’s the rare book of Jewish #scholarship that cites “#Bambi” and “#FindingNemo” alongside the #Babylonian #Talmud and the first-century #philosopher #Philo, and that includes a chapter on what readers can do to ensure that animals are treated more humanely.
“The #Bible’s animal-family laws do not protect animal families so much as sensitize us to their presence,” Berkowitz writes."
