[Avodah] Vegetarians

[Zev Sero]

torahmike at gmail.com wrote:
> <continuing from Areivim>
> 
>  Whilst on the subject of Tzaar ba'alei chaim, can anyone explain the
> gemora on BavaMetzia 85a, that says Rebbe was punished for telling a
> fleeing korbon, to go be a korbon?

Rebbi couldn't possibly have confronted a fleeing korbon.  He never
saw a korbon in his life.   The calf was fleeing an ordinary shechita.


>  I never understood this gemora- What exactly did he do wrong? What
> should he have done? Tzaar baalei chaim isn't classically understood
> to require one to not kill an animal just because it doesn't want to
> be killed.

The objection seems to have been to his lack of sympathy.  We're told
his words, but not the tone of voice in which he said them.  Also, a
rosh sanhedrin, in whose hands people's lives potentially rest (even
though in Rebbi's day capital cases were not heard), should have a
softer heart than most people; even ordinary sanhedrin members must
not be childless or too old, because such people tend to be harsh with
other people.  So it seems to me that what he should have done was pat
the calf and calm it down, and then quietly signalled to the people
from whom it escaped to come and take it gently, without frightening it.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher