[Avodah] animals and bechira??

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Harvey Benton asked:

> do animals have bechira??
> eg bilaam's donkey (apparently they 
> can see angels (at least in this case)
> and have thoughts (

I am not going to dispute R' Micha's response to this, which focuses on self-awareness, mostly because I don't understand it. But it certainly well thought-out and can be found somewhere in the archives.

My view is similar to that of R"n Lisa Liel, who wrote:

> No, animals do not have bechira chofshit.  Only Bnei Adam, who
> have Tzelem Elokim, have bechira chofshit.

In other words, as I understand it:

As a person who grew up with a dog as the family pet, I strongly believe that animals *do* have thoughts, and *can* make choices. But when we talk about "bechira" in a Torah context, the word cannot be translated simply as "choice".

Rather, it is a code word for a basic concept which might be abbreviated as "free will to choose between right and wrong". Alternatively, if we want to include Adam and Chava, in the period of their life after they were endowed with Tzelem Elokim, and prior to their learning about right and wrong, then perhaps we can describe bechira as free will to choose between abstract concepts. (This may come close to R' Micha's concept of bechira.)

With this understanding, it becomes easier to see how an animal can make a choice which does not demonstrate Bechira Chofshis, because it is merely choosing the food it prefers, or responding to some stimulus, but not doing anything which relates to right or wrong or any other abstractions.

I do concede that there are cases of angels disobeying their commands, and that does pose a problem in this regard.

Akiva Miller

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