Thoughts on the New Year for Animals

This coming week on Thursday and Friday we observe Rosh Chodesh Elul, the new moon for the final month of the Jewish year. Elul is considered a month of preparation for Rosh Hashanah and includes various rituals and practices to help us get ready for the High Holidays. Beginning on the second day of Rosh Chodesh which is actually the first of Elul (the first day of Rosh Chodesh is still the 30^th of Av), the shofar is sounded each weekday at the conclusion of the morning service. Throughout the month and through the holiday season, we add the 27^th Psalm to both the morning and evening prayers. Special Selichot prayers of forgiveness are recited early each morning by Sephardim, starting at the beginning of Elul, while Ashkenazic custom is to recite them beginning during the week of Rosh Hashanah starting on Saturday night prior to the holiday. All of these practices are intended to lead us to reflection on how we might do better in the year ahead, how we might return to God, and how we might mend our relations with others. The theme of the month is teshuvah, variously translated as repentance, returning, or simply turning. Rabbi Dalia Marx in her book From Time to Time; Journeys in the Jewish Calendar reminds us of another association with Rosh Chodesh Elul that is not well known. Going back to the Mishnah of Rosh Hashanah we read: “There are four new years: on the first of Nisan is the New Year for kings and for festivals. On the first of Elul is the New Year for the tithe of cattle…On the first of Tishre is the New Year for years, for the sabbatical years, for Jubilees, for planting, and for vegetable tithes. On the first of Shevat is the new year for trees, according to the House of Shammai. The House of Hillel say: On the fifteenth thereof (Tu BiShvat).” We know about the first of Tishre, of course when we celebrate Rosh Hashanah and we mark Tu BiShvat, the new year for trees. The first of Nisan, prior to Pesach, is the beginning of the year according to the Torah, prior to the Babylonian Exile and most of the dates in the Bible are reckoned from that spring season. But what of this new year for cattle tithing. Clearly in ancient times it had some significance regarding offerings to the Temple just as Tu BiShvat and, for that matter Rosh Hashanah also had significance regarding plant life and tithing. Rabbi Marx notes that some contemporary rabbis have suggested that we might create a holiday similar to Tu BiShvat at the beginning of Elul, recognizing the significance of animal life just as we have built up the New Year for Trees from the tithing of fruit into a celebration of plant life and the environment. However, it seems that none of our sages recognized this opportunity for celebrating a form of creation closer to us than plants and trees. We find no indication of a seder built around the new year for animals. The first of Elul as an animal holiday has never gotten off the ground, but that is no reason that it can’t become significant today.

It seems that while we have taken seriously the commandment in Genesis to rule over the animals and to utilize them for human needs, we tend to forget our obligation also in the creation story to be guardians of all that exists in the world including the various animal species that live on it, fly over it, or swim in its waters. The Bible and our prayer book do not neglect these other creatures. One prayer that comes to mind is the tzidkatcha prayer at mincha on Shabbat, which concludes with a verse from Psalms, “Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; Your judgments like the great depths. O Lord, You save both man and beast.” In the introductory morning prayers each day, we cite the book of Ecclesiastes, “The pre-eminence of man over the animals is nothing, for all is a fleeting breath.” In Genesis, when Joseph’s brothers go down to Egypt, again and again, they mention their concern for their animals. Even before that we recall that Rebecca not only provided water for Eliezer, Abraham’s servant and his men after their journey across the desert, but she descends to the well multiple times to water his camels as well. One can cite many more mentions throughout the Bible, such as Bilaam’s talking donkey who seems to have greater prophetic vision than her master.

We might recall also what occurs in the book of Jonah which we read on Yom Kippur afternoon, after the prophet finally proclaims his message of doom to the inhabitants of Nineveh. Not only does the king proclaim a fast and the wearing of sackcloth and ashes for his subjects, but the animals also are made to fast and are draped in sackcloth. When God retracts that decree after seeing the people’s repentance, Jonah is unhappy about this turn of events. He sits under the shade of a kikayon tree to sulk. God then makes the tree wither and Jonah mourns its loss. To this God replies, “You mourn this tree which came and went overnight and should I not be concerned for a city of 120,000 people and much cattle.”  God does not forget the animals.

Jewish law is concerned with the welfare of animals as well; it’s called tzaar baalei chayim. I wrote a chapter about it in the volume of The Observant Life. Among other laws is the requirement to feed one’s animals first before feeding oneself. The Torah also has concerns about not plowing with an ox and a donkey together and about not placing too great a burden on an animal. Animals are also mentioned in the Ten Commandments; they are included in the laws of Shabbat, resting on the seventh day.

Rabbi Marx encourages us to develop creative ideas for celebrating a new year for animals as the beginning of our preparations for the High Holiday season. Among the suggestions people have made is a seder similar to our Tu BiShvat seders. The Haggadah for this event would draw upon various biblical and rabbinic texts that feature animals. I’m thinking of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair’s pious donkey who would not eat produce that was not tithed. When his donkey was stolen, he was very concerned that she would starve to death. We could indeed focus on the piety of animals as seen by the sages.

Of course, no seder is complete without the four cups of wine. One suggestion was to link each one to different kinds of animals, the first for fish and other aquatic creatures, the second for amphibians and reptiles, the third for fowl and other airborne creatures, and the fourth for mammals and other land creatures. Alternatively, one might devote the first cup to domesticated animals, the second to wild animals, the third to endangered and threatened species, and the fourth to animals in Jewish story and symbol.

The author of the latter list suggests appropriate foods for each type: milk and cheese for the domesticated ones, nuts, berries, or fruits gathered from the wild for wild animals, bitter herbs or dark chocolate for endangered species, and honey, fish, and symbolic sweets for the animals in Jewish stories.

There is obviously much room for creativity. If one thinks that this is just foolishness and inauthentic, think back to the creation of the whole structure of customs on Simchat Torah, a holiday which was invented in the Diaspora after the days of the Talmudic rabbis to enhance the second day of Shemini Atzeret. Of course, we also have the Tu BiShvat seder, revived in our day, but having origins in the teachings of the students of the 16^th century Rabbi Isaac Luria. There seems to be no reason not to consider creating a holiday both to celebrate our animal friends and to emphasize our responsibility to protect them as recognize their important contributions to our lives and to the lives of the planet.

So I wish you a Chodesh Tov as we enter Elul next Friday and a very happy new year to our animal friends throughout the world.