Can a dog do a mitzvah?

Having spent an inordinate amount of time considering that question myself, years ago, I emailed a dozen rabbis to ask their opinions.

The answers were predictably varied. (What else would you expect from a dozen rabbis?) Some said, “Absolutely.” Others answered, “Definitely not.” A mitzvah, after all, is a commandment, and commandments are given to human beings, not dogs. Others raised the question of intention. Can an act be a mitzvah if the one performing it does not fully understand the motivation behind what they are doing?

But my favorite answer came from my childhood friend, Rabbi Neil Zuckerman of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York.

“There are questions of intent, obligation, comprehension, etc…So, in a purely technical sense, I would say dogs don’t HAVE to do mitzvoth. But they can certainly choose to. And since, in my opinion, the presence of a dog in one’s life is one of the purest things I know, I would say that the essence of a dog is to do mitzvot.”

I loved Rabbi Neil’s answer then, and I still do.

But it also led me to think about the question from the other direction.

If an animal can perform a good deed without necessarily understanding the mitzvah, what about those of us who have dreams and visions for making an impact in the world that we are unable to complete?

I have been thinking about that question as we approach one of the lesser-known holidays on the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot, which begins at sundown this Thursday.

While many may only have heard of one Jewish New Year, one Rosh Hashanah, the Mishnah tells us there are four.

There is a New Year for kings and festivals (just before Passover), another associated with years, sabbatical and jubilee cycles and agriculture (the Rosh Hashanah we all know), and the New Year for........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)