Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

BASES OF THE DIETARY LAWS 39
below; the pelican preys on its own flesh; hence they are
forbidden." Insomuch as these birds and animals can
hardly be domesticated, the only reason one would keep
them about would be for food. The prohibition of their
use for this purpose is thus calculated to remove them en-
tirely from sight. It is also shameful to eat a kid boiled
in its mother's milk. There is a kind of cruelty in the
act akin to killing young before the eyes of the mother,
or taking the birds from the nest without first sending
the mother away. 56 1 The real concept of cruelty does not
lie in the mere infliction of pain. That is but a specific
example of cruelty. There is a divinely established order
in the universe. To divert the natural course of things
into improper channels, to interfere with natural processes,
or to forcibly join root and branch which God separates,
is cruelty. The natural state of a living being is what the
psychologists call "proper adjustment to the environment."
The infliction of pain causes a maladjustment of the animal,
and hence is forbidden as cruelty. Likewise, seething a
kid in its mother's milk is forbidden because it is an un-
natural process, a mingling of the milk intended by the
mother for the child with the flesh of the mother a mixing
of "root and branch." 67 Our definition of cruelty extends
the concept to the vegetable world as well. It is just as
cruel to plant two kinds of seeds together or to graft two
M Ibn Ezra to Exodus XXUI, 19: i*wn $&& Kin ato
rw aia lan^n 16 ua niti mm w IK iian TTO IOK ato oy
.Bjan by an npn *? a;n
Rashbam ad locum remarks simply, npifai Win Kin 'KM
m This view is quoted by Abarbanel from a Karaite author:
onpitfn BJJ man aw K^ But he gives the phrase a different
meaning. This view is also held by the homiletical commentator
KU Yakor, who says ad locum: pjjo Kn it maro >3 JMttB^ anpm
*v tnn t t^w na^n i#a 13 j?n> ^ mnsn anijn OIK^
aw *s am t ato jai