Beth A. Berkowitz, "What Animals Teach us About Families: Kinship and Species in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature" (U California Press, 2026)

Feb 16, 2026

Beth A. Berkowitz, a Barnard professor who studies rabbinic literature and animals, explores how biblical and rabbinic texts reimagine bonds between species. She traces four animal-family laws, everyday animal intimacy in antiquity, market and legal practices around animal kinship, and how expanding family challenges assumptions about species and care.

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Four Animal-Family Laws

Four biblical laws focus on animal parent-child bonds: milk-meat, first-week separation, not slaughtering parent and child same day, and sending away the mother bird.
These scattered laws form a thematic cluster about kinship and moments of separation or slaughter.

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Humanitarian Rationale Varies By Era

The 'humanitarian' rationale treats those laws as motivated by compassion and civility toward animals.
Commentators across eras reuse this rhetoric to display virtue while tailoring it to their cultural agendas.

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Law Over Feeling

Rabbinic treatment is highly technical and procedural, not primarily affective.
Legal formalism makes recognition of animal kinship procedural rather than an ethical prohibition in practice.

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Beth Berkowitz's background and interest in animals

05:52 • 5min

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Everyday intimacy with animals in antiquity

10:33 • 2min

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Bambi, Salten, and rabbinic animal attentiveness

12:52 • 2min

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Scientific evidence on filial bonds and suffering

15:00 • 5min

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The four biblical animal-family laws

19:35 • 2min

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Humanitarian rationale for animal laws

Proverbs and divine care for animals

24:52 • 3min

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Rabbinic legal style versus compassion

27:48 • 4min

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Marketplace announcements and animal genealogy

31:47 • 4min

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Butcher moments: when family matters legally

35:21 • 2min

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Udders, symbolic maternal absence, and Kashrut

Stories, law, and Yalta's critique

45:20 • 5min

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Indistinction and the mother‑bird commandment

50:04 • 3min

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Animal orphans and apocalyptic reversal tales

53:31 • 6min

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What families teach us about animals

59:08 • 6min

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How animal studies reshape rabbinic scholarship

What Animals Can Teach Us About Politics

Brian Masumi

What Animals Can Teach Us About Politics is a philosophical exploration of how we can learn from animal behavior to reshape our understanding of political life. Brian Massumi argues that by studying animal interactions, such as play and social dynamics, we can gain insights into creating more fluid and adaptive forms of community and governance. He examines the 'politics of instinct,' suggesting that animals relate and form relationships without relying on abstract concepts or rigid rules. Massumi challenges the traditional human-animal divide, proposing that embracing our animality can paradoxically lead to a richer, more authentic human existence. The book encourages readers to reconsider the boundaries between species and to find new ways of living together that move beyond binary oppositions of sameness and difference. Ultimately, Massumi advocates for a playful and messy middle ground that more closely reflects the complexities of reality.

What Animals Teach us About Families: Kinship and Species in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature

Kinship and Species in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature

Beth A. Berkowitz

What Animals Teach Us About Families: Kinship and Species in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature examines the representation and significance of animals within the Bible and Rabbinic literature. Beth Berkowitz explores the bonds that animals form with each other and reimagines family to include new forms of life and alternative modes of kinship. Examining the four 'animal family' laws of the Bible alongside their rabbinic interpretations from ancient times to today. Humanitarian politics and biblical law tend to take for granted that human interests supersede animal interests and that our moral obligation extends only to avoiding unnecessary suffering, but necessity is determined by humans.

Reading the Bible in a Time of Environmental Crisis

Sebastian Dohan

Reading the Bible in a Time of Environmental Crisis examines the Bible's relevance to contemporary environmental concerns. Sebastian Dohan explores how biblical texts and traditions can inform and shape our understanding of ecological issues. The book critically analyzes various biblical passages, uncovering both problematic and constructive approaches to nature and environmental ethics. Dohan engages with themes such as creation, stewardship, and eschatology to highlight the Bible's potential for promoting ecological responsibility. By bridging biblical scholarship with contemporary environmental thought, the book offers insights for fostering a more sustainable and just world. It encourages readers to reconsider their relationship with the natural world and to draw upon the Bible's wisdom in addressing pressing environmental challenges.

Animals and Animality in the Babylonian Talmud

Beth Therter-Pitz

Animals and Animality in the Babylonian Talmud explores the representation and significance of animals within the Babylonian Talmud. Beth Berkowitz delves into how animals are depicted, categorized, and utilized in legal, ethical, and narrative contexts. The book examines how the Talmudic sages used animals to define and negotiate boundaries between humans and the natural world. It also explores how animals serve as symbols for understanding human society, ethics, and religious practice. Berkowitz analyzes various Talmudic passages to reveal the complex attitudes toward animals, ranging from respect to exploitation. Ultimately, the book sheds light on the cultural and intellectual world of the Talmudic period and its relationship with the animal kingdom.

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• Mentioned in 4 episodes

Bambi

A Life in the Woods

Felix Salten

Originally published in 1923, 'Bambi: A Life in the Woods' is a somber and realistic tale of a deer's life from birth to maturity, highlighting the dangers posed by human hunters. The novel is considered one of the first environmental novels and has been translated into over thirty languages. It was later adapted into the famous Walt Disney film.

Reading the Bible and rabbinic literature to reimagine the bonds between animals. Moving beyond debates about the ethics of animal consumption to focus on animals' intimate lives, Beth A. Berkowitz examines the contribution of religious traditions and sacred texts to contemporary conversations about animals in What Animals Teach us About Families: Kinship and Species in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature (U California Press, 2026). Reading the four "animal family" laws of the Bible alongside their rabbinic interpretations from ancient times to today, she examines the bonds that animals form with each other and reimagines family to include new forms of life and alternative modes of kinship.

Humanitarian politics—and biblical law—tend to take for granted that human interests supersede animal interests and that our moral obligation extends only to avoiding unnecessary suffering, but necessity is determined by humans. What Animals Teach Us About Families looks at animal emotions, animal agency, family diversity, and human response to reconsider the obligations and opportunities the animal family presents.

New books in late antiquity is presented by Ancient Jew Review

Beth A. Berkowitz is Professor and Ingeborg Rennert Chair of Jewish Studies, Department of Religion, Barnard College

Michael Motia teaches in Classics and Religious Studies at UMass Boston

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