לא תשחטו ביום אחד

When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the LORD. However, no animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young.

It is also prohibited to kill an animal with its young on the same day (Lev. 22:28), in order that people should be restrained and prevented from killing the two together in such a manner that the young is slain in the sight of the mother; for the pain of the animals under such circumstances is very great. There is no difference in this case between the pain of man and the pain of other living beings, since the love and tenderness of the mother for her young ones is not produced by reasoning, but by imagination, and this faculty exists not only in man but in most living beings. This law applies only to ox and lamb, because of the domestic animals used as food these alone are permitted to us, and in these cases the mother recognises her young.

And not towards man alone did the Torah command compassion and kindness, but also towards beast and bird — on the one hand, for the sake of the animals themselves, "for His mercies are on all living things" (Tehillim 145:9), and on the other, for the benefit of man himself, so that he habituate himself to the trait of compassion and not adopt that of cruelty. Of this type are (Devarim 25:4) "Do not muzzle an ox in its threshing" and (Ibid. 22:10) "Do not plow with an ox and an ass together." For (as Ibn Ezra says) the strength of the ass is not equal to that of the ox. Similarly, (Vayikra 22:28) "And an ox or a lamb, it and its son you shall not slaughter on the same day." Similarly, the commandment that one's beasts rest on the Sabbath. And the Torah commanded us to respect the merciful one and to be compassionate to him — even to a beast or a bird. As we find in the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird (viz. Devarim 22:6-7). For the mother bird lying on its fledglings or eggs could easily have flown away and rescued itself upon seeing or hearing a man approaching. Why did it not do so? Out of compassion for its young. If a man were permitted to take her, it would be impressed upon him that compassion is rash and foolish, causing harm to those actuated by it. And, to the contrary, by its taking being forbidden to him, the glory of compassion will be deeply etched in his heart. And the Torah forbade acts of cruelty even vis-à-vis sacrifices, viz. (Vayikra 22:27) "An ox or a sheep or a goat, when it is born — seven days shall it be under its mother, and from the eighth day on, it shall be acceptable as an offering, a burnt-offering to the L-rd." Similarly, (Devarim 14:21) "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk," (according to Rashbam and Ibn Ezra) because doing so smacks of cruelty. And even though, since it is permitted to slaughter the goat, what difference does it make to it and its mother in which liquid they are cooked? In any event, this act engenders an evil streak in the soul of the doer and the seer. Imagine one's making of his father's bones, spoons; and of his skull, a dish, and eating from them. Though this causes no harm to his father, still, it bespeaks cruelty, and such an act diminishes compassion in him and in its beholders. And in order to exalt even more the virtue of compassion, the Torah attributes this trait to the Blessed one, saying (Shemoth 22:26) "for I am compassionate", (Ibid. 34:6) "The L-rd, the L-rd, a G-d merciful and kind", (Devarim 10:18) "He upholds the cause of orphans and the widow", and many others in the same vein.

Your beneficence is like the high mountains; Your justice like the great deep; man and beast You deliver, O LORD.

Rav Levi opened his discourse with the text from Isaiah (41:24):