Parshah Rabbit Hole - Ki Seitzei: Animal Ideas

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.

Six statements were said with regard to humans: In three ways, they are like ministering angels, and in three ways they are like animals. The baraita explains: In three ways they are like ministering angels: They have intelligence like ministering angels; and they walk upright like ministering angels; and they speak in the holy tongue like ministering angels. In three ways humans are like animals: They eat and drink like animals; and they multiply like animals; and they emit excrement like animals.

"...knowledge like the ministering angels..." - which is true intellectual recognition of one's creator through observation of the world. But an animal does not have knowledge, only an instinctive ability to strategically fulfill its needs:

"and they speak in the holy tongue like ministering angels." Certainly, not all human beings speak in the holy language, but rather, the holy language is used to refer to angels, as we say that they do not know the language of translation. And the intention was only to liken a human being to the ministering angels in that they have a language and speech, in contrast to an animal which does not have the power of speech.

Rabbi Yehoshua bar Neḥemya in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak, and the Rabbis in the name of Rabbi Elazar say: He endowed him [Adam] with four features from the supernal realm and four features from the lower realm. [From the lower realm:] He eats and drinks as does an animal, procreates as does an animal, defecates as does an animal, and dies as does an animal. From the supernal realm: He stands as do the ministering angels, speaks as do the ministering angels, has intelligence as do the ministering angels, and sees as do the ministering angels. But do animals not [also] see? This is bewildering. The difference is that this one [a human] has peripheral vision.

"[A person] turns and sees". Not literally turning, that they turn their head in all directions, for even an animal turns its face to any place it desires. Rather, it means that a person, even when looking forward, can see to the sides, and sometimes sees to the sides when they don't want to, and an animal cannot see to the sides unless it turns its face to the sides.

...Another explanation is that 'standing' means 'standing eternally' and existing forever, because the soul remains. Of the "four from the lower realm," the first three are causes for the fourth, death. Because there is change and transformation within him from eating, drinking, and excreting, as well as in procreation and reproduction... therefore man is destined for death. And in contrast to this, it is stated that he stands eternally in his soul like the beings above. And this comes to him from the three things mentioned afterwards. Because he speaks and engages in Torah and wisdom, and he has knowledge of the ideas and the secrets of G-d. And he also sees and understands all the possible sides of an ideas [and that is what is meant by "rather, to the side"] therefore the first level is allotted to him, to stand eternally.

Moreover, even in the mind alone, insofar as sinful thoughts are concerned, evil has no power to compel the mind’s volition to entertain willingly, G–d forbid, any wicked thought rising of its own accord from the heart to the brain, as discussed above. But no sooner does it reach there than he thrusts it out with both hands and averts his mind from it the instant he reminds himself that it is an evil thought, refusing to accept it willingly, even to let his thoughts play on it willingly; how much more so to entertain any idea of putting it into effect, G–d forbid, or even to put it into words. For he who willfully indulges in such thoughts is deemed wicked at such time, whereas the benoni is never wicked for a single moment.