if an animal kills a Jew it deserves the death penalty source
if a child (under 13/12) kills a Jew he is completely free (no consequences)?
if yes why?
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2Maybe because we don't have the same value for an animal life then for human life...– mrollJun 14, 2018 at 15:12
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@mroll but an adult(sane) human gets the death penalty– hazorizJun 14, 2018 at 15:13
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@hazoriz Not if he didn’t mean to. And a child, who doesn’t have intent, is automatically considered not on purpose. A cow also doesn’t have intent - but we don’t care about animal life when it leads to endangering human life. Feel free to sic PETA on me for that.– DonielFJun 15, 2018 at 3:10
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@DonielF from halacha 9 in the above source "animal that kills [a person] is not stoned to death unless it had the intent to kill a person for whom it would be executed" and from halacha 2 here chabad.org/1172728 "Cases involving capital punishment may not be judged by a court with less than 23 judges, i.e., a minor Sanhedrin. This applies not only to instances where humans are judged with regard to capital punishment, but also when animals face such judgment. " (btw i am not a vegitarian)– hazorizJun 15, 2018 at 8:52
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@hazoriz (Meant the PETA thing as a joke.) I think intent by animals is defined as did it look at a person and start charging them, or was it just walking along and accidentally stepped on a person (latter case would seem to be Regel and therefore liable for damage but not to the death penalty; former case is Keren). When an animal gets killed it’s going to be judged by a court of 23 only because it’s being killed - but do you seriously think that the animal needs eidim and hasra’ah before they can do so?– DonielFJun 15, 2018 at 14:50
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1 Answer
The Ramban (BERAISHIS 9:5) says that an animal which kills a person does not receive death as a punishment because animals do not get rewarded or punished for their actions (as they have no Bechira (free will)). He goes on to say that it is a special Gezairas Hamelech decree from the King Hashem that an animal which kills a person gets stoned. A child which does not receive punishment for his actions and there is no specific decree that he is put to death therefore is not killed for killing another person.
answered Jun 14, 2018 at 23:19
