I was the fourth of four kids, and my parents were obviously the ones who were running the operation with my older brother, but then a grandfather, who was my mom’s dad, was at our place almost every day, and probably the most important influence on my formation as a youngster, because he was one of these people who had a kind of uncommon attentiveness to where he was, and really was so gentle with the life that he took care of, and that made a deep, deep impression on me. …
There was never an occasion where he would get angry with the animals that he was taking care of, even when the animals could be rather rebellious, even cantankerous, and they could hurt you. He said, ‘These are animals that are taking care of our family, and we have to treat them with respect.’ This is an example of the way he thought about the animals in his care.
We had chickens … They could go anywhere on the farm that they wanted to. But in the summer months in particular, after lunch, he would often grab a scythe and a bucket, and he would go find some grass, six inches tall or whatever, and mow it down. This is really fresh grass, and so it’s just something the chickens would love. And he would walk to the chickens, and they would come running to him. He would throw the grass, and the chickens would jump in the air to catch the grass. And it was a totally unnecessary thing to do because these chickens could go anywhere they wanted on the farm, get their own grass, right? But he figured this made his chickens happy. So he said, I gotta take care of them because if they’re gonna feed me, I wanna make sure that their life is a good life.
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And to bring it back to my grandfather, I think that is at root what prompted gentleness in his own demeanor toward other living things because he knew that if you’re going to eat a chicken, you’re going to take its life. And that’s a very sacred moment.
If you see it as a living being that is feeding you so that you can live, the hallmark of the sacrifice that you mentioned is, there’s always the question, ‘Why in cultures around the world is the animal that is sacrificed only ever a domesticated animal?’ Wild animals are never sacrificed in religious traditions around the world. And one of the best explanations I think that has come up for this way of living with creatures where you sacrifice them is that there are two offerings that happen at the sacrificial altar. One is the offering of the animal, yes. But the other thing that you’re offering is yourself. And if you’re not offering yourself through the care that you show to the animal that you sacrifice, your sacrifice is illegitimate.
And that’s why I think when you look at the Israelite prophets, they denounce sacrifice because what’s happening in Israel at this time is that people are showing up at the temple, and they’re just buying animals. And they’re at the altar, and the priests are saying, but there’s no life of self-offering. You’ve done nothing to care for this animal. And the way we know that you’ve done nothing to care for this animal is that you have an uncaring disposition. And that uncaring disposition is reflected in what the prophets denounce, which is the fact that there are orphans, there are widows who are not being taken care of.
So the whole sacrificial sensibility is dependent upon the people who offer sacrifice having cared for what they are sacrificing. And this is why I think the language of sacrifice has become so troublesome, is that we see in our cultures the language of sacrifice being used to oppress people or to diminish other creatures, right? When we send young people into war and say you’re making a sacrifice for this country, but the war is not a just war. We can see how sacrifice can be misused and distorted by taking out the self-offering care that is always the prerequisite for a legitimate offer.