Religious Animals

Originally published on Gimme Some Torah by Rabbi Eli Garfinkel on November 6, 2026.

A Talmudic version of Dogs Playing Poker by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’

Bereshit/Genesis 24:31

וַיֹּאמֶר בּוֹא בְּרוּךְ יְהֹוָה לָמָּה תַעֲמֹד בַּחוּץ וְאָנֹכִי פִּנִּיתִי הַבַּיִת וּמָקוֹם לַגְּמַלִּים׃

“Come in, O blessed of GOD,” he (Lavan) said, “why do you remain outside, when I have made ready the house and a place for the camels?”

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Lavan, Rebecca’s brother, asks Eliezer, “Why do you remain outside when I have made ready the house and a place for the camels?” The Hebrew for “I have made ready” in the his verse is פִּנִּיתִי (piniti), which literally means, “I have cleared away.” A midrash asks what Lavan cleared away:

Just as the righteous men of old were pious, so also were their beasts. It was said that the camels of our father Abraham would not enter a house in which there was an idol, as it is stated, For I have cleared the house, and made room for the camels. I have cleared the house of the idols; why, then, does the verse add and made room for the camels? It teaches that they would not enter the house of Laban the Aramean until all the idols had been cleared out before them.

What would the midrash claim that a righteous person’s animals are also pious? I think the point is that the truly righteous are so holy that some of their kedushah rubs off not only on the people in their environment but on their animals, too.

It’s not really possible for an animal to be pious or morally good. They act on instinct rather than rational thought, so we do not hold them morally responsible for hurting others. Nonetheless, the midrash here is not so far off from the truth. This article says that intelligent animals, especially dogs, observe their owners carefully and can indeed absorb some of their personalities.

The larger issue is that each of us is like a moral transmission and reception tower. Our virtues and vices radiate outward, affecting everyone around us for better or for worse. We, in turn, sense the characteristics of those around us.

Human beings don’t have the ability to read minds, but we do have the ability to detect goodness and wickedness. It may be the case that our dogs have the same capacity.

Shabbat Shalom! Gimme Some Torah will return next week!

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