Chapter 27
Laws Relating to Animals on Shabbath and Yom Tov
LEADING AN ANIMAL OR ALLOWING IT TO PERFORM A FORBIDDEN ACTIVITY
2.a. 1) In the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:10) we told that, on Shabbath, “you shall not do any work neither you… nor your animal
2) The intention of the verse-as explained in the tradition handed down to us by the Rabbis and dating back to the receipt of the Torah on Mount Sinai-is to prohibit the performance of a forbidden activity jointly by a human being and an animal.
2.b. Consequently, a Jew may not lead an animal if through this, the animal performs an act which falls within one of the thirty-nine categories of activity forbidden to a Jew on Shabbath.
2.c. The prohibition applies
1) with regard to any animal or bird or, indeed, to any kind of living creature,
2) whether it belongs to the person leading it, another Jew, a non-Jew or no one at all and
3) whether one leads it with one’s hand, with a stick or just by using one’s voice.
