G'dolim or Rabbis Owning Pets

Question

Are there any g'dolim (or rabbis of major influence) - past or present - who are known to have owned pets/kept animals for non-agricultural purposes?

Were King David's dogs pets or work animals? (For evidence that he had dogs, see Shabbat 30b.) — Monica Cellio, Nov 02 '12 at 20:52
https://seforimblog.com/2020/06/pets-on-shabbat-rabbi-morenu-and-epidemics/ this cites that a R Nachun Zeev, R Dessler's father-in-law, had a pet dog — Double AA, Jun 23 '20 at 10:11

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 07 '11 at 09:19

8

Reb Avrohom Gurwitz had a cat when I was in Gateshead

answered Jul 07 '11 at 09:19

Raffy Van der Vaart

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Did he have it as a classical pet or as a mouse removal device? – mroll Aug 12 '16 at 02:29

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 22 '16 at 04:35

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There is always this picture of Rav Lopian

ר' אל'ע איז מיט ג-ט

edited Aug 22 '16 at 04:35

Ken Graham

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answered Sep 27 '10 at 16:50

SimchasTorah

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And the famous comment, "how do we know he was putting the saucer out for the cat, maybe the photo caught him as he was taking it away ..." – Shalom Sep 27 '10 at 18:35
I'm guessing if that were really his cat it would be documented somewhere. – WAF Sep 27 '10 at 20:21

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 11 '16 at 20:09

6

There is a Tshuva of the Ya'avetz 17 ⁽¹⁾ where he says it is forbidden for a woman to have a dog as a pet, 2 dogs for a man, and to play with a dog is "Moshav Letsim" for everybody. One can use a dog as a guard dog if he keeps it on a leash. and keeps them to a minimum.

⁽¹⁾ ואפילו מאן דפליג בכופרים לא שרי טפי מחד לנטורי ביתא לנטורי ביתא בלחוד דהכי מוכח מהא דגר שנפלו לו בירושה שאין מחייבין אותו למכור כי אם על יד ועל כרחך בכופרים איירי דלא מזקי דאי לאו הכי ודאי שאסור לקיימן בביתו אפילו זמן מועט ואפילו אחד לא אם אינו קשור ואפילו הכי לא שרי אלא במי שנפלו לו בירושה להשהותן רק כדי למוכרן מעט מעט שלא יפסיד הרבה. מיהא לגדלן אצלו מכל מקום אסור...דסלקא דעתך אמינא לארמלתא שרי טפי דלא בעיא ליה לטיול אלא לשמור הבית מאריא וגנבי אורחא בהכי לריבויי משום נטירוטא דביתא קמ"ל דאפילו הכי אסור משום חשדא ואין צריך לומר שאסור לנשים בעלמא שאין מגדלות אותו אלא לשעשוע בלבד...וגם משום מושב ליצים אסור לשחור עמהם... ‏

edited Aug 11 '16 at 20:09

kouty

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answered Jul 06 '11 at 23:03

ertert3terte

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Interesting. Do we know of g'dolim who have had chained guard dogs? Was Rav Ya'akov Emden dealing with dogs that were more dangerous than the ones commonly kept as pets? He seems to be speaking about much more serious danger than most pet owners ever experience, doesn't he? – WAF Jul 07 '11 at 02:12
Regarding 1), he refers to the well-known sakana involved in owning dogs, which leads to the condition that they be chained up under all circumstances. This sakana is not well-known to me with regard to the dogs that are currently usually maintained as pets. – WAF Jul 07 '11 at 03:03
I'm pretty sure the gemoroh in baba kamma says yours allowed to have a dog a cat and a porcupine as a pet(maybe missing one more) because they keep the house clean by eating all the bones and stuff left over. This is regarding small dogs, big dogs are meant to be outside of the main city for protection. – MoriDowidhYa3aqov Mar 15 '13 at 05:35
@dhoweedyaagov most people don't keep pets for cleanliness, they have a vacuum for that – ertert3terte Mar 15 '13 at 06:03
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@shmuel brin that doesn't matter, gemoroh says your allowed to, therefore your allowed to keep them. – MoriDowidhYa3aqov Mar 15 '13 at 17:01
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This seems like a comment. – Double AA Aug 11 '16 at 05:10
@ShmuelBrin I am sorry I edited the answer because it was almost flaged and qualified as comment. In way to mak it more explicit, I wrote a part of the Shut and I make a little tikun concerning 1 dog as pet for a man. If you think that it is not right, don't worry and cancel my edit. – kouty Aug 11 '16 at 20:12

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 22 '16 at 04:34

5

There's a story here about the Zhviller Rebbe keeping pet cats: The Rebbe's Cats.

edited Aug 22 '16 at 04:34

Ken Graham

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answered Mar 14 '13 at 09:38

Shivaram Lingamneni

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Shivaram, welcome to Mi Yodeya, and thanks very much for this very on-point reference! I hope you'll look around and find other material here that animates you, perhaps including our 76 other [tag:animals] questions. – Isaac Moses Mar 14 '13 at 19:40

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 26 '10 at 23:11

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I know of a Rosh Yeshiva in South Africa that kept dogs for protection.

answered Sep 26 '10 at 23:11

Gershon Gold

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Did he personally ever deal with the dogs or did his 'help' handle that? – Tzvi Sep 27 '10 at 02:00
He personally fed them at times, and often petted them. – Gershon Gold Sep 27 '10 at 03:16

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 11 '16 at 22:40

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My Chabad Rabbi told me that the Lubavitcher Rebbe bought his wife a dog to cheer her up because she was sad that she couldn't have a baby.

answered Aug 11 '16 at 22:40

M. Broder

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See Joseph Telushkin's Rebbe book, page 366 for an interesting story between Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka and a dog. – ezra Jan 10 '17 at 22:21

score 2 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 07 '21 at 17:55

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The last Lubavitcher Rebbe had a German Shepherd guard dog. Source.

edited Jun 07 '21 at 17:55

msh210

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answered Jun 07 '21 at 15:33

yc1

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sam · Answer 8 · 2021-06-08T13:52:46.520

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From the Gemara in Chullin 112 it seems that Shmuel had a dog and would throw prohibited items to it to eat.

שמואל שדי ליה לכלביה Shmuel would throw to his dog.

edited Jun 08 '21 at 13:52

answered Jun 08 '21 at 01:21

sam

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score -3 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 19:31

-3

The Avos had sheep, camels, oxen and not all of it was for agricultural purposes.

answered Sep 27 '10 at 19:31

Gershon Gold

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How do you know this? – Isaac Moses Sep 27 '10 at 19:37
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Can you cite one or two? – WAF Sep 27 '10 at 20:21
You see that Yaakov sent Aisav a whole slew of animals as a gift. This gift included many non kosher animals. They also used donkeys for transportation. – Gershon Gold Sep 28 '10 at 20:44
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How do we know that the non-kosher animals were not for agricultural purposes? – WAF Jul 07 '11 at 02:10
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How do you know he kept Kosher? ;-P – Seth J Jul 07 '11 at 04:27
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@SethJ - Kept or no kept, some animals are t'horim and some are t'me'im, as differentiated by Noach. The term we use in modern times for some reason to refer to the tahor ones is "kosher". That, and you were joking so I'll stop now. – WAF Jul 07 '11 at 12:10
@WAF I don't know about t'me'im but some were definitely einam t'horim. – Double AA Mar 22 '12 at 01:25
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"not agricultural" does not equal "pets". – Menachem Jul 19 '12 at 20:25

G'dolim or Rabbis Owning Pets

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