LEV896 (Continued from [[LEV663]] Leviticus 19:18 love OXFORD 421-2). When the tradition emphasizes the ascendancy side of the dialectic, compassion for animals is understood to be for the sake of the human being, but when he kindness side of the dialect is highlighted, animals are granted a value independent of human beings. Both strains serve as foundations for Jewish animal ethics. Three distinct but overlapping Judaic ideas point to the value of compassion for animals for the sake of humanity: the ideas that (1) compassion to animals is rewarded (as in the story of Rabbi Judah) [See [[GEN1183]] Genesis 24:20 drew BLOCH 80-1], (2) morally outstanding individuals spontaneously show compassion to animals, and (3) sensitivity to animals promotes sensitivity to other humans.… The third theme, that compassion for animals actively promotes kindness to other humans, is articulated by Ramban (Moses ben Nahman, "Nahmanides," 1194-1270) in his commentary on both the Deuteronomic law that one must drive away a mother bird before taking her eggs (22:7) and the prohibition on killing a mother and its young on the same day [this verse]. Ramban goes out of his way to argue that the reason for the law of the mother bird is not--despite the suggestion of some Jewish sources (including Rambam, Moreh Nebukim (The Guide for the Perplexed) 3:48)--the undeniable suffering of the mother bird. Sefer haHinnuch (thirteen century), which provides a numbered, systematic commentary on each of the 613 commandments of the Torah, sites Ramban's view with approval: God's "compassion does not extend over [individual] creatures with animals souls [but only over entire species]… For if so, shehitah [Jewish ritual slaughter of animals] would have been forbidden. Indeed, the reason for the restriction [i.e., of driving away the mother bird] is to teach us the quality of compassion" [(Mitzvah 545) and referring to the commandment in Deuteronomy 25:4 not to muzzle a domestic animal during its work (thus causing the animal suffering by tempting it with food it cannot eat)], another law paradigmatically associated with compassion for animals Sefer haHinnukh, makes the case that "from its root the commandment serves to teach us to make our souls beautiful ones… By accustoming us to this even with animals, which were created only to serve us." (Mitzvah 596). (By Aaron S. Gross, "Jewish Animal Ethics")