ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of how the absence of animal bodies from our perception affects us, using especially the thought of Marxist theorist Guy Debord. It moves to an overview of how encounter with animal bodies in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam influenced attitudes about the treatment of non-human animals. The chapter argues that imaginative readings of these texts can be a vital tool in reshaping our limited perception of ourselves as embodied beings in relationship with others. Before we can help non-human animals, we have to see them in their lives and deaths, their play and their pain, their total and undeniable reality, their bodies. Leviticus’ unpopularity, however, is a relatively recent phenomenon, at least in Jewish communities. Historically, the text has been used as the first to introduce children to the study of Torah, and this is the practice in many observant communities of Orthodox Jews.
