Hello and welcome back to another week of MPT! This week’s portion is Ki Teitze, and we’re finally in the month of Elul – the season of turning and returning! While we work on turning ourselves over and returning to our purest selves this month, this week’s portion offers some ideas on how we can do just that.
Ki Teitze contains 74 of the 613 commandments in the Torah. Of these are several that talk about the treatment of animals. Here are just a few examples:
Deuteronomy 22:4 reads as follows:
“You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen [under its load] on the road, and ignore them. [Rather,] you shall pick up [the load] with him.”
It was well understood that animals were (and still are) used to help move items from one place to another. This verse serves as a reminder that we should help an animal that can not handle the weight being forced upon it. Animals must be treated with compassion just like humans. Even more so, this verse serves as a reminder to not even give an animal that much weight to bear in the first place.
Just two verses later, in Deuteronomy 22:6-7 we read:
“If a bird’s nest chances before you on the road, on any tree, or on the ground, and [it contains] fledglings or eggs, if the mother is sitting upon the fledglings or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother upon the young. You shall send away the mother, and [then] you may take the young for yourself, in order that it should be good for you, and you should lengthen your days.”
The underlying purpose of this verse is to discourage you from ever touching the bird’s nest – telling you to shoo the mother away before you take the chicks or eggs is an extra and undesirable step. In addition, the chicks and/or eggs in the nest will probably not even be good for consumption. Rabbi Obadiah Sforno says that if one were to take the mother with the chicks/eggs, you’re essentially wiping out an entire family line. By letting the mother go, you’re allowing her a chance to start a new family. This puts environmental conservation at the forefront of our minds. Treating animals with kindness helps protect the environment, and ensure that it has a future.
The last verse we’ll examine comes three verses later in Deuteronomy 22:10:
“You shall not plow and ox and a donkey together.”
When you pair an ox and a donkey together, you are putting undue stress on both animals. The burden of the weight of the plow is unevenly distributed between the two animals. The ox has to do a little extra work and could tire faster, which in turn puts more pressure on the donkey, who is physically weaker than the ox. Just as teachers set students up to succeed, we need to set animals up to succeed. If you plow an ox and a donkey together, you are setting them up for undue harm and failure.
You may be asking, “Amanda and Marissa, I don’t need to plow a field or load an ox and I don’t ever touch birds’ nests! What should I do to practice this value from the Torah?” There are many ways we can respect animals in our society today. This can be done through small lifestyle changes. We could talk about changing your diet and becoming a vegetarian or vegan, and while these are good options, seeing as neither Amanda nor I are vegetarian or vegan, we probably aren’t the right people to teach you about that. Instead, I would rather talk about a lifestyle change that I have actually made and have been fairly passionate about for a while now.
I remember sitting in my behavioral psychology class sophomore year of college. I got to class early, as I always did, and was scrolling through Twitter. I saw someone had tweeted at a YouTuber I followed at the time who had launched her own makeup company and asked her if her products were cruelty-free to which she replied, yes. That one tweet back in 2015/2016 ended up making a difference in my life. I remember sitting there and almost instantly after reading that tweet I thought to myself “I should only by cruelty-free products.” I have been an animal lover for my entire life, I don’t know why I never paid attention to that before.
So, I began educating myself. I found a graphic on Pinterest that showed a list of cruelty-free cosmetic brands and broke them up by price range. This list was put together by Cruelty Free Kitty which ended up being a resource I would go back to time and time again. Cruelty-Free Kitty (CFK) is an amazing resource for those who are just starting out on their cruelty-free journey. I have also learned while writing this, that it is important to go back and check periodically. Companies change and a company that once was cruelty-free may no longer be considered cruelty-free for one reason or another.
When shopping for cruelty-free products, look for the bunny! There are 3 different bunny logos to look out for that indicate if a brand is cruelty-free. Here is a helpful graphic from, you guessed it, CFK.
They have a whole page dedicated to cruelty-free logos, how to spot fake bunnies, and why not all certified cruelty-free companies have a bunny on their products. This is an area I’m still learning about. Here is another good breakdown of these bunnies done by Ethical Elephant. In this post, Ethical Elephant also goes into why many people don’t trust PETA’s list of cruelty-free brands and links to one of CFK’s posts on it as well. Personally, I favor Leaping Bunny but I also do additional searches to confirm whether or not the brand is actually cruelty-free.
You should also be wary of sites like Target which offer a “cruelty-free” filter on their website. When I first saw this feature I was thrilled. It helped me find cruelty free brands and saved me from sifting through the products of brands who weren’t cruelty-free. But recently, I noticed something was off. When I selected that filter I noticed brands that aren’t cruelty-free being shown and the products of brands that I knew are cruelty-free weren’t being shown. I thought I was going crazy until today. While doing additional research for this post, I found this article on CFK confirming my suspicions. While it would be great to just click a button and only be shown cruelty-free brands, it’s very clear that Target still has some work to do.
I know it may seem overwhelming and intimidating, but thankfully CFK helps make things easy. In addition to their hand-curated list of cruelty-free brands, they have resources for those just starting out on their cruelty-free journey. It has honestly been really cool to watch CFK grow over the past few years. I know this is sounding like a sponsored post at this point, but I can guarantee you it’s not. I just really like CFK and they have helped me a lot on my own cruelty-free journey.
Speaking of my own journey, let’s talk about that a bit more. When I first started on my journey, I only focused on makeup. I knew many of my other products like my shampoos and conditioners weren’t cruelty-free, but I wasn’t ready to make those changes yet. I was overwhelmed at the thought of making that many changes, so I just stuck with makeup. Slowly and surely I became more confident in finding cruelty-free makeup brands. It became the norm for me to pause while perusing the makeup aisles and quickly search to see if a new brand I found to check to see if they’re cruelty-free. A helpful tip is to just search “is ____ cruelty-free” and you’ll get your answers right away. I would recommend not just going by the claims on the brand’s website because…well…people lie. Check a few sources before making your decision.
About a year or two ago (honestly 2020 feels like it’s been 10 years long so I’ve lost all ability to keep track of time) I made the decision to go fully cruelty-free with almost all of my beauty products (I still have a few more products to switch out before I can claim to be fully cruelty-free). It wasn’t as challenging as I initially thought it would be, but I am glad I waited until I was comfortable and confident in finding cruelty free brands.
I know this has been a little long, so here is my TLDR recap of helpful tips for your cruelty-free journey:
- Find a resource/list of cruelty-free brands for you to consult
- I recommend Cruelty Free Kitty
- Start small. It can be a bit overwhelming so don’t feel like you need to change all of your products instantly.
- Also, don’t throw away all of your old products, that’s wasteful. Use up what you have and then be more mindful of the brands you choose to purchase from in the future
- You don’t have to memorize the list of cruelty-free brands.
- You can keep screenshots of lists on your phone or just quickly search online “is ___ cruelty-free?” and then check a few sources for your answer (don’t just go by the company site)
- Check semi-regularly to see if your favorite brands are still cruelty-free
- Look for the bunny on the packaging!
Making lifestyle changes like switching to cruelty-free products is a journey. Be prepared to not know everything right away and to make mistakes. Recently I realized that I purchased a product that isn’t certified cruelty-free. While it’s possibly due to Target’s inadequate filtering system, it’s also on me for not properly researching a brand I didn’t know much about. My next step is to try and make slow changes and small switches towards clean beauty. If anyone knows of any affordable clean beauty brands and good educational resources, then please let me know!
Do you think you’ll make the switch to cruelty-free? Would you want a list of some of my favorite cruelty-free brands & products? Let us know, we’d love to hear from you!
Above all else, this is about being aware of what you’re purchasing. Make sure the products you buy and the companies you support align with your morals. Treat those around you with kindness and respect, even the animals.
Wash your hands, wear a mask, and remember, Black Lives Matter.
Love,
Amanda & Marissa
