Unclean animals for emotional treatment

My daughter went through an emotional crisis, and so far, different treatments have not been able to help her. Her therapist recommends very insistently that we buy a hare or a parrot or a hamster for her to take care of. But it’s forbidden to keep an unclean animal at home, so what should we do? Are we allowed to keep such an animal on a balcony?  

Dear …!

It is with great pain that I read about your daughter’s difficulties. On the other hand, one can read between the lines how much you invest into your daughter’s wellbeing, and how you are devoted to your daughter. Thank G-g that she has been entrusted to good hands such as yours. With G-d’s help, your devotion will bear fruit, and your efforts will be directed to the right things. I hope your daughter comes out of this stronger and healthier than she was before. May she be able to grow and prosper again, with even greater strength.

According to halacha, there is no prohibition to raise unclean animals. There is an advantage to not doing it. However, in your case, we must do everything to help your daughter get well, and therapy through animals is definitely a good way to do it. This is more important than the “advantage in not keeping unclean animals”. There is a prohibition to keep unclean animals which are raised for food. Therefore, if from the medical point of view, it makes no difference, which animal you keep, it’s better not to get a hare, since in Europe hares are grown for food. However, if for some reason a hare is preferable, for the needs of psychotherapy one is allowed to keep a hare as well.

By the way, about a month ago, the Jewish people lost a great man, who was 104 years old. His name was Rabbi Aaron Yehuda Leib Steinman. He was the de-facto leader of the orthodox Jewry in the Land of Israel. Let me tell you an interesting story about him.

Chezi Lintop runs a Yeshivah for boys with emotional problems. Because of this he has a therapeutic farm at the Yeshivah. He went to ask Rabbi Steinman if this is a proper approach. Chezi asked the Rabbi: “is it really a good idea to open a yeshiva with such newfangled therapies?” The Rabbi told him: “this is not new at all. We had that in my class too (in Brisk, Poland almost a 100 years ago)!” Chezi was really surprised. He asked the Rabbi: “What, you also had psychotherapy through animals?!” The Rabbi laughed and said: “it’s true that the name really is new. But throughout the generations there was therapy through animals.” The Rabbi explained: “when I was little, I learned in Brisk with a melamed in his private house. A good, experienced melamed knew, when a boy had exhausted his ability to learn, so he sent him to take care of the goat in the yard. A boy that needed to relax a little bit was sent to help the little lamb. Then he came back happy and calm. If a boy had trouble paying attention, he’d learn for an hour, then he’d be sent to take care of the chickens, and then he’d learn some more. In our day and age all the kids are inside closed schools — this is a system that by its very nature creates too much pressure on the kids. Not every kid can take this.

Helping these kids is now also overly institutionalized; you need a BA or an MA. You have fancy names: this therapy and that therapy. But this treatment has always existed, and it has always helped.”

Tractate Bava Kamma (80a); Responsa of the Rashbo (vol III, chapter 223); Shulchan Oruch, section Yore Dea, chapter 117, §1