“He who sits in the heavens laughs”: Recovering Animal Theology in the Abrahamic Traditions

When I wandered into the “vast ocean of the Talmud” a decade or so ago, unaware of the warning within the same texts that Gentiles who undertake the study of Jewish sacred literature should be put to death, I finally found what I had been seeking for years. Here at last was a glimpse of God's personality–His likes and dislikes, His idiosyncracies, His religious observances. To my delight, I also dis-covered in the tractate ' Abodah Zarah the answer to another mystery. What does God do all day?