Why was the first born of a donkey killed as prescribed in Exodus 13:13? Isn’t this contradicting to other Torah laws which are so sensitive to animal lives? What is the use of killing that innocent animal? I know it is one of the commandments of the Torah and that it’s no longer practiced.
The Torah does not prescribe breaking the donkey’s neck. Rather, as it says there, the Torah requires that the animal be redeemed against a sheep. The sheep is then given to a kohen. Killing the donkey is not a mitzvah (according to the opinion of the Ra’avad), but actually a sin, a fine imposed on someone who willfully refuses to make this gift to a kohen.I don’t think that breaking the animal’s neck with a sharp hatchet was a particular cruel way of killing the animal; it must be very quick, though it is presumably more painful than the usual cutting the throat that is used for shechitah of kosher animals. I would assume that the current mode of hanging of human beings used in Iran, for example, is far more painful. Probably it’s done at the back of the neck in this case in order to teach the owner about his “stiff-necked” behavior.
I’m not sure why you think that this law is no longer practiced in our times. First born donkeys are unusual today – not too many Jews own donkeys – but if a stubborn one refused to redeem his, this law might apply.
Best wishes,
Michoel Reach