For the source text click/tap here: Bava Metzia 89
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More on laborers rights to eat on the job:
All matters, i.e., all animals, are included in the halakha of muzzling, as we derive a verbal analogy between the term “an ox” stated here and the term “an ox” stated with regard to Shabbat. Just as the prohibition against having one’s animal perform labor on Shabbat applies not only to oxen but to all animals, as explicitly stated in the Torah: (Deuteronomy 25:4),
לֹא תַחְסֹם שׁוֹר בְּדִישׁוֹ״
You shall not thresh while muzzling; why do I need the word “ox” that the Merciful One writes?
It serves to juxtapose and compare the one who muzzles to the muzzled animal, and likewise to compare the muzzled animal to the one who muzzles: Just as the one who muzzles, a person, may eat from produce attached to the ground, so too the muzzled animal may eat from attached produce. And just as the muzzled animal may eat from detached produce, so too the one who muzzles may eat from detached produce.
We explore the ethics of animal pain and halachic parameters of muzzling.