By Evonne Marzouk

On the sixth day of Creation, after the formation of the world and all its creatures, Hashem created Adam. Man is instructed in the Torah: “Fill the earth and master it (kivshuhah); and rule (u-r’du) the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.” (Bereishit 1:26-28)

Given the place of Man as the pinnacle of creation, we might wonder why Hashem created Man last. Rashi’s Torah commentary can perhaps help us answer this question and better understand our place in creation and our intended relationship with other creatures. The Hebrew word for rule is “u-r’du.” Rashi points out that the word “u-r’du” has two possible derivations. It could be from the root r-d-h, i.e., have dominion; or it could be from the root y-r-d, i.e., descend. The Hebrew word, ”u-r’du,” with its possible dual meanings, can convey an important message: We possess the ability to exercise dominion. If we use this power wrongly, it will result in our descent. Its misuse may even ultimately result in the earth having power over us. Our dominion is not guaranteed, but is dependent on our relationship to the earth and its creatures. If man behaves properly toward the earth and its creatures, then the Torah teaches us to see Man as the last, and thereby the pinnacle of creation. If man behaves poorly, Hashem can say to man, “Look, even the gnat was created before you.” (Bereishit Rabbah 8:1)

In the second chapter of Bereishit, we learn that our relationship with the earth is not simply to be one of domination. We are also instructed “to work it and to guard it.” (Bereishit 2:15) While we are meant to have dominion over creation, we also must be responsible for it. Achieving this healthy balance between rulership and stewardship is manifest in our mitzvot related to the use of the land and its creatures. Let’s look at some mitzvot that can help us clarify our relationship with the other species.

While Hashem created this world “and the fullness thereof” for Man’s use and pleasure, we are not to use (or abuse) it however we please. The Shulchan Arukh says that it is forbidden, according to the law of the Torah, to inflict pain upon any living creature, even if it is ownerless or belongs to a non-Jew.[4]

Our responsibility toward other creatures is not only for their benefit but also for the development of our character as human beings. There are numerous stories throughout traditional Jewish sources that praise those who are compassionate towards animals, and by the same token, criticize those who display insensitivity in this regard. [5] The gemara teaches that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was severely punished for his callousness toward a young calf that was bound for slaughter. While we learn that it is a mitzvah for a creature to be shechted in a kosher way in order to allow its consumption, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi was still punished for not showing enough compassion for the young animal.

The strongest example of halakhah mandating our responsibility to animals is shiluach ha-kein, the mitzvah of sending a mother bird away before taking her young: “If a bird’s nest happens to be before you on the way, in any tree, or on the ground, whether [it is filled with] young ones, or eggs, and the mother bird is sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, you should not take the mother bird with the young. But you should surely let the mother go, and [then] take the young, so it will be good for you and you will prolong your life.” (Devarim 22:6-7)

Regarding this mitzvah, Ramban states that it is, “related to the prohibition against slaughtering an animal and its kid in one day [Vayikra 22:28]. The reason for these two [prohibitions] is that we should not have a cruel and merciless heart, or that the Torah should not permit us to destroy and uproot a species, even though [the Torah] permits ritual slaughter of this species. One who kills a mother [animal] and her children in one day or who takes them…it is as if he annihilates that species.” [8]

While we are allowed to use individual members of a species for our own needs, we are not allowed to destroy an entire species. By killing two generations on the same day, we destroy the ability of a species to perpetuate itself.

The Modern Crisis

In recent years, there has been little press concerning the escalating extinctions happening on our planet. Since individuals rarely destroy species directly, we usually consider ourselves blameless for this. But in fact, extinctions are happening rapidly, and human actions are the source. As Torah Jews, we need to consider better if we are “sending away the mother before taking the young” or whether we are, in fact, annihilating species through our actions or our delinquency.

Over the last half-century, people have wreaked havoc on species that live in the earth’s tropical forests and the seas, by taking more than the species can reproduce – a genuine example of “taking the mother and her young.”

For example, the earth’s tropical forests, the home for many thousands of species (and the primary source of livelihood for about 140 million people), are being lost at a rate of approximately 1%, or approximately the size of the State of Washington each year. [9]

In the oceans, large predatory fish have been reduced to a mere 10% (by mass) of pre-industrial levels. That means that 90% of all large fish (including tuna, marlin, swordfish, sharks, cod and halibut) have been removed from our oceans. [10]

By dividing ecosystems into smaller units for the building of suburbs, road construction, forestry and mining, agriculture, and industrialization of rural habitats, human beings are indirectly responsible for these extinctions and the habitat loss that causes them. In fact, humans are destroying many generations of animals at once by chopping down, cementing over, and building homes on their habitat. As we place increasing pressure on our natural world, specific habitats that are critical for the continued survival of life become endangered. While we do not directly kill the species that are endangered, by destroying their habitat, we are indirectly annihilating them.

The land of Israel is particularly vulnerable in this regard. Israel is a critical migration pathway for species from three different continents; without their Israeli habitat, they will not be able to complete their life cycle. The mountain gazelle is just one example of a long-established species declining in Israel as a result of habitat loss and fragmentation. [11] Also in Israel, the once extensive salt marsh of 12 sq. km in Eilat, a critical habitat for migrating birds, has been destroyed. Most of the hotels and lagoons have been carved out of the salt marsh, large areas converted into agricultural fields, and others spaces converted into salt or algae pans for commercial harvesting. The disappearance of indigenous species (eg., Rufous Bush Robin, Dead Sea Sparrow, Great Grey Shrike) from the region indicates the deterioration of the habitat to a point where only the hardiest of the species remain (e.g., House Sparrow, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Graceful Warbler). [12]

Beyond concern for the species, loss of habitats and individual species directly affects the stability of the ecosystems upon which human beings depend. When other species decline, the quality of soil, air, water, and other natural resources decline with them. People need healthy soil to grow food, clean air to breathe, and clean water to drink.

For example, in the United States, over 95% of the scrub pine forest of SE Florida has been converted to citrus groves. [13] Citrus groves, unlike pine forests, consume large amounts of water and utilize large amounts of pesticides and fertilizer. We are already seeing the effects of these activities in the form of sink hole formation and contaminated surface and ground water.

Many recent natural disasters bear out our dependence on the natural habitats that we have destroyed at our own peril. A recent study has shown that areas buffered by coastal forests, such as mangroves, were significantly less damaged by the 2004 tsunami than areas without tree vegetation. [14] Similarly, changes to the Mississippi River and the destruction of wetlands at its mouth left the area around New Orleans unprotected from Hurricane Katrina. [15] In these cases, mankind’s dominion (r-d-h) has indeed led to our descent (y-r-d).

The Halachic Response

In his great work, Horeb, Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains that the Torah’s imperative “lo tashchit—do not destroy (Devarim 20:19) is “the most comprehensive warning to human beings not to misuse the position which Hashem has given them as masters of the world and its matter to capricious, passionate, or merely thoughtless wasteful destruction of anything on earth.” He continues:

“If … you should regard the beings beneath you as objects without rights, not perceiving Hashem Who created them, and therefore desire that they feel the might of your presumptuous mood, instead of using them only as the means of wise human activity—then Hashem’s call proclaims to you, ‘Do not destroy anything!’ Be a man!

Only if you use the things around you for wise human purposes, sanctified by the word of My teaching, only then are you a man and have the right over them which I have given you as a human…However, if you destroy, if you ruin, at that moment you are not a human…and have no right to the things around you. I lent them to you for wise use only; never forget that I lent them to you. As soon as you use them unwisely, be it the greatest or the smallest, you commit treachery against my world, you commit murder and robbery against my property, you sin against Me!

…In truth, there is no one nearer to idolatry than one who can disregard the fact that all things are the creatures and property of Hashem, and who then presumes to have the right, because he has the might, to destroy them according to a presumptuous act of will. Yes, that one is already serving the most powerful idols—anger, pride, and above all ego, which in its passion regards itself as the master of things (Horeb, sections 397,398).

Our relationship with other creatures and the earth is not intended to be one of simple domination and careless use. Our status as the pinnacle of creation is dependent on our protection of the world and its creatures. If we do not protect them, we transgress laws that were intended to keep the world in balance. We also endanger our own health and our very dominion of the world.

What can shiluach ha-kein and ba’al tashchit teach us about the decisions we make when we choose to buy a house or build a road? How might it affect our funding commitments in Israel? How might it affect what food we choose to eat (for example, limiting our eating of fish near extinction)? As Orthodox Jews, we need guidance from our rabbanim in consultation with our environmental experts about the actions we should take to protect our precious world. We must begin a community discussion to identify our responsibility and a halachic response to the problems we face. With the increasing environmental crisis and destruction of species, the time for action is now.

⁴ Cf. Ramo, Shulchan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat, 272:9. Even when causing pain to animals is permitted in pursuit of some greater good, the halakhic ethos mandates our concern and inspires us to minimize or negate such pain. See, for example, Shulkhan Arukh, Even HaEzer 5:14: “Whatever is needed for healing or for some other purpose, there is no prohibition of “pain to animals”, and therefore it is permitted to pluck feathers from living geese [for their down] and one need not be concerned about tza’ar ba’alei chaim. [The Ramo appends however:] Nevertheless, people hold back from doing it, since it is cruel.”
fn5. See for example: BT Baba Metzia 85a
fn8. Ramban on Devarim 22:6
fn9. UN Food and Agricultural Organization, 1993. This amount increased from the loss of 11 million hectares/year in 1981 to 17-20 million hectares/year in 1993.
fn10. Dr. Ransom Myers and Dr. Boris Worm, Nature, May 15 2003. The study further asserts that industrial fisheries take about fifteen years to reduce an individual species of fish by roughly eighty percent.
fn11. Israel Journal of Zoology, 1995
fn12. See Canfei Nesharim’s newsletter, On Eagles’ Wings, October 21, 2005, for a full account (written by Reuven Yosef, Ph.D.) of the situation and a potential solution.
fn13. Donald Richardson in Florida Scientist, 2004.
fn14. Science, October 27, 2005.
fn15. Unnatural Disaster: The Lessons of Katrina, Worldwatch Institute, September 2005.

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