[Avodah] The halakhos of ecology

[Micha Berger]

>From Areivim (the authors can take credit if they choose, but I'm too
lazy to ask):
:>BTW, What is the Torah's take on protecting endangered species? Do we care 
:>about this at all?

: I can't think of anything in any Torah source that even suggests we should
: care about the extinction of species with no known use.  Useful species,
: of course, are subject to bal tashchit, but they're rarely in danger,
: because people cultivate them or take other measures to preserve them.

"No known use"? Or "no use" -- which would be the contrapositive of your
next sentence.

Bal tashchis gives priority to sacing fruit trees over non-fruit bearing
ones. But can we say that any part of the beri'ah is really unnecessary?
Didn't David haMelekh ask this about spiders, only to be proven wrong?

-Micha

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Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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