[Avodah] torture in halacha???

Zev Sero zev at sero.name
Wed May 16 09:08:33 PDT 2012


On 16/05/2012 9:10 AM, hankman wrote:
> Consider the much vaunted annual baby seal hunt. According to you
> (and me as well), I have a "purpose" - the valuable pelt - but can
> I now choose either a painful or painless way to obtain the pelt at
> will? I would think not

Why do you think not?  How do you square this with the fact that one
may pluck a pen from a living bird?


> and avoidable pain would not be permitted and kept to the minimum
> possible consonant with the "purpose.". IOW if my "purpose" demands
> the death but not the pain of the animal, must I avoid the pain?

"Bror lo misa yafa" is derived from "ve'avhta lere'acha kamocha",
not from tzaar baalei chayim, or even from "pen yosif" or "tachas
asher inah".  So it would seem, lich'orah, only to apply to re'acha,
which includes no animals and only some humans.

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon



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