[Avodah] Tzaar Baalei Chayim

[Zev Sero]

> On 7/08/2012 8:35 PM, cantorwolberg at cox.net wrote:
> In common law, it is a criminal act when someone causes an animal unnecessary pain.
> People are arrested for this and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
> Why would Torah law be more lenient?

How is Torah law more lenient?  Tzaar Baalei Chayim is a crime, and one
who is caught violating it would be prosecuted to the full extent of the
law, and given the penalty, which is presumably malkos, just like any
other lav.  What more should one expect?


On 7/08/2012 9:11 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> Also because American Law is more likely to ban the results of a
> crime than Torah is to ban the results of a sin -- ever eat a banana
> or grapefruit? So perhaps the animal isn't prohibited to him afterward.

Bananas and grapefruits are the results of sin?!  AIUI bananas are
natural, and while grapefruits are a hybrid between oranges and pomelos,
this probably happened naturally.

Also, the actual result of the sinful hybridisation of fruit is in fact
assur, and only the next generation, which was not produced by sin and
contains none of the substance of the product of sin, is permitted.
So if grapefruits were produced through sin, the fruit of that particular
tree in which the sin occurred would be assur.  However when animals are
crossbred, even sinfully, the resulting mule is muttar.  So there's no
consistent rule.

-- 
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