{"id":49634,"date":"2019-02-18T08:31:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T06:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=49634"},"modified":"2022-09-11T14:35:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T11:35:50","slug":"lessons-for-the-end-time-on-the-fragility-of-existence-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/lessons-for-the-end-time-on-the-fragility-of-existence-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons For The End Time On The Fragility Of Existence – 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[660,374,360],"acf":{"old_id":"49634","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":48376,"related_cahpter":"158","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"#2 Balance human humility with human responsibility","content":"

Are human beings a species of animal, or are they something categorically different?<\/span><\/p>\n

Different biblical voices weigh in on this question, among them the creation stories in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3, the exquisite meditation on the natural world in Psalm 8, and Ecclesiastes in his despairing proclamation, \u201cHumankind has no advantage over beasts, for all is vanity\u201d (Eccl 3:19). Again, from Darwin to the present critical moment, the relationship between human beings and animals has stood near the center of environmental thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rabbis reach a novel and interesting conclusion on this question via a close investigation of the law of mixed species. The Torah prohibits the farmer from plowing with \u201can ox and an ass together\u201d (Deut 22:10). The rabbis take these animals to stand merely as examples of different species: It is equally prohibited, for example, to yoke an ox and a horse together to a plow. <\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, according to the Mishnah (Kil\u2019ayim 8:6), it is permissible for a person to pull a plow alongside an animal. Why should this not also count as impermissible mingling of species? The solution, says the Talmud (Bava Qamma 54b), comes from Deuteronomy 5:14, the fourth commandment of the Decalogue, which mandates Sabbath rest not only for people but for animals. From the equal application of the Sabbath law to people and animals we learn\u2014to paraphrase and elaborate on the Talmud passage following the lead of the Torah Temimah on Deuteronomy 5:14\u2014that human beings are treated as a species of animal for the purpose of rest, and only for the purpose of rest. When it comes to work, human beings are not to be thought of as a species of animal. They are something categorically different, and so the restriction against plowing with mingled species does not apply to the case of a yoke pulled by a human being and an animal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are human beings a species of animal, or are they something categorically different? It depends, we learn. For six days, during the work week, we are humankind and not animals. \u00a0On the Sabbath, when we rest, we are animals of the human kind. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is a certain misanthropy encoded into much thinking on the environment and sustainability. How much more various and beautiful the world would be without people! \u00a0Do they not wreak havoc wherever they go? While it is easy to understand and sympathize with this position, and though the voice from the whirlwind (Job 38-41) arguably indulges it, biblical teaching ultimately prohibits misanthropy. There is no getting around the fact that the Bible assigns value, indeed ultimate value, to human life, and one trembles to imagine a Western world without such a moral bedrock. But the above rabbinic teaching, like some others, allows us to nuance this perspective. We work six days so that we may rest on the Sabbath. <\/span><\/p>\n

We are set apart from the natural world for the sake of transforming ourselves into part of it.<\/span>
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