GEN169 Two significant verses from Genesis help form the basis of the Rabbinic view of the relationship between humanity and the animal world. When God creates the first people, they are told [this verse]. Later, they are told “Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.” Genesis 9:3-4  Clearly, the Biblical world-view inherited and adopted by the halakhah was one in which humanity was given dominion over the animal world. However this is itself problematic since dominion can infer both free usage and responsible guardianship. … both aspects of this relationship find their way into the halakhic material. A final significant Biblical vefrse states “When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees” and has been generalized and interpreted as the basis of the prohibition against bal taskhit, wanton destruction of all property or animals. Thus, Talmud Hullin 7b notes that the killing of animals for no purpose is prohibited based on this verse and Maimonides extends the verse to include all needless destruction in Mishneh Torah, Melakhim 6:10. These three Biblical verses and the prohibition against tzaar baalei hayim [compassion for animals; ban on needless animal suffering – AJL] whether Biblically or Rabbinically based, establish the basis tension between human domination of the world, the sanctity of human life and the responsibility of humanity toward the world. It is this tension that is the root of the struggle with the later source material. REFJEW 112-3