EXOD887 In the case of bal tashhit [the prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees (Deut. 20:19-20)… [which] the sages understood [] very broadly as including any act of needless destruction… there is an obvious fit with much else in Jewish law and thought. The Torah is concerned with what we would nowadays call "sustainability." This is particularly true of the three commands ordaining period rest: Shabbat, the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year. On Shabbat all agricultural work is forbidden "so that your ox and your donkey may rest" [this verse]. It sets a limit to our intervention in and the pursuit of economic growth. We become conscious that we are creations, not just creators. The earth is not ours but God's.