What Do We Have to DO?

Mastery of the earth is about “doing” stewardship. Analyze the following traditional Jewish texts, paraphrase their lesson(s), and identify at least one “doing” for each text and lesson(s).

THE TEXT	THE LESSON(S)	Therefore,WE SHOULD (or should not) …
Pour not out the water which others may need.                                      Yebamot 11b
Speak to the earth, and it shall teach you.  Job 12.8
Wherever people stand is holy ground.  Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk 1717-1787
The righteous person senses the feelings of animals. Proverbs 12:10
Regard things as God’s property and use them with a sense of responsibility for wise human purpose. Destroy nothing? Waste nothing! Do not be avaricious! Samson Raphael Hirsch Horeb #56
Whoever breaks vessels, or tears garments, or destroys a building, …, or does away with food in a destructive manner violates the negative mitzvah of bal tashchit (do not waste.)     Kiddushin 32a
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 (fruit) trees…                        Deut. 20:19
All that man sees – the heaven, the earth, and all that fills it – all these things are the external garments of God. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya, Ch. 42
If one can live on wheat (relatively easy to grow) and insists on corn (relatively difficult to grow) s/he is breaking the commandment ‘Do not waste.’ Shabbat, 140b