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Why Do Animals Suffer

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Topic: Animals, Childbearing Pain, Death; Why?

Basha Majerczyk wrote:

Dear Rabbi,

Here's something that just popped into my head recently: If the specifics of childbearing are a curse, the result of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden, why do animals experience similar cycles, pain, etc.? Thanks. The ladies of my shul are waiting for an answer.


Dear Basha Majerczyk,

Good question. Let me add to your question: Why do animals die? The Sages answer that Adam and Eve went around to all the animals and fed them some of the forbidden fruit. Whether this is meant literally or not, the idea behind it is that this world is created for us humans to have free will, either to build or destroy. When we sin, we destroy not only ourselves but the world as well.


 
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