The gentleman asks: if we slaughter chickens and cows, don't we have to worry about them becoming extinct?
The more you slaughter them, the more they're going to increase and multiply, and I'll
explain that briefly.
Because if people wouldn't slaughter them, nobody would raise them, and they surely
would become extinct. The mammoth became extinct because nobody made any use of
him.
Chickens are increasing and multiplying today like never before; there are more
chickens in the world than ever before. And so the more you are able to use them, the
more the species is going to be kept alive.Adam denotes "one made of the soil." Not only the first man, but also every Adam comes from the soil which produced the food of which the body is composed. The first duty of an Adam is gratitude to his Creator, and this gratitude he must express most heartily for the food of which he is composed and which maintains his existence. The Korban that he offers to his Creator, whether of meat and blood or of flour or of wine, is fundamentally a demonstration of thanksgiving to Hashem that created the miracle of food, and Who performed the miracle of creating the body from food, and the miracle of maintaining the body by means of food.
But there are indeed more intentions, which can be discerned, some of which we shall
study. Whatever intentions we may discover, yet the basic attitude was not "a man
offers to Hashem" but a man that declares that the offering belongs to Hashem the
Creator. The bringing of the offering is a declaration that He is the Giver. This
intention is the principle that underlies not only Karbanos and tithes, but also all the
Mitzvos of the Torah: to declare gratitude to the Giver.
Important Numbers
