Reply To: Kosher Cruise

Bal tashchit

“When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down.

Is the tree of the field a man, to go into the siege before you?

However, a tree you know is not a food tree, you may destroy and cut down, and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until its submission.

Pasted from Rabbi Yonatan Neril’s article on Chabad dot org.