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Everything created was created for the purpose of serving G-d's ultimate plan for his creation which is to acknowledge G-d. What lesson or use can we make from mosquitos?

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    Can you edit in a source for your opening assertion? Can you edit in more information about why you're interested in a lesson from mosquitos, in particular?
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    Sep 29, 2014 at 15:35
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    In this RadioLab episode, one of the guest scientists makes the intriguing suggestion that a major benefit of mosquitos is that they've kept pesky humans, for a long time at least, from invading and destroying rain forests. After listening to that episode, I was considering posting a question here about whether Judaism has a stance on humanity choosing to eradicate a particular species.
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    Sep 29, 2014 at 15:37
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    That Hashem needed annoying insects despite the trouble they cause so we can learn and tolerate people who annoy us (whom Hashem also created).
    – Avrohom Yitzchok
    Sep 29, 2014 at 15:38
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    To spread malaria and west nile virus and in general to pester and bother people and animals.
    – user6591
    Sep 29, 2014 at 15:55
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    shturem.org/index.php?section=news&id=72880
    – Yishai
    Sep 29, 2014 at 16:01

4 Answers 4

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This is adressed in the Tiferes Yisroel on Avos, ch. 4 mishna 3, oisios 20 & 21.

The mishna says ואל תהי מפליג מכל דבר, don't be seperated from anything. The T.Y. explains this to mean not to question any of Hashems creations and to assume there is a good reason for them, even if we don't know the reason. He singles out the fly the gnat and snakes and scorpions as questionable being that they bite and are bothersome. He says that flies and gnat help in so far as their flying around helps move stale air, therefore in hot humid places we find more of these bugs. End quote.

We perhaps won't appreciate his scientific explenation nowadays but his basic intent still stands.

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Yishai left a comment with a link to an article, in which the Lubavitcher Rebbe remarks that the mosquito is a creature that only takes, and doesn't give....

The mosquito does serve somewhat as a giver, the Rebbe explained. Its contribution is the lesson it provides for us. The mosquito is the one who teaches us the very concept that to be a G-dly creature in this world you must contribute!

You can learn a lesson from everything you see -- either what to do, or what not to do!
(~ a wise friend)

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  • If this is good logic, then it is tautological that everything in the world serves a purpose. I always assumed the latter claim was more meaningful than that
    – Double AA ♦
    Sep 29, 2014 at 16:34
  • @DoubleAA Not sure what you mean by that.
    – MTL
    Sep 29, 2014 at 17:58
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    He means that this has given automatic purpose to anything that exists, and therefore removes significant meaning from saying that everything has a purpose. (I think.) cc @DoubleAA
    – Y     e     z
    Sep 29, 2014 at 18:19
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    @msh210, although the article only alludes to it, it is a reference to Tanya chapter 24 יתוש שמכניס ואינו מוציא שהיא קליפ' היותר תחתונה ורחוקה מבחי' הקדושה המשפעת בתכלית הריחוק
    – Yishai
    Sep 29, 2014 at 20:43
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    @msh210, un-G-dly does not mean "without practical purpose". You are conflating two different points. The article is about being a giver (a basic quality of G-dliness), not about defending the purpose of a mosquito. The answer extends that into therefore serving a purpose (it teaches a lesson).
    – Yishai
    Sep 30, 2014 at 6:21
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the purpose of nature is to provide a misleading appearance that the world carries itself. Therefore, when nature was created, with it came the loopholes for interpreting the world according to the view that the universe always carried itself. Even though, it was 5 minutes old, Adam looked like a 30 year old man. Likewise, the light from stars millions of light years away reached the Earth. It is part of the creation of nature.

This is why we have evidence in nature of common ancestry (chromosome fusion, viral DNA, etc.), or that the world appears billions of years old as a result of some cosmological accident, etc. etc. Likewise, we have things which don't seem to be of use to man, such as mosquitos, deep-sea creatures, or a vast universe.

source: based mostly on some lectures I heard from Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb

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  • Is this answer claiming that there is no particular significance to the existence of mosquitoes - that they are solely a consequence of the patterns of behavior in the natural world (which look to us like natural laws)?
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    Sep 30, 2014 at 18:20
  • related? meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/2179/…
    – Y     e     z
    Sep 30, 2014 at 18:21
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    @IsaacMoses there may be other purposes, as other answers pointed out, but the point is that there does not have to be a particular purpose for each and every specie or aspect of creation as the OP seems to assume
    – ray
    Sep 30, 2014 at 18:42
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Mosquitoes exist to feed the bats.

All animals have a place in the food-chain.

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    Welcome to Mi Yodeya. Is this your own idea or can you edit in a source that this is why according to Judaism? Thanks.
    – Monica Cellio
    Sep 29, 2014 at 19:14

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