Kashrut, Animal Cruelty, and Vegetarianism
Anybody who has read anything online in the last year about kosher slaughtering methods knows about the controversy that has surrounded some rather nefarious practices by the big AgriProcessors’ plant in Postville, Iowa. Recently a new undercover investigation found some pretty horrible conditions at another large kosher slaughterhouse in Uruguay. Even the Israeli Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, Yonah Metzger, indicated his concern about the new revelations, and about the hoisting and shackling method of slaughter. While there are some very exciting developments in the world of kashrut supervision, such as the Heksher Tzedek initiative of the Conservative movement, and Earth Kosher, an eco-friendly provider of kashrut supervision, I struggle with the ethical implications of eating meat at all.
There certainly has been a strong tradition of vegetarianism in Judaism, and among the adherents to a meat-free lifestyle are several prominent rabbis, including: Chief Rabbi of Britain Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Haifa Sha’ar Yashuv Cohen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland David Rosen, former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Goren, zt”l, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, and Rabbi David Wolpe.
Others, including Rabbi Avraham Yitchak HaCohen Kook, zt”l, and Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, zt’l, were not vegetarian but taught about the lofty ideal of living a vegetarian life (actually, the jury’s still out on Rav Kook - he may have been a vegetarian too).
In my daughters’ religious school at our synagogue, the children are taught from a young age about the injunction to avoid cruelty to animals, צער בעלי חיים. The Hebrew Bible is filled with suggestions that eating meat is not the ideal, and the Sages have suggested that when G-d gave humanity permission to eat meat, it was a nod to human weakness more than a Divine expectation of using animals for food.
But you know, although I rarely eat meat, it is hard to top a nice brisket during Hanukkah, roasted chicken on Shabbat evenings, or a nice big lamb shwarma in Israel (my favorite shop is on דרך הערבה in Eilat, but I also like the little shop next to Moriah Books in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City). It’s hard to avoid those cravings when they hit, and so while I most often maintain a vegetarian diet, and always do at home - with the exception of occasional fish - I am certainly not a vegetarian in the purest sense.
But the ideal is still there for me, and I’d like to think that some day I might be able to go all the way. Have you wrestled with eating meat? Either way, what has motivated your decision?
kol tuv!
Yair
Kudos for your interesting message re vegetarianism. As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), I would like to urge Jews to return to Hashem’s initial vegetarian diet from Gan Eden (Genesis: 1:29 and the diet that we will again have in the Messianic period, according to Rav Kook and others, based on Isaiah’s prophecy of the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the lion eating straw like the ox, etc.
We should consider that even if shechita (ritual slaughter) is carried out perfectly, there are still many abuses of animals on modern intensive factory farms, the consumption of meat has been linked strongly to many chronic, degenerative diseases, and the production of meat is a major contributor to global warming and many other environmental threats to Israel and the entire world.
Also, the production and consumption of meat appears to violate basic Jewish teachings re preservation of our health and lives, proper treatment of animals, protection of the environmant and conservation of resources.
It is time that a consideration of the many moral issues related to animal-based diets be put on the Jewish agenda. For more information, please visit JewishVeg.com/schwartz, where I have over 130 vegetarian-related articles, and to see our one-hour documentary “A SACRED DUTY: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World,” please visit ASacredDuty.com. Thanks, and best wishes, and Shabbat shalom.
Yair, again, your posts fascinate and educate! I’m not sure I fully understand the use of “ideal” with respect to diet. To sustain our own life, we must destroy other life. Whether it is a stalk of wheat for bread, or an Angus steer for our Shabbas brisket, we must destroy what G-d has created. I understand that Rabbis have commented on and made distinctions on this subject at great length, but the vegetarian ideal is one we’ve inferred, is it not? Only G-d knows whether the lamb or the corn stalk suffers more when destroyed. The absolute ideal would be that we exist without destroying plant or animal. Personally, my conscience isn’t bothered by kosher slaughter. I do, however, applaud my vegetarian brethren who choose to follow a different path. After all, we are all working towards the common goal of observing and fulfilling G-d’s law.
Yair: Excellent post.
I have struggled, and continue to struggle, with whether eating meat is at all consistent, or consistent enough, with Jewish ethics. I agree with you that at certain occasions, meat is hard to surpass, but I still beleive, along with Arthur Green, that “vegetarianism [should be] a kashrut for our age.”
Shabbat Shalom!
Richard,
Thanks for your comments, and I have spent some time looking at your site and plan to spend some more. I am hoping that by learning more about the extensive rabbinical literature about vegetarianism I can be inspired ;).
Zachariah,
Thanks for your kind words about my posts! As I understand the writings of the rabbanim listed in my posts, it is not a matter of destroying life, but of inflicting pain on sentient life and ecological impact. That the rabbis have made inferences is accurate, but that is also the very soul of Judaism. The Karaites don’t have this approach (although I argue they make just as many extra-Biblical interpretations as anyone), but it has always been the way of Rabbinic Judaism. Regarding lambs and corn stalks, anyone who has killed an animal with a weapon (gun, knife, arrow, etc…) as I have knows there is something fundamentally different in the response to the act than what one witnesses in the cutting of a corn stalk :)! Whatever the case though, I think it is interesting to explore this area of Rabbinic thought, even if one still enjoys an occasional shwarma or deli sandwich. Thanks again!
kol tuv,
Yair
Great post
I read this really amazing article, though I can’t remember where it was — maybe in Reform Judaism magazine or something. Anyhow, it was about a rabbi who is a vegetarian and why. I’ll try to find it, great piece, anyhow. And to conclude, from Isaac Bashevis Singer: “I’m a vegetarian for health reasons — the health of the animal.”
Hey Yair, great post!
Speaking for myself, I think it’s safe to say that I’m on the same pages you when it comes to vegetarianism. Currently I think I might be best described as a lapsed vegetarian but I’m still a supporter, at least in principle. During my 20s I spent a couple years as a fairly hard-core vegan but that gave away at some point, although I can’t remember why. Since then I’ve been an on-again off-again vegetarian but it’s been pretty inconsistent. Here in Los Angeles Tamara and I keep a kosher dairy kitchen, so that really limits, my meat intake. Having said that, I occasionally bring home, take out roasted chicken from a local kosher restaurant. The chicken is eaten on paper plates, with plastic utensils and most importantly, it never makes it anywhere near the kitchen. It just stays on the dining room table or in the living room, until it’s been eaten. In fact whatever is left over (bones and what wasn’t eaten, which isn’t usually much) goes directly to the trash outside.
So basically although I’m not vegetarian at this point, keeping kosher out of the home and kosher dairy in the home, usually limits my meat/poultry intake to between two and five times a month. Also because Tamara keeps kosher vegetarian and I, myself, only eat kosher meat, I rarely eat meat out because it’s too hard to find something both of us can eat at a restaurant when I’m eating meat.
Now having said everything above and bearing in mind that I support many of the ideas behind vegetarianism. I would like to share the following with you, because apparently not everyone thinks vegetarianism is the Jewish ideal.Take for example this excerpt from the US CJ sourcebook entitled “The Jewish Dietary Laws: Sanctify Life” by James M. Lebeau on page 49. BTW this is a book I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about Kashrut, as it is understood by the Conservative Movement.
Anyhow, just some food for thought from the other side of the coin.
Shabbat shalom
I call myself a vegetarian however, I do eat fish. I think that makes me a Pescatarian. Why do I eat fish and not other meat? Yes, I know fish are living creatures too; but, I do use it mostly for protein. Sometimes I crave fish but I think my body is really craving serious protein. I don’t eat fish weekly and I’m picky about fishy fish and such.
Either way, I’ve been a vegetarian for over ten years and although I didn’t go this route due to any Jewish reasons, I’m glad it’s an issue many Jews are concerned with. Being Jewish is now an added reason I believe in vegetarian or at least humane foods.
Shabbat Shalom
Yair,
I agree that vegetarianism is the ideal for humanity - as it was before The Flood. I believe that Rabbi Joseph Telushkin also promotes this idea (I am not sure if he is a vegetarian himself).
Personally, I gave up red meat about 9-10 years ago. Initially it was because of the cruelty inflicted upon the animals that made be turn away from red meat but now, I also feel that I am working my way toward becoming a vegetarian. I think that G-d truly wants us to be vegetarians but it is not a mandate of G-d for humanity at this point. I still eat the occasional fish and fowl but my hope is to learn to like enough variety of foods that I can become a vegetarian. I think that for all the promotion that Judaism does concerning not being cruel to animals, we as Jews need to step up to the plate and tell the kashrut establishment that it needs to live up to those teachings.
R-E
You wrote:
Yup, you hit the nail right on the head!
Yeah, you’re right. Sometimes I get a wild hair and rebel a little against Rabbinic Judaism. I too know the difference between harvesting corn and slaughtering an animal (I grew up on a farm and hunted as a youth), but I’m not ready to concede that vegetarianism is the ideal standard that all Jews should strive towards. Perhaps I’m selfish and close-minded! I am totally on board, however, with the sentiment expressed here that we need to ensure that kosher slaughter remains humane and strictly supervised so it meets the high standards set forth by our ancestors.