By Richard H. Schwartz
1) The Torah teaches that humans are granted dominion over
animals (Genesis 1:26), giving us a warrant to treat animals in any way we
wish.
Response: Jewish tradition interprets "dominion" as guardianship, or
stewardship: we are called upon to be co-workers with God in improving the
world. Dominion does not mean that people have the right to wantonly exploit
animals, and it certainly does not permit us to breed animals and treat them
as machines designed solely to meet human needs. In "A Vision of
Vegetarianism and Peace," Rav Kook states: "There can be no doubt in the
mind of any intelligent person that [the Divine empowerment of humanity to
derive benefit from nature] does not mean the domination of a harsh ruler,
who afflicts his people and servants merely to satisfy his whim and desire,
according to the crookedness of his heart. It is unthinkable that the Divine
Law would impose such a decree of servitude, sealed for all eternity, upon
the world of God, Who is 'good to all, and His mercy is upon all His works'
(Psalms 145:9)." This view is reinforced by the fact that immediately after
God gave humankind dominion over animals (Genesis 1:26), He prescribed
vegetarian foods as the diet for humans (Genesis 1:29).
2) The Torah teaches that only people are created in the Divine
Image, meaning that God places far less value on animals.
Response: While the Torah states that only human beings are created
"in the Divine Image" (Genesis 5:1), animals are also God's creatures,
possessing sensitivity and the capacity for feeling pain. God is concerned
that they are protected and treated with compassion and justice. In fact,
the Jewish sages state that to be "created in the Divine Image," means that
people have the capacity to emulate the Divine compassion for all creatures.
"As God is compassionate," they teach, "so you should be compassionate."
3) Inconsistent with Judaism, vegetarians elevate animals to a level equal to or greater than that of people. Response: Vegetarians' concern for animals and their refusal to treat animals cruelly does not mean that vegetarians regard animals as being equal to people. There are many reasons for being vegetarian other than consideration for animals, including concerns about human health, ecological threats, and the plight of hungry people. Because humans are capable of imagination, rationality, empathy, compassion, and moral choice, we should strive to end the unbelievably cruel conditions under which farm animals are currently raised. This is an issue of sensitivity, not an assertion of equality with the animal kingdom.
4) Vegetarianism places greater priority on animal rights than on the many problems related to human welfare. Response: Vegetarian diets are not beneficial only to animals. They improve human health, help conserve food and other resources, and put less strain on endangered ecosystems. In view of the many threats related to today's livestock agriculture (such as deforestation and global climate change), working to promote vegetarianism may be the most important action that one can take for global sustainability.
5) By putting vegetarian values ahead of Jewish teachings,
vegetarians are, in effect, creating a new religion with values contrary to
Jewish teachings.
Response: Jewish vegetarians are not placing so-called "vegetarian values"
above Torah principles but are challenging the Jewish community to apply
Judaism's splendid teachings at every level of our daily lives. Vegetarians
argue that Jewish teachings that we must treat animals with compassion,
guard our health, share with hungry people, protect the environment,
conserve resources, and seek peace, are all best applied through vegetarian
diets.
6) Jews must eat meat on Shabbat and Yom Tov (Jewish holidays).
Response: According to the Talmud (T. B. Pesachim 109a), since the
destruction of the Temple, Jews are not required to eat meat in order to
rejoice on sacred occasions. This view is reinforced in the works Reshit
Chochmah and Kerem Shlomo and Rabbi Chizkiah Medini's Sdei Chemed, which
cites many classical sources on the subject. Several Israeli chief rabbis,
including Shlomo Goren, late Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Shear
Yashuv Cohen, Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Haifa, have been or are strict
vegetarians.
7) The Torah mandated that Jews eat korban Pesach and other
korbanot (sacrifices).
Response: The great Jewish philosopher Maimonides believed that God
permitted sacrifices as a concession to the common mode of worship in
Biblical times. It was felt that had Moses not instituted the sacrifices,
his mission would have failed and Judaism might have disappeared. The Jewish
philosopher Abarbanel reinforced Maimonides' position by citing a midrash
(Rabbinic teaching) that indicates God tolerated the sacrifices because the
Israelites had become accustomed to sacrifices in Egypt, but that He
commanded they be offered only in one central sanctuary in order to wean the
Jews from idolatrous practices.
8) Jews historically have had many problems with some animal
rights groups, which have often opposed shechita (ritual slaughter) and
advocated its abolishment.
Response: Jews should consider switching to vegetarianism not because of the
views of animal rights groups, whether they are hostile to Judaism or not,
but because it is the diet most consistent with Jewish teachings. It is the
Torah, not animal rights groups, which is the basis for observing how far
current animal treatment has strayed from fundamental Jewish values. As
Samson Raphael Hirsch stated: "Here you are faced with God's teaching, which
obliges you not only to refrain from inflicting unnecessary pain on any
animal, but to help and, when you can, to lessen the pain whenever you see
an animal suffering, even through no fault of yours."
9) The restrictions of shechita minimize the pain to animals in
the slaughtering process, and thus fulfill Jewish laws on proper treatment
of animals.
Response: This ignores the cruel treatment of animals on "factory
farms" in the many months prior to slaughter. Can we ignore the
force-feeding of huge amounts of grain to ducks and geese to produce foie
gras, the removal of calves from their mothers shortly after birth to raise
them for veal, the killing of over 250 million male chicks immediately after
birth at egg-laying hatcheries in the U.S. annually, the placing of hens in
cages so small that they can't raise even one wing, and the many other
horrors of modern factory farming?
10) If Jews do not eat meat, they will be deprived of the
opportunity to fulfill many mitzvot (commandments).
Response: By not eating meat, Jews are actually fulfilling many mitzvot:
showing compassion to animals, preserving health, conserving resources,
helping to feed the hungry, and preserving the earth. And by abstaining from
meat, Jews reduce the chance of accidentally violating several prohibitions
of the Torah, such as mixing meat and milk, eating non-kosher animals, and
eating forbidden fats or blood. There are other cases where Torah laws
regulate things that God would prefer people not do at all. For example, God
wishes people to live in peace, but he provides commandments relating to
war, knowing that human beings will quarrel and seek victories over others.
Similarly, the Torah laws that restrict taking female captives in wartime
are a concession to human weakness. Indeed, the sages go to great lengths to
deter people from taking advantage of such dispensations.
11) Judaism teaches that it is wrong not to take advantage of the
pleasurable things that God has put on the earth. Since He put animals on
the earth, and it is pleasurable to eat them, is it not wrong to refrain
from eating meat?
Response: Can eating meat be pleasurable to a sensitive person when he or
she knows that, as a result, their health is endangered, grain is wasted,
the environment is damaged, and animals are being cruelly treated? One can
indulge in pleasure without doing harm to living creatures. There are many
other cases in Judaism where actions that people may consider pleasurable
are forbidden or discouraged - such as the use of tobacco, drinking liquor
to excess, having sexual relations out of wedlock, and hunting.
12) A movement by Jews toward vegetarianism would lead to less
emphasis on kashrut (dietary laws) and eventually a disregard of these laws.
Response: Quite the contrary. In many ways, becoming a vegetarian makes it
easier and less expensive to observe the laws of kashrut. This might attract
many new adherents to keeping kosher, and eventually to other important
Jewish practices. As a vegetarian, one need not be concerned with mixing
milchigs (dairy products) with fleichigs (meat products), waiting three or
six hours after eating meat before being allowed to eat dairy products,
storing four complete sets of dishes (two for regular use and two for
Passover use), extra silverware, pots, pans, etc., and many other
considerations incumbent upon the non-vegetarian who wishes to observe
kashrut.
13) If everyone became vegetarian, butchers, shochtim
(slaughterers), and others dependent for a living on the consumption of meat
would lack work.
Response: There could be a shift from the production of animal products to
that of nutritious vegetarian dishes. In England during World War II, when
there was a shortage of meat, butchers relied mainly on the sale of fruits
and vegetables. Today, new businesses could sell tofu, miso, felafel, soy
burgers, and vegetarian cholent (Sabbath hot dish). Besides, the shift
toward vegetarianism will be gradual, providing time for a transition to
other jobs. The same kind of question can be asked about other moral issues.
What would happen to arms merchants if we had universal peace? What would
happen to some doctors and nurses if people took better care of themselves,
stopped smoking, improved their diets, and so on? Immoral or inefficient
practices should not be supported because some people earn a living in the
process.
14) If everyone became vegetarian, animals would overrun the
earth.
Response: This concern is based on an insufficient understanding of animal
behavior. For example, there are millions of turkeys around at Thanksgiving
not because they want to help celebrate the holiday, but because farmers
breed them for the dinner table. Dairy cows are artificially inseminated
annually so that they will constantly produce milk. Before the establishment
of modern intensive livestock agriculture, food supply and demand kept
animal populations relatively steady. An end to the manipulation of
animals??reproductive tendencies to suit our needs would lead to a decrease,
rather than an increase, in the number of animals. We are not overrun by
animals that we do not eat, such as lions, elephants, and crocodiles.
15) Instead of advocating vegetarianism, we should alleviate the
evils of factory farming so that animals are treated better, less grain is
wasted, and less health-harming chemicals are used.
Response: The breeding of animals is "big business". Animals are raised the
way they are today because it is very profitable. Improving conditions, as
suggested by this assertion, would certainly be a step in the right
direction, but it has been strongly resisted by the meat industry since it
would greatly increase already high prices.Why not abstain from eating meat
as a protest against present policies while trying to improve them? Even
under the best of conditions, why take the life of a creature of God, "whose
tender mercies are over all His creatures" (Psalms 145:9), when it is not
necessary for proper nutrition?
16) One can work to improve conditions for animals without being a vegetarian. Response: Certainly, animal abuse is a widespread problem and there are many ways to improve conditions for animals. However, one should keep in mind that factory farming is the primary source of animal abuse in this country. According to FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement), "The number of warm-blooded animals brutalized and slaughtered each year is approximately 70 times the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times the number killed in pounds." They also reported that almost ten billion farm animals are killed annually to produce food. A typical meat-eating animal welfare advocate is personally responsible for the slaughter of twenty-two warm-blooded animals per year, 1,500 in an average lifetime.
17) If vegetarian diets were best for health, doctors would
recommend them.
Response: Unfortunately, while doctors are devoted to the well-being of
their patients, many lack information about the basic relationship between
food and health, because nutrition is not sufficiently taught at most
medical schools. Also, many patients are resistant to making dietary
changes. The accepted approach today seems to be to prescribe medications
first and, perhaps, recommend a diet change as an afterthought. However,
there now seems to be increasing awareness on the part of doctors about the
importance of proper nutrition, but the financial power of the beef and
dairy lobbies and other groups who gain from the status quo prevents rapid
changes.
18) I enjoy eating meat. Why should I give it up?
Response: If one is solely motivated by what will bring pleasure,
perhaps no answer to this question would be acceptable. But Judaism wishes
us to be motivated by far more: doing mitzvot, performing good deeds and
acts of charity, sanctifying ourselves in the realm of the permissible,
helping to feed the hungry, pursuing justice and peace, etc. Even if one is
primarily motivated by considerations of pleasure and convenience, the
negative health effects of animal-centered diets should be taken into
account. One cannot enjoy life when one is not in good health.
Go on to: Cheap Grace
Return to: September - October 2008 Issue
Return to: Humane Religion Magazine