Judaism and Meat

Thoughts on Parashat Re’eh 5784

POLSKĄ WERSJĘ A celebrated Orthodox rabbi gets to heaven and an angel takes him to a banquet that has been prepared in his honor. “We will serve you the most tender meat, the juiciest fish, and fragrant wine,” the angel tells him. “But who was the Mashgiach for this meal?” the rabbi asks. “Ah,” says the angel. “In your honor, God was the Mashgiach.” “Thanks,” says the rabbi. “But I’ll just stick with the fish.”

Is it true that we, Jews are required to eat meat, that eating meat is one of the mitzvot? In fact it is not completely true, i.e. the matter is – as many other things in Judaism – complicated. Our Torah portion for this week contains a verse that is indeed a source of the view that eating meat as such is, in fact, a mitzvah, a positive commandment:

When יהוה enlarges your territory, as promised, and you say, “I shall eat some meat,” for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish. (Deuteronomy 12:20)

Early medieval rabbi and philosopher, Saadia Gaon, indeed included this positive commandment in his version of the 613 commandments. However, in the later reiterations of this list the commandment to eat meat does not appear. What’s going on with this meat then?

We are definitely allowed to eat meat but only of certain, kosher animals and their slaughter needs to be done in a kosher way as well. We are required to separate meat and milk dishes, and one of the reasons for this is that milk is a symbol of life and meat is a symbol of death. We are not allowed to mix these symbolic realms, they need to be separated too. Life is, by definition, pure and holy, death is impure and not holy. However, because Judaism has always been embracing practicality of life, with a goal of elevating it to what is pure, just and holy, God allowed us, Jews to eat meat but only on those mentioned conditions. The rationale behind it is that human beings need to eat in order to survive and animals are a source of food, so this should not be disregarded – human beings need to survive and it’s more important than animal suffering. Historically speaking, we had no other choice than to eat meat. But still, suffering of the animals needs to be minimized.

It’s pretty clear that according to the Torah not only human beings but animals too were created as vegans:

God said, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, [I give] all the green plants for food.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:29-30)

However, things went dramatically wrong in the early Biblical history and according to apocrypha as well as Midrash before the Flood, humans not only started to eat animals but got involved in cannibalism as well. Therefore, God allowed the descendants of Noah to eat meat (of animals, obviously) and in the context of this vision of history this act can be seen as some kind of compromise between God and humankind. A temporary and limited compromise, however, because later, on Mt. Sinai all kinds of restrictions in this matter were introduced to the Jewish people with the revelation of the Torah. From then on, the chosen people were permitted to eat only the meat of kosher animals and only slaughtered in the proper, kosher way. One of the most famous 20th century rabbis – Rav Kook – believed that in the messianic era, Jews (and perhaps other peoples as well) will cease to eat meat completely and become vegetarians or vegans. Therefore, this Biblical vision of human history comes full circle.

In line with the Saadia Gaon’s view, there is an opinion in Talmud that recommends eating meat during Shabbat and Holidays. The rationale for this recommendation says that meat has always been considered a delicacy and it adds to the joy and festivity of the day. But it is by no means an obligation.

To conclude: generally speaking, the Jewish Law recommends eating meat on holidays and Shabbat because it is considered a rich food that can bring pleasure and enjoyment. The Talmud also states that Rabbi Yehudah ben Betera believed that eating meat was only necessary when the Temple was standing, and that wine was now the appropriate accompaniment to bring joy. Additionally, some other authorities say that people who don’t enjoy eating meat are not obligated to do so, even on holidays. (Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, Bi’ur Halacha 529:2). Therefore, while it is allowed then to consider eating meat on festive occasions a mitzvah, it seems equally justified to dismiss this idea and abstain from eating meat at all times.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Mirski