THE
V E G E T A R I A N
MITZVAH !
THE
V E G E T A R I A N
MITZVAH !
“A whole galaxy
of central rabbinic
and spiritual leaders … has
been affirming vegetarianism
as the ultimate meaning
of Jewish moral
teaching.”
Rabbi Isaac Ha-Levi Herzog,
Former Chief Rabbi of
“We should make
all our consumption
as holy as
possible…
The more we
live as if
this were the
messianic age the
closer we are
to it.”
Rabbi Rami Shapiro
“There is no
question that the
Torah’s ideal is
vegetarianism.”
Rabbi Bonnie Koppell
“I see vegetarianism
as a mitzvah.”
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
The mass production and
consumption of meat contradicts many Jewish teachings
and Jewish values, gravely harming
people, animals, communities, and the environment.
Consumption of animals – and the ways in which meat is
produced today –
conflicts with Judaism in at least ten important ways.
Each way is important, each implies the others, and
all are necessary.
Table of Contents:
1. Personal Health & Safety
2. Compassion for Others
3. Protecting the World & Environmentalism
4. Conservation & Efficiency
5. Knowledge & Spirituality
6. Charity & Righteousness
7. Peace & Justice
8. Concern for the Community
9. Keeping Kashrut
10.
Fighting Fascism
11.
Myths &
Realities Regarding Judaism & Vegetarianism
12.
Bonus Quotes
13.
Jewish
Vegetarians of
14.
Jewish Vegetarian
Articles
15.
Jewish Vegetarian
Books
16.
Jewish Vegetarian
Cookbooks
17.
Jewish Vegetarian
Recipe Web Sites
18.
Jewish Vegetarian
Cooking Video
19.
Jewish Vegetarian
Videos
20.
Related Jewish
Organizations
21.
Kosher Vegetarian
Organizations
22.
Miscellaneous
Jewish Vegetarian Resources
23.
Kosher Vegetarian
Restaurants
24.
Kosher Vegetarian
Caterers
25.
Free Vegetarian
Starter Kits
26.
English-Hebrew
27.
Translations?
1. Personal Health
& Safety:
Health and the protection of life are repeatedly
emphasized, and even prioritized, in Jewish teachings. While Judaism teaches
that we should be very careful about sh’mirat
haguf, preserving our bodies and health, and pekuach nefesh,
protecting our lives at almost any cost, numerous scientific studies
have linked animal-based diets directly to heart disease and heart attacks (the #1 cause of death in the U.S.), various
forms of cancer (e.g.,
lung, colon, breast, prostate, stomach, and pancreas) (the #2 cause of death),
stroke (the #3 cause of death), high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis,
asthma, atherosclerosis,
aneurysms, rheumatoid arthritis, impotence, endometriosis, gallstones, gout, Alzheimer’s, and various other very serious ailments. About 2/3
of diseases in the
Further, since more than half of all antibiotics
in the U.S. are given to livestock (plus immense amounts of chemicals, steroids, hormones,
and other drugs),
resistant bacteria are increasing at an alarming rate, creating untreatable superbugs, like
The meat industry is unhealthy and unsafe. Eating
meat is more dangerous and more destructive than even smoking cigarettes. A
vegetarian diet (one that does not include any
animals) or a vegan diet (one that does not include any animal products,
including meat, dairy, and eggs) can help prevent, and sometimes reverse, many
of these health- and life-threatening conditions, while also protecting animals
and the environment. “Since nutrition is the main determinant of health and the
heart of preventive medicine”, according to Jay Levine, M.D., “becoming a
vegetarian is the best way to fulfill these mandates” of preserving one’s
health and avoiding things harmful to health. Dayeinu.
Take care of your lives… Guard yourselves most
diligently.
A danger to health takes precedence over ritual
obligations.
Talmud, Chulin 10a
“One must avoid that which harms the body and accustom
oneself to that which is helpful and helps the body become stronger.”
Moses Maimonides (the Rambam), 12th
century rabbi and physician, Mishnah
Torah,
Hilchot Deot 4:1
“It is forbidden to eat anything that leads to any
disease.”
Lomzha Rav, Divrie
Malchiel 2:53
“While
treating sick people is certainly a Torah
obligation, Judaism puts a priority on the prevention
of disease.”
Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen and Richard H. Schwartz
“All new infectious diseases of human beings to emerge in the past 20
years have had an animal source.”
Lancet,
“Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of
life on Earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
Albert
Einstein, nominated to be the 2nd
President of Israel
“As it is halachically prohibited to harm oneself and
as healthy, nutritious vegetarian alternatives are easily available,
meat consumption has become halachically
unjustifiable.”
Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland,
“Vegetarianism: An Orthodox Jewish Perspective”
2. Compassion for
Others: 
While Judaism forbids tsa’ar ba’alei chayim,
inflicting unnecessary pain on animals, and encourages people to be a mentsch,
a good, kind, and compassionate person, most farm animals – including
most certified organic, most so-called “free range”,
and most animals raised for kosher and
other consumers – are raised on “factory farms”,
where they suffer in cramped, confined, and cruel places, and are often
drugged, mutilated, raped, tortured, and denied fresh air, water, sunlight,
exercise, and any enjoyment of life, whether on Shabbat or any other day,
before they are slaughtered on dis-assembly lines. Dayeinu.
Further, workers as well as animals are exploited in the
production of meat and other animal products, yet Jewish tradition has various
teachings against oshek, labor
exploitation and types of stealing.
Dayeinu.
Just as we were strangers in
In the Torah, Jacob, Moses, and David were all
shepherds who cared for animals. Moses is specifically praised for how he
showed compassion towards animals, such as a lamb, as well as people. Abraham
and Sarah were notorious for their hospitality and kindness toward others.
Rebecca was acceptable as a wife for Jacob based on the concern she showed for
animals, giving water to camels in addition to the thirsty person who asked for
it. Noah is considered righteous and he cares for the lives of his many
animals. In contrast, two hunters mentioned in the Torah, Nimrod and
Esau, are represented as villains. Further, according to legend, Rabbi
Vegetarianism is an easy and
effective way of putting one’s values into action, practicing compassion with every meal, every day, thereby reducing pain,
suffering, and death for those who can’t speak for or defend themselves. Dayeinu.
“Blessed is He who has mercy
on the Earth; blessed is He who has mercy on the creatures.”
Artscroll
Sidur
“It is forbidden, according to the law of
the Torah, to inflict pain upon any living creature.
On the contrary, it is our duty to relieve
the pain of any creature.”
Schulchan
Aruch [Code of Jewish Law, literally the Set Table],
bk. 4, ch. 191, p. 84
“Jews are rachmanin b’nei rachmanin
[compassionate children of compassionate ancestors] and
one who is not compassionate cannot truly be a
descendant of our father Abraham.”
“Those who
have the capacity to eliminate a wrong and do not do so bear the responsibility
for its consequences”.
Talmud, Shabbat 54b
“People should consider themselves, and the worms, and all creatures as
friends in the universe,
for we are all created beings whose abilities are
God-given.”
Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi
“It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the
existence of humananity.
On the contrary, all the other beings too have been
intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of anything else...
There is no difference between the pain of humans and
the pain of other animals.”
Rabbi
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), Guide for the Perplexed
“In the killing of animals, there is cruelty.”
Rabbi Joseph Albo, Sefer
Ha-Ikarim, Vol.
“To make animals suffer is forbidden by the Torah.”
Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of
“The dietary laws are intended to teach us compassion
and lead us gently [back] to vegetarianism.”
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi of Efrat
“It’s hard for me to understand how any Jewish people,
but particularly religious Jewish people,
who are talking in terms of compassion and love for
God’s creation, at the same time can sit down and eat animals that have been
slaughtered
and in most cases have been kept in disgustingly cruel
conditions.”
Phillip Campbell
“Being compassionate toward animal life is not just a
matter of being responsible for animal life,
which we have very clearly laid down in the Torah,
expounded by our sages,
but is a matter of imbuing ourselves with the right
kind of values. If we are insensitive towards animal life, then we desensitize
ourselves as human beings.
And therefore a truly sensitive human being,
compassionate towards other human beings, should be compassionate towards
animals.”
Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
“Our task must be to free ourselves by
widening our circle of compassion
to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature.”
Albert
Einstein, nominated to be the 2nd
President of Israel
“I am a vegetarian for health reasons - the health of the animal.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yiddish author and Nobel Prize laureate
3. Protecting the
World & Environmentalism: 
While Judaism teaches that we are to
be shomrei adamah, partners in tikun olam, re-creating,
preserving, and healing the world (Talmud,
Shabbat 10a), mass production of meat
contributes substantially to air and water
pollution, overuse of chemicals
and fossil fuels,
greenhouse
gas emission and global
warming (what Rabbi Arthur
Waskow calls “global scorching” and what many describe as possibly the biggest social, political, economic, environmental, and moral
problem we face), the destruction of tropical rain forests, coral reefs, mangroves, and
other habitats, soil erosion, deforestation, desertification, species
extinction, loss of biodiversity, and various other forms of global environmental degradation. Vegetarianism is a form of eco-eating that protects the world. Dayeinu.
A spiritual view of the world recognizes the awesome
power and beauty of creation, while it abhors destruction, embracing what Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel described as “radical amazement” in the presence of
the divine. We are to be creators, not destroyers; holy, not profane;
compassionate, not cruel; acting godly in imitation of the divine, not
devilishly. Dayeinu.
Vegetarianism is more sustainable because vegetarians
tread much more lightly on our precious but imperiled planet, thereby
protecting the world and its inhabitants from unnecessary harm, while guarding
it for future generations. Dayeinu.
“The environmental destruction caused by the
animal-agriculture industry, by the amount of dung produced,
by the amount of sewage that gets poured into our
waterways and our systems,
there’s no doubt that it’s damaging our world and it’s
… in violation of the Jewish mandate to protect and observe and care for the
Earth. …
We are ignoring things that are essential and that are
critical to the character of Judaism, in order to meet our selfish desires and
wants.”
“Those rabbis who really believe in tikkun olam should actively discourage
their congregants from eating meat of any kind at any time for any reason.
That is possibly the greatest tikkun that we can try to do at this
time in our history….
Rabbis, if you really believe in tikkun olam - stop eating meat and start
pushing a vegetarian diet among your congregants.”
“The burning of gasoline and the
raising of cattle are two of the most planet-scorching actions that we
take.”
“There’s no doubt about it from an ecological point of
view, simply even I’d say mathematical point of view,
vegetarianism is a much more calculated way to manage
this world.
And there is indeed a direct ideological connection
between responsible stewardship and vegetarianism.”
Samuel Chayen, Director of the Environment at Mifal
Chayim
“Human beings and the natural world are on a collision
course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the
environment and on critical resources.
If not checked, many of our current practices put at
serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal
kingdoms,
and may so alter the living world that it will be
unable to sustain life in the manner that we know.
Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the
collision our present course will bring about.”
“World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” (November 1992),
signed by about 1700 scientists, including the
majority of living Nobel laureates in the sciences
“The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving
force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage
now threatening the human future --- deforestation,
erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change,
biodiversity loss, social injustice, the
destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.”
Editors, World Watch,
July/August 2004
4. Conservation
& Efficiency: 
While Judaism teaches bal
tashchit (concern for the environment, based on
Deuteronomy 20:19, 20), that we should not waste or
unnecessarily destroy anything of value (conservation), and that we
should not use more than what is necessary to accomplish a purpose
(efficiency), meat production requires the very wasteful use of land, topsoil, water, fossil fuels
and other forms of energy, labor, grain, and other vital resources, in addition
to various toxic chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones. For example, it can require approximately 78 calories of non-renewable
fossil fuel for each calorie of protein obtained from factory-farmed beef, but
only 2 calories of fossil fuel to produce a calorie of protein from soybeans. Dayeinu.
The meat industry is exceptionally
wasteful, inefficient, costly, and destructive, even while better alternatives
are plentiful, easily obtainable, and healthier for consumers, workers,
animals, and our environment. The world and its inhabitants can’t afford
animal-based diets. Dayeinu.
Vegetarianism preserves the resources necessary for
life, as well as the healthy and sustainable conditions that support life, for
this and future generations. Dayeinu.
"This
is the way of pious and elevated people... they will not waste even a mustard
seed,
and they
are distressed at every ruination and spoilage they see, and if they are able
to save,
they will
save anything from destruction with all of their power...”
Rabbi Aaron HaLevi of Barcelona, 13th century, Sefer HaChinuch
529
“Eating meat is not an ecologically efficient way to feed ourselves or
the world.”
Deborah Kellman,
founder of Milk & Honey, a kosher vegetarian catering company
5. Knowledge & Spirituality: 
Judaism often emphasizes the
interplay between the thinking and the doing, highlighting the vital role of kavanah,
spiritual intention and concentration, as a precondition for action. That is a
motivation behind the blessings, of which there is none specifically over meat.
As it says in the Shulchan Aruch, “It is not fitting to bless God over something which He created and
which man has slain.” According to custom, meat-eating was permitted after the
Flood of Noah as a temporary concession, with elaborate restrictions, to human
weakness for those with a “lust for meat”. Unlike for grains, fruits, and
vegetables, and much else, for instance, there is no special blessing over meat
and no mitzvah to eat it. Roberta
Kalechofsky, Ph.D. concurs, saying
that “Judaism is so rich in blessings.… [yet] there’s no special blessing
[over] meat, it’s just not there.” Dayeinu.
In our creation story, the term nefesh chayah, living being or living soul, is applied to people and animals. Eating meat can be
considered a Chilul HaShem, a
desecration of God’s name, due to the destruction of life and spirit entailed,
while eating plants could be considered a Kiddush
HaShem, a blessing and sanctification of God’s name, due to the protection
of health and life of both animals and humans. We are said in the Talmud to be rachmanin b’nei
rachmanin, compassionate children of compassionate ancestors, but only if
we act so. And when we do, we can be a “light unto the nations” and a light
unto ourselves. Dayeinu.
While some argue that “flesh” is necessary to properly
enjoy Shabbat and our other holy days, we can follow the Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi
Israel ben Eliezer, founder of Chasidism), who said that “flesh” could be meant
in the Biblical sense and that one could enjoy the physical touch of another
living human being instead of the meat of a dead animal. For those who
erroneously think it might be a mitzvah
to eat meat during holy days, it is a mitzvah haba’ah al y’dei aveirah, a mitzvah that
derives from a sin; it is the fruit of a poisonous tree, and therefore no mitzvah at all. Dayeinu.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rabbi Eleazar hid in a cave for
thirteen years after Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was condemned to death by the
Roman conquerors for speaking out against them, following the destruction of the
Second Temple and the murders of Rabbi Akiva (c. 50-135 CE) and many of his
students. They were sustained by their cave, a nearby carob tree, a local
stream, and their studies of the Torah. Rabbi Shimon taught that our
world and the unseen “higher” worlds are unified, as manifestations of the
Divine Soul, and that the meaning of life is to reunify Creation with the
source of Creation. He also affirmed that the “crown” of a good name is the
most important thing and within the reach of everyone. Dayeinu.
It is also part of our teaching, from Hillel’s
disagreement with Shamai over lighting of the menorah in the Talmud, that ma’alin bakodesh v’ayn moridim ,“in sacred matters we must increase holiness rather
than decrease it”. Dayeinu.
Further, it is believed by Maimonides, Rabbi
Abraham Isaac Kook, and other Chief
Rabbis and Torah scholars that in the messianic age of the Third Temple,
when “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb… and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox” (Isaiah 11:6-7),
Temple sacrifices as well as all
other food will be vegetarian. Dayeinu.
Vegetarians
live closer to the messianic age in the present, while also hastening it for
the world. As Rabbi Rami Shapiro reminds us, “Vegetarianism is central to holy
living as Judaism has understood it for thousands of years.” Vegetarianism is a mitzvah, a
sacred duty and good deed. Dayeinu.
“Aside from the cruelty, rage and fury in
killing animals, and the fact that it teaches human beings the bad trait of
shedding blood for naught;
eating the flesh even of select animals
will yet give rise to a mean and insensitive soul.”
Rabbi
Joseph Albo, c. 1380-1444
“The Holy One, blessed be He, said to
Moses:
Eating meat is not essential to one’s
nutrition; rather, it is a matter of gluttony, of filling one’s belly and of
increasing one's lust.
Meat also gives rise in human beings to a
cruel and evil temperament. ....
Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, did
not tell Moses that He would give the Israelites meat, rather bread,
which is a fitting food and essential for
the human temperament.”
Don Isaac Abarbanel
(1437-1508), commentary on Exodus 16:4
“It [eating meat] is an overall moral
shortcoming of [hu]mankind, in that it does not promote good and lofty
sentiments”
Rav Abraham Isaac ha-Cohen Kook (1865-1935), 1st Chief Rabbi of Pre-State Israel, Hazon ha-Tzimhonut ve-ha-Shalom me-Behinah
Toranit
“There is no question that the Torah’s ideal is vegetarianism.”
“I am a vegetarian precisely because I am
a believing Jew who strives to live in accordance with the ethical teachings of
my heritage….
I believe that if you follow the most
sublime and noble values in our tradition, in this day and age,
then there is an imperative to live a vegetarian
lifestyle. … It is a halachic
imperative.
Compassion for animals is a halachic imperative. And being
responsible also for your environment and for your globe,
which also have ramifications coming out
of the whole question of the meat industry and meat consumption, are all
fundamental Jewish questions.
So I, simply put, am a vegetarian because
I am a religious Jew.”
Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
“There is plenty in the Torah that resonates with vegetarianism.
God says to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,
‘I give you all these plants
and fruits to eat.’ Eating meat doesn’t come up.
I find that the way I eat is
in keeping with my Jewish practice…I don’t think Judaism tells you ‘you have to
be a vegetarian’,
but there is a whole variety
of clues in the literature that tell us it is a good thing.”
Rabbi David Small
“Vegetarianism is a response to today’s world... Meat-eating, like polygamy, fit into an earlier stage of human history.”
Rabbi
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
“And God
said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘I now establish My covenant with you
and your offspring to come,
and with
every living thing that is with you—birds, cattle, and every wild beast as well—
all that
have come out of the ark, every living thing on Earth…”
Genesis
9:8-10 (the first covenant in the Torah,
which suggests that animals also have souls and rights as they are included in
this covenant)
“I became a vegetarian …
after serious studies of the book of Genesis, particularly the earliest
chapters.”
“When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God.”
Isaac
Bashevis Singer, Yiddish author and
Nobel Prize laureate
6. Charity
& Righteousness: 
While Judaism stresses the
importance of tzedakah,
that we be kind, assist the poor and weak, and share our food with the hungry,
about 3/4 of major U.S. crops - e.g., corn, wheat, soybeans, oats,
alfalfa - are fed to the tens of billions of animals destined to
be slaughtered for meat, while millions of people worldwide die from hunger and its effects each year. Dayeinu.
About one billion poor people chronically suffer from hunger,
malnutrition, and their debilitating effects, tens of thousands of them
consequently dying each day, about one every few seconds, while millions of
affluent people die from the ill effects of over-eating and over-consumption,
primarily of animal products. Dayeinu.
The
way of the tzadik is the way of chesed (lovingkindness), compassion,
charity, and righteousness for all
living beings. Vegetarianism is a major form of tzedakah, on a daily basis, which can do as much for the giver as
the receiver. Dayeinu.
“Righteous people regard the lives of animals.”
“If a [person] aspires towards a righteous life, his [or her] first act
of abstinence is from injury to animals.”
Albert
Einstein, nominated to be the 2nd
President of Israel
“Tzedakah is equivalent to all the other
religious precepts combined.”
Rabbi Assi, Talmud, Baba
Batra 9a
7. Peace &
Justice: 
While Judaism repeatedly stresses
that we must always seek and pursue shalom v’tzedek, peace and
justice, and that moral degradation and violence results from unjust conditions,
animal-centered diets - especially by wasting valuable resources and
desensitizing us to violence - help to perpetuate the widespread poverty, hunger,
environmental destruction, and despair that lead to mass suffering, social
insecurity, ethnic hostilities, violence, genocide, and war. Dayeinu.
Our sages note that the Hebrew words for bread (lechem) and for war (milchamah) come from the same root and
are therefore related, since shortages of food and instances of wars are
correlated, with each contributing to the other. Dayeinu.
Vegetarianism is a protest against injustices and the mitzvah of vegetarianism brings peace
and justice to and through every meal
and shares it with the world. Dayeinu.
“Seek peace,
and pursue it”
Psalm 34:14
“Justice, justice shall you pursue...”
“Thou shall not kill [murder]”
“He who kills an ox is as if
he slew a person.”
“One who destroys a single life is considered to have
destroyed an entire world,
and one who saves a single life is considered to have
saved an entire world.”
Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:5
“The sword comes into the world
because of justice delayed, because of justice perverted,
and because of those who
render wrong decisions.”
Pirkei Avot [Ethics of Our
Sages]
“I think that eating meat or fish is a denial of all ideals, even of all religions.
How can we pray to God for mercy if we ourselves have
no mercy?
How can we speak of right and justice if we take an
innocent creature and shed its blood?
Every kind of killing seems to me savage and I find no
justification for it.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yiddish author and Nobel Prize laureate
“As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people.
Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.”
Isaac
Bashevis Singer, Yiddish author and
Nobel Prize laureate
“Love peace, pursue peace, love all creatures...”
8. Concern
for the Community: 
Concern
for the Jewish community (Klal Yisrael),
as well as the wider community (Klal
Ha’Olam), is integral to Jewish ethics and requires personal and communal
responsibility. Eating meat endangers community members and endangers the
world: Eating meat contributes to ill health, cruelty to animals and the
hardening of the human heart (literally and figuratively), destruction of the
environment, global warming, and the waste of precious resources, increased
inequality and social divisions, hunger, injustice, and the potential for more
violence, warfare, and genocide. Dayeinu.
Vegetarianism is an antidote
to all of these unnecessary
tragedies. Vegetarianism helps us to preserve and protect our health,
environment, culture, community, society, and spirit l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation. Judaism encourages us
to be involved with the community and vegetarianism allows us to have a
positive impact on the community with every meal. Dayeinu.
A shift toward
vegetarianism can also be a major factor in the rededication and renewal of
Judaism, as it would further demonstrate that Jewish values are not only
relevant but essential to everyday personal life and global survival. Dayeinu.
“The fate of
men and the fate of animals, they have one and the same fate.
As one dies,
so does the other, and they all have the same spirit.”
“I don't want my food choices to condone
the suffering that occurs in the animal food industry.
Judaism takes seriously the idea of personal
responsibility.
Communal change for the better and
improved societal ethical behavior starts with the individual.”
9.
Keeping Kashrut: 
The practice of kashrut, or keeping kosher, is the specific way of applying Jewish
teachings and Jewish values to our consumption of food. Jews are called upon to
eat consciously, to be compassionate and peaceful, and to bring our
spirituality and ethics to the necessity of nutrition. Besides being
life-sustaining, satisfying, and often joyous, eating is a holy act. Vegetarianism, as a form of eco-kashrut, is an easy
way to keep kosher and to be more holy. Indeed, Rabbi Arthur Green states that
“Vegetarianism [should be] a kashrut
for our age.” Dayeinu.
“The laws of kashrut come to teach us that a Jew’s
first preference should be a vegetarian meal.”
Rabbi Pinchas Peli, Torah Today
“Vegetarianism offers an ideal mode for preserving the
religious and ethical values which kashrut was designed to concretize in
human life.”
Rabbi Robert Gordis
“A
higher form of being kosher is vegetarianism.”
Rabbi
Daniel Jezer
“We
should make all our consumption as holy as possible…
The
more we live as if this were the messianic age the closer we are to it.”
“If we look at the way in which kosher
meat is produced today, it is difficult to see any holiness there.”
Rabbi Yonassan Gershom
“In countries like the
A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the
World (one-hour film)
“Mrs. Kalechofsky, all meat prepared for
the commercial market, whether it’s kosher or not, comes from the same place.
We just kill the animal different.”
Roberta
Kalechofsky’s former butcher
“The laws of schechitah,
the Jewish laws of kosher slaughter, are very specific. And they apply to the
moment of slaughter.
They don’t apply to the conditions in which the animal
is raised. They don’t apply to the method in which the animal is being
restrained before the slaughter.
And they really don’t apply to anything that happens
after the slaughter takes place.”
“Sadly, ‘kosher’ means nothing when it
comes to how animals are treated on farms,
and the largest kosher slaughterhouse in
North America was caught horribly abusing animals
—ripping the tracheas out of live cows’
throats and worse—and defending the abuse as kosher.”
Kathy Freston, “A Few More ‘Inconvenient Truths’”
“What may have once made sense, now can no longer be
justified….
Let us realize today, in the vast majority of cases,
‘kosher meat’ is an oxymoron.”
“The current treatment of animals in the livestock
trade definitely renders the consumption of meat as halachically unacceptable
as the product of illegitimate means.”
Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
“Kashrut becomes a snap when you are a vegetarian—kashrut is only hard if you eat milk
and meat all of the time.”
Rabbi David Small
“By not eating meat, I am
much more certain to never violate, even accidentally, the Biblical and
rabbinic prohibitions concerning non-kosher meat.
The traditional production of
kosher meat never envisioned mass slaughterhouses or factory farms.
It is questionable whether
most meat or poultry produced in this country that is sold as kosher is actually
in compliance with the traditional rules of kashrut
as well as the prohibition
against cruelty to animals.”
“The simpler way [of maintaining kashrut], which is the better way in the eyes of the tradition, is
to be vegetarian.”
Rabbi Michael Cohen
“I’m a vegetarian and
I stay milchik all the time.”
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew
Congregations of the [British] Commonwealth, “The Messianic Idea Today”
“If you don’t eat meat, you are certainly
kosher… And I believe that is what we should tell our fellow rabbis.”
Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, Ashkenazi Chief
Rabbi of
10. Fighting Fascism:
Historically, and unfortunately
still presently, Jews have been common targets of authoritarian, fascist, and
genocidal policies and actions, whatever their names and places. Jewish ethics,
Jewish values, and even the method of the Talmud
(as well as U.S. Supreme Court decisions), respects and protects minority
opinions and minority groups. Dayeinu.
We Jews have too often been the victim of genocide
(including enslavement in
The livestock industry is a form of enslavement,
torture, and genocide, while vegetarianism is a powerful way of actively yet
non-violently opposing the daily and brutal outrage of meat production and
consumption. Dayeinu.
“In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an
eternal Treblinka.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer, “The Letter Writer”, Yiddish
author and 1978 Nobel Prize laureate
“Auschwitz begins whenever someone
looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals.”
Theodor Adorno,
Ph.D., Jewish philosopher
“The Nazis explicitly structured their industrial
destruction of the Jews [and other peoples] on the model of animal slaughter.
This is not to compare the suffering of animals and humans,
but shows that the way we treat animals is similar to the way the Nazis treated
us.”
“The domestication/enslavement of animals was the
model and inspiration for human slavery…
the breeding of domesticated animals led to eugenic
measures as compulsory sterilization, euthanasia killings, and genocide, and…
the industrialized slaughter of cattle, pigs, sheep,
and other animals paved the way, at least indirectly, for the Final Solution.”
Charles
Patterson, Ph.D., author of Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the
Holocaust
“Just as the Nazis dehumanized the Jews in their
propaganda and in the atrocities they committed,
the apologists for meat consumption and the
exploitation of animals have stereotyped and degraded the animal kingdom for
their own purposes,
declaring animals to be devoid of cognitive
functioning and even of pain.”
Jay Lavine, M.D., She’elot
Uteshuvot (Questions and Answers) on Jewish Vegetarianism
“In the course of his development towards culture, man
acquired a dominating position over his fellow-creatures in the animal kingdom.
Not content with this supremacy, however, he began to place a gulf between his
nature and theirs. He denied the possession of reason to them, and to himself
he attributed an immortal soul, and made claims to a divine descent which
permitted him to annihilate the bond of community between him and the animal
kingdom.”
Sigmund Freud,
“A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis”
“No one can deny seriously, or for very long, that [people]
do all they can in order to dissimulate this cruelty [of animal slaughter]
or to hide it from themselves, in order to organize on a
global scale the forgetting or misunderstanding of this violence
that some would compare to the worst cases of genocide.”
Jacques Derrida, Jewish
philosopher
“My ancestors did not belong to the
hunters as much as to the hunted,
and the idea of attacking the descendants
of those who were our comrades in misery goes against my grain.”
Heinrich
Heine, Jewish writer
“Unless you believe in fascism - that
might makes right - we do not
have a right to harm others.”
Henry Spira, Kristallnacht
survivor and animal rights advocate
“I've noticed that quite a lot of people who are prominent in the
animal liberation movement are Jews.
Maybe we are simply not prepared to see the powerful
hurting the weak.”
Peter Singer, ethicist
“Hitler was not a vegetarian. Even if he had been, what difference
would it make?
Does
that negate the overwhelming evidence of harm caused by the consumption of
meat?
If
Hitler loved art and music, should we all refrain from going to the museum or
the philharmonic?
[Instead of] ‘pass the meat’, I say: ‘Meat? I’ll pass’.”
Rabbi Hillel Norry
“The end user of a product knowingly derived by cruel means
is a participant in the cruelty.”
Rabbi
Adam Frank
“Modern, secular thinking allows for sentient creatures to be treated
like inanimate objects, but Jewish tradition does not....
My decision
to abstain from the consumption of animal products is an expression of my
adherence to Jewish law,
and it
expresses my disapproval and disdain for the cruel practices of the industry.”
Rabbi Adam
Frank
“Neutrality
helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence
encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel, Nobel
Peace Prize acceptance speech,
“There
has been enough killing in the world.”
Rav
Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, Founding Dean of New York’s Mesivta Torah VoDaath, on
why he became a vegetarian after the Holocaust
Clearly, Jewish
values and meat consumption are in serious conflict.
In view of these ten important Jewish
teachings and values, among others, to
(1) preserve human health, (2) have
compassion for and attend to the welfare of animals,
(3) protect and repair the world, (4)
conserve resources, (5) have deep spiritual intention,
(6) help feed the hungry and assist the
weak, (7) pursue peace and justice,
(8) have concern for the community, (9)
eat consciously, and (10) fight fascism
–
and since meat production and consumption
violate each and all of these sacred and
social responsibilities (mitzvot) –
we believe that Jews (and others) should
eliminate (or sharply reduce) consumption of animals.
We need to end the modern plagues that
damage us, our health, our spirits,
our communities, our society, the
workers, the animals, and our environment.
Dayeinu!
The
Vegetarian Mitzvah
“Don’t let your cravings delude you,
don’t become alienated,
don’t let your cravings become your gods,
don’t debase yourself to them.”
Rabbi
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi,
V’haya Im Shamoa
11. Myths &
Realities Regarding Judaism & Vegetarianism:
Eighteen Reasons Jews
Think They Should Not Be Vegetarians (And Why They Are Wrong) by Richard H.
Schwartz
1) Myth: The Torah teaches that humans are granted dominion over animals
(Genesis
Reality: 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
2) Myth: 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) Myth: Inconsistent with Judaism, vegetarians elevate animals to a level
equal to or greater than that of people.
Reality: 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) Myth: Vegetarianism places greater priority on animal rights than on the
many problems related to human welfare.
Reality: 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) Myth: By putting vegetarian values ahead of Jewish teachings, vegetarians
are, in effect, creating a new religion with values contrary to Jewish
teachings.
Reality: 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) Myth: Jews must eat meat on Shabbat and Yom Tov (Jewish holidays).
Reality: According to the Talmud (T.B. Pesachim 109a), since the
destruction of the
7) Myth: The Torah mandated that Jews eat korban Pesach and other korbanot
(sacrifices).
Reality: 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
8) Myth: Jews historically have had many problems with some animal rights
groups, which have often opposed shechita (ritual slaughter) and advocated its
abolishment.
Reality: 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) Myth: The restrictions of shechita
minimize the pain to animals in the slaughtering process, and thus fulfill
Jewish laws on proper treatment of animals.
Reality: 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) Myth: If Jews do not eat meat, they will be deprived of the opportunity
to fulfill many mitzvot
(commandments).
Reality: 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) Myth: 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?
Reality: 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) Myth: A movement by Jews toward vegetarianism would lead to less
emphasis on kashrut (dietary laws)
and eventually a disregard of these laws.
Reality: 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) Myth: If everyone became vegetarian, butchers, shochtim (slaughterers), and others dependent for a living on the
consumption of meat would lack work.
Reality: There could be a shift
from the production of animal products to that of nutritious vegetarian dishes.
In
14) Myth: If everyone became vegetarian, animals would overrun the earth.
Reality: 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) Myth: 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.
Reality: 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) Myth: One can work to improve conditions for animals without being a
vegetarian.
Reality: 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
17) Myth: If vegetarian diets were best for health, doctors would recommend
them.
Reality: 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) Myth: I enjoy eating meat. Why should I give it up?
Reality: 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.
12. Bonus Quotes:
The Torah repeatedly refers to
Israel as a “land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8, 3:17; Leviticus
20:24; Numbers 13:27, 14:8; Deuteronomy 11:9, 26:9, 26:15, 27:3, 31:20; Baruch
1:20; and Ezekiel 20:15). God further describes Israel as a “garden land”,
saying He brought His people there to “eat its goodly fruits” (Jeremiah 2:7).
“
Their cry
for bread was reasonable, but not for meat, for one can do without it.”
Rashi (11th
Century Rabbi and the Talmud
commentator), commentary to Exodus 16:8
(after
receiving and eating quail, over 12,000 Israelites died from a plague in a
place known as the “Graves of Lust”)
“The Torah
teaches a lesson in moral conduct, that people shall not eat meat unless they
have a special craving for it…and [then] shall eat it only occasionally and
sparingly.”
Talmud, Chulin 84a
“Be kind and compassionate to all creatures
that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, created in this world.
Neither beat nor inflict pain on any
animal, beast, bird or insect.
Do not throw stones at a dog or a cat, nor
should you kill flies or wasps.”
Sefer
Chasidim [Book of the Pious]
“One does not ask for forgiveness of sins
while wearing articles made from the skins of slaughtered animals.”
Shulchan
Aruch [Code of Jewish Law, literally the Set Table]
“The enormity of challenges that we face, in terms of
health, in terms of environmental impact, in terms of the waste of resources,
in terms of the way animals are treated today,
should all naturally lead a thinking sensitive Jew to
question whether it is legitimate today…
to
maintain a diet in which animals are being treated in a manner that contravenes
halachic Jewish legal requirements,
in which we are treating ourselves in a manner that
contravenes Jewish requirements,
in a manner that is insensitive towards the ramifications of
our actions and our behavior towards other segments of society,
and where there are scandalous suffering of humanity that we
could help alleviate if we were to follow a different diet.
So, all of these factors should make compelling arguments
for any informed educated and responsible Jew to lead a vegetarian diet.”
Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
“Perhaps
the most powerful argument in favor of vegetarianism today more than ever
before ... is the prohibition against ‘chillul
HaShem’, the desecration of God’s name.
Surely
it is precisely such a desecration when observant Jews eat animals produced
under conditions of cruelty that flagrantly violate Jewish teachings and
prohibitions...”
Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
“I
did not want to become a vegetarian. The world demanded that I be
one."
“There are probably no creatures that require more the
protective Divine word against the presumption of man than the animals, which
like man have sensations and instincts, but whose body and powers are
nevertheless subservient to man. In relation to them man so easily forgets that
injured animal muscle twitches just like human muscle, that the maltreated
nerves of an animal sicken like human nerves, that the animal being is just as
sensitive to cuts, blows, and beatings as man. Thus man becomes the torturer of
the animal soul, which has been subjected to him only for the fulfillment of
humane and wise purposes ... 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.”
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter 60, Verses 415, 416)
“I am vegan because I cannot justify
saying I believe in the values of social justice, human rights and caring for
the environment
and continue to participate in something
that is a core representation of exploitation and pain in the world.”
Boris Doan, Reconstructionist Rabbinical
Student and Coordinator of ShalomVeg.com
"It appears that the first intention
of the Maker was to have [people] live on a strictly vegetarian diet.
The very earliest periods of Jewish
history are marked with humanitarian conduct towards the lower animal kingdom.
...
It is clearly established that the ancient
Hebrews knew, and perhaps were the first among [people] to know, that animals
feel and suffer pain."
Rabbi Simon Glazer
“It is not necessary for any human benefit to consume the
flesh of animals.
In fact it is harmful to human health, destructive of the
environment, and wasteful of valuable resources
that could be better used to feed the hungry and provide for
the needy.
All of these are Torah
values.”
“I grew repulsed by the idea
of killing and eating animals, so I stopped.”
“The staples of life do not include meat.”
“My
decision to abstain from the consumption of animal products is an expression of
my adherence to Jewish law.”
“Even the Torah itself recognizes that eating meat is not an ideal thing for
the human being.
It’s not the ideal diet for the human
race.”
“Land, if it were used for growing, purely
for growing food for vegetarian and vegan diets would feed many, many more
people, and therefore for that reason also,
Judaism would say that in this modern age,
this is something that we should very, very carefully consider.”
“‘I can’t change the whole world’ you can
say. My answer to that is:
You’re right, but you certainly can
personally change your whole world.”
Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg on
vegetarianism
“We need to think about how the food we eat advances the values we
hold.”
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President
of the Union
for Reform Judaism
“Changing to a plant-based diet or, short of that, reducing our consumption of meat drastically is the most important way we can each directly contribute to repairing the ecosystem
upon which we depend for our survival as a species. The “inconvenient truth” is that meat-based diets are unhealthy and unsustainable for the planet.”
Rabbi Leah Sudran
“The primary and self-sufficient basis for mandatory
Jewish vegetarianism is tsa'ar ba'alei
chayim, the Torah principle of
animal welfare.
A vegetarian lifestyle is supported by a variety of
other Jewish mandates, including preservation of human health and the
environment, conservation,
and potentially reducing starvation and armed conflict
in lesser developed nations.”
Phineas E. Leahey, J.D., Jewish Ethics
and Mandatory Vegetarianism
“If we want
the Earth to survive and if we want to greatly reduce the amount of hunger and
starvation, and diseases related to hunger and starvation all over the world,
one of the
most important things we can do is reduce or eliminate the consumption of meat.
…
Jewish tradition
and Jewish values want us to feed hungry people, want us to preserve and
protect God’s natural world, want us to preserve and strengthen our own bodies,
and eating
meat interferes with and reduces all of those possibilities.
If we want
to care for the world and develop ourselves and help people in need, becoming
vegetarian is a small thing that we can do that helps contribute to that,
and that
symbolizes and expresses our concerns for those things.”
Jonathan
Wolf, founder of JVNA
“You may
love your individual dog, your individual bird, but animals are being
slaughtered b y the billions… around the world for people who eat them.
So those
animals don’t have such a good life. They’re not pampered pets, they are kept
in cramped, unpleasant, unhealthful conditions
and when
they’re shipped off to be slaughtered, they’re often exposed to terrible heat
or terrible cold for days at a time. They live very unhappy, brutalized lives.”
Jonathan
Wolf, founder of JVNA
“The
[kashrut] rule of not being able to eat animals that eat other animals
is another
strong argument for why humans themselves should not eat other animals.”
Rebecca Namm
“Humans -
who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals –
have had an
understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain.
A sharp
distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if we are to bend them to
our will, wear them, eat them
- without
any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret.”
Carl Sagan, Ph.D. & Ann Druyan, Ph.D., Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
“Put most simply, when I choose not to eat
meat, I feel that I am choosing life over death.”
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated, winner of
National Jewish Book Award
“Now I can look at you in peace; I don’t eat you
anymore.”
Franz
Kafka, Jewish author (looking at fish
in an aquarium) 
“Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival
of life on Earth as the evolution to a vegetarian
diet.”
Albert
Einstein, Jewish scientist and philosopher; Time’s “Man of the [20th] Century”
“This is my protest against the conduct of the world. To be a
vegetarian is to disagree—to disagree with the course of things today.
Starvation, world hunger, cruelty, waste, wars—we must
make a statement against these things.
Vegetarianism is my statement and I think it’s a
strong one.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer
“’Meat’
is a euphemism. ‘Meat’ is a word we use to partially shield ourselves from the
fact that we are eating a dead animal.”
Nigel
Savage, founder of Hazon
“Scripture does not command the Israelite to eat meat.”
Rabbi Elijah Judah Schochet, Animal Life in Jewish Tradition
“Jewish tradition does not command carnivorous behavior.”
Rabbi J. David Bleich,
“Judaism emphasizes good deeds because nothing else can
replace them.
To love justice and decency, to hate cruelty and to thirst
for righteousness—that is the
essence of the human task.”
Rabbi David J. Wolpe, Why Be Jewish?
“There is
simply no spiritual defense in either the Western or Eastern religious
traditions for eating meat.”
Rabbi Marc
Gellman,
“The First
Hamburger”
“Look into the heart
of your religion’s teachings on compassion, and look into your own heart,
Put aside your old habits and selfish appetites, and be
honest with yourself.
Animals are beings like us, sentient, conscious, and fully
able to experience suffering and joy. They love life and fear death.
And yet every year we murder them by the billions for food
that we do not need to live long, healthy lives.
Can we honestly call this holocaust anything but evil?
There is no way that people of faith can be true to the
deepest values of their religion and still eat animal products.”
Norm Phelps, founding
member of the Society of
Ethical and Religious Vegetarians
“The rabbis
explain that meat-eating is a punishment to a Jew, not a reward.”
Janet
Barkas, The Vegetable Passion
“It is far more
appropriate for man not to eat meat; only if he has a strong desire for meat
does the Torah permit it,
and even
this only after the trouble and inconvenience necessary to satisfy his desire.”
Solomon
Efraim Lunchitz, author of K’lee Yakar
“Vegetarianism [i]s
the logical next step after kashrut — the proper extension of the laws
against cruelty to animals.”
Rabbi
Everett Gendler
“I relate vegetarianism to Judaism in several ways…
the torture of animals and the suffering that they go
through, to be raised on these large factory farms and then eaten is really
forbidden by Judaism.”
Adam Stein, rabbinical student
“Keeping
kosher is Judaism’s compromise with its ideal vegetarianism.
Ideally,
according to Judaism, man would confine his eating to fruits and vegetables and
not kill animals for food.”
Dennis
Praeger and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, The
Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism
“The
important Hebrew term nefesh chaya
(“living soul”) was applied to animals as well as people (Genesis 1:21 and
1:24).
G-d
even made treaties with animals as well as with people (Genesis 9:9, 10; Hosea
2:20).
Judaism has beautiful and powerful teachings with regard to showing compassion
to animals.”
“Jewish
values are served by a vegetarian diet, especially in view of the many problems
related to factory-farming.
Rather
than rejecting Torah values, Jewish vegetarians are challenging the Jewish
community to apply precisely these values to their everyday diets.
We
are respectfully challenging Jews to live up to Judaism’s splendid teachings.
It
is not enough that a religion should have beautiful teachings; it is essential
that these teachings be put into practice.”
“Rabbi
Yochanan stated ‘Jerusalem was destroyed because the residents limited their
decisions to the letter of the law of the Torah, and did not perform actions
that would have gone beyond the letter of the law’ ('lifnim meshurat hadin') (Baba Metzia 30b). In the same way,
perhaps, many people state that they eat meat because Jewish law does not
forbid it. Vegetarians believe that in this time of factory farming,
environmental threats, widespread hunger, and epidemics of chronic degenerative
diseases, Jews should go beyond the strict letter of the law and move toward
vegetarianism.”
“The great spiritual leader and first Chief Rabbi of
Palestine, Rabbi Abraham Kook, famously wrote,
‘hayashan yithadesh,
v’hehadash yitkadesh, the old shall be made new, and the new shall be made
holy’.
In this spirit, the practice of eco-kashrut seeks to build upon the reverence for life that is
central to Judaism’s dietary laws
by testing our consumption against the four-part test
of bal tashchit
(excessive waste and environmental impact), tsa’ar
ba’alei chayim (cruelty to animals), shmirat
haguf (health) and oshek (labor
exploitation).
All indicators point to a vegetarian diet as the highest
expression of an eco-kashrut ethic.”
Rabbi Barry Schwartz
“Jews will
move increasingly to vegetarianism out of their own deepening knowledge of what
their tradition commands...
Man's
carnivorous nature is not taken for granted or praised in the fundamental
teachings of Judaism...
A whole
galaxy of central rabbinic and spiritual leaders...has been affirming vegetarianism
as the ultimate meaning of Jewish moral teaching.”
Rabbi Isaac Ha-Levi Herzog,
Former Chief Rabbi of
“The vegetarian mitzvah
includes many of the other mitzvot,
both religious and secular, in one.
As Hillel says: ‘Do not do unto others what is hateful unto
you. All the rest is commentary’.
Vegetarianism offers respect to one’s body and spirit, to
our community, to the animals, to workers, to our environment, and to the
world,
thereby creating the conditions for healthy people, healthy
spirits, healthy communities, and a healthy Earth to live in peace.
Do a mitzvah—choose vegetarian!”
“No other creature should lose the joy of living on our
account.”
1945 Reconstructionist Prayer Book [Siddur]
“It is not your responsibility to complete the task [of perfecting the world],
but neither are you free from engaging in it.”
Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei
Avot [Ethics of Our Sages] 2:21
Make
a mitzvah of
every meal !
(According to Ben Azai in Pirkei
Avot 4:2, “mitzvah goreret mitzvah” – one mitzvah leads to another!)
B’te-avon! L’chayim!
====================================================================
13.
To learn more about Judaism & vegetarianism,
please visit
Jewish
Vegetarians of North Americans (JVNA) at JewishVeg.com
and the related Schwartz archive of articles at JewishVeg.com/schwartz,
which contains over 150 articles, interviews, and
entries on Judaism and vegetarianism,
by Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. (author of Judaism and Vegetarianism and Judaism and Global Survival,
who inspired the creation
of this web site and to whom it is dedicated)
on a wide variety of topics and about all the Jewish
holidays.
JVNA
newsletters are archived at JewishVeg.blogspot.com.
*** Write to mail@jewishveg.com to request a free e-mail subscription to JVNA
newsletters or for any questions or comments. ***
Humane
Kosher is the PETA-sponsored
Jewish vegetarian web site.
Also visit ShalomVeg.com, a “community for a compassionate world”, with its
many resources.
These and other Jewish vegetarian links can be found
at
http://www.godandanimals.com/PAGES/judaism.html
14. Jewish vegetarian articles:
Why Jews Should Consider Vegetarianism”
Daniel Brook,
Ph.D., Tikkun, July/August 2009
“A Case for Jewish Vegetarianism”
can be downloaded and read here
(pdf)
or a free
hard-copy can be ordered here, by writing JewishVeg@peta.com,
or by calling (toll-free) 1-888-VEG-
To read or print a Jewish vegetarian leaflet,
go to http://jewishveg.com/jewishvegleaflet3.pdf.
For more on Jewish vegetarianism,
check out Jewish Vegetarianism – Theological Perspectives and
Questions & Answers on Jewish Vegetarianism
Jewish Ethics and Mandatory
Vegetarianism is written by Phineas E. Leahey, J.D.
Rabbinic Teachings on Vegetarianism
edited by Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
“Judaism and Vegetarianism” by Ted Altar.
“Jewish Philosophy of Vegetarianism” by Philip L Pick.
by Vasu Murti
“What’s Jewish About a Vegan Diet?” and “Why I Became a Vegan”
by Rabbi Adam Frank.
“Food for Thought on Judaism and
Vegetarianism”, 
written by Rabbi Michael Skobac, was published in the Canadian
Jewish News.
written by Stacey
Dresner, was published in the Jewish Ledger.
“Ten
Commandments Regarding Animals”,
written by Dan Brook,
is published in Vegetarian
News and on All-Creatures.org
“Killing for
Food: Mitzvah or Sin?: Jews Debate History, Ethics of Vegetarianism”
written by Tami Bickley, was published in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.
“Meat Your Morality”, written by Rabbi
David Aaron,
was published in the Jewish World Review.
“No Meat
Today”, on Jewish vegetarianism,
written by Simon Rocker, is from the Jewish
Chronicle.
“A
Holocaust-Inspired Vegetarian”,
written by Noam Mohr, is in the Jewish
Journal (LA).
“Judaism Requires Us to Protect the
Planet and Its Creatures”, by Lewis Regenstein, on EVANA
“Vegetarianism as Feminism: Meat as a
Symbol of Male Domination”,
written by Naama Harel, is on Anonymous
for Animal Rights.
“Eco-Conscious
Day Schools Offer Students New Takes on Kashrut”,
written by Loolwa Khazzoom,
was published by the JTA.
“Eat Your
Vegetables!”, published by The Jewish Week, 
is written by Rachel Gross, a first-year Moshe Aaron
Yeshiva High School student
“Eco-Kosher:
More than Milchik and Fleishik”,
written by Alexandra Wall, was published in the
Check out the humorous Top Ten Reasons to be a Kosher
Vegetarian (or here) by S. Sloman.
“Passover and
Veganism – A Great Complement” is
by Jennye Laws-Woolf.
“Miracles of
Chanukah”, by Dan Brook and Richard Schwartz, is on VegSource
and the somewhat updated
“Another Miracle of Chanukah”, by Dan Brook
and Richard Schwartz, is on Tikkun.
A 2007/5768 updated
version is in The Gantseh
Megillah.
“Pork – It’s
What’s for Purim”, by Aaron
Gross, in Jewsweek.
Aaron
Gross, M.T.S. has also written “When Kosher Isn’t Kosher” for Tikkun (March/April 2005).
“Should Jews
Still Eat Meat?”, by Richard
Schwartz, referring to Tu B’Shvat (The Jewish New Year of the
Trees),
is in the San Diego Jewish Journal.
“Is Milk
Kosher?” is written by Robert
Cohen.
Noam Dolgin on “Treif
Tomatoes – Biotechnology, Judaism and the Food We Eat”
Michael Green on “Why GM Food Isn’t Kosher”
Read an interesting
on “Veggie Jews: Thou Shalt Not Eat Meat”.
Another story by Dan Pine from J., the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, this
one personal from 2008:
“This Time,
I’m Quitting Cold Turkey---and Chicken, and Steak…”
“Don’t Have A Cow: It Will Help in Fight Against Global
Warming”,
by Dan Brook, Ph.D. and Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., published by JTA,
“Global Warming Isn’t Kosher” by Dan Brook, Ph.D. and Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
“Forget a Prius, Eat a Felafel”, written by
Nimrod Halpern,
appears in Ha’aretz, 8 February 2007.
Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer has written “The Meat of the Matter” for the The Jewish Standard.
Two interesting articles on genetic
modification (GM, GE, or GMOs) and Judaism are:
Michael Green, “Why GM Isn’t Kosher”, published in the Jewish
Chronicle.
Louis Berman, Ph.D., Vegetarianism and the Jewish Tradition (1982);
Noah Cohen, Ph.D., Tsa’ar Ba’ale Hayim: The Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (1959);
Nathan S. David, ed., The
Voice of the Vegetarian (Yiddish) (1952);
Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals (2009);
Aaron H. Frankel, Thou
Shalt Not Kill, or, The Torah of Vegetarianism (1896);
Joe Green, The Jewish
Vegetarian Tradition (1969);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., ed., Haggadah for the Liberated Lamb (1985, 1988);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., ed., Haggadah for the Vegetarian Family (1993);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., The Jewish Vegetarian Perpetual Book of
Days (2000);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., ed., Rabbis and Vegetarianism: An Evolving
Tradition (1996);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., Vegetarian Judaism: A Guide for Everyone (1998);
Charles Patterson, Ph.D., Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals
and the Holocaust (2002);
Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., Judaism and Global Survival (2002);
Mark Weintraub, Guide to Vegetarian Restaurants in Israel (1996);
16. Jewish
vegetarian cookbooks:
Nancy Berkoff, Ed.D.,
R.D., Vegan Passover Recipes (2002);
Lena Brown, Cooking
for Health (Yiddish) (1931);
Michael Brown, Jewish Gardening Cookbook: Growing Plants
& Cooking for Holidays & Festivals (2000);
Rose Friedman, Jewish Vegetarian Cooking (1985);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., Vegetarian Pesach Cookbook: Feasts for
Freedom (2002);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D. & Rosa Rasiel, Jewish Vegetarian Year Cookbook (1997);
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D. & Roberta Schiff, The
Vegetarian Shabbat Cookbook (2010);
Debra Wasserman &
Charles Stahler, No Cholesterol Passover Recipes (1986).
17. Jewish
vegetarian recipe web sites:
Jewish Holidays Vegetarian
Recipes;
Zahava Koren’s Vegetarian Fat-Free Passover Recipes;
Vegetarian / Jewish (Sephardi) Recipes;
The Jewish Daily Forward’s Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes;
rec.food.cuisine.jewish –
vegetarian
(unfortunately, not exclusively veg, but mostly).
Also check out the online Kosher Vegetarian recipes at Recipe*zaar.
18. Jewish
vegetarian cooking video:
If This Is Kosher (author, narrator, and director: Jonathan Safran Foer, 30 min., 2006)
(also as a short version / trailer, 4:45 and a long version, 25 min. on YouTube)
Jonathan Safran Foer on Being a Veggie (author of Everything is Illuminated, 9 min.)
5 Good Reasons to Eat Your Dog (6 ˝ min., Hebrew with English subtitles)
20. Related
Jewish organizations:
One can visit Jews for Animal Rights
“Meat today... violates the most fundamental of Jewish concepts:
SERV is the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians.
IVU is the International Vegetarian Union (in Hebrew, English, and other languages).
JVS is the Jewish Vegetarian & Ecological Society, which publishes The Jewish Vegetarian,
and can be contacted via jewishvegetarian@onetel.net.uk .
Am Kolel
Judaic Resource and Renewal Center
is an inclusive Washington, D.C. chavurah,
resource and renewal center, organic farm, and sanctuary.
Mazon is “a Jewish response to hunger”.
The Jew and
the Carrot, a project of Hazon, is a blog about “Jews, Food & Contemporary Issues”
COEJL is the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.
The Big
Green Jewish Website aims at “connecting Judaism and the
environment”.
The Green Zionist Alliance is “working today for Israel tomorrow”.
JGEN is the Jewish Global Environmental Network.
FoEME, or Friends of the Earth Middle East, focuses on “Eco-Peace”.
Green Action for “Eco-Social Change” is in Hebrew and English.
The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is a multicultural teaching and research program.
Green Action
(Peula Yeruka) in Hebrew and English.
LINK to the
Environment in Hebrew.
Green Course
(Megama Yeruka) (Students Movement)
Israel Union
for Environmental Defense
The Eco Kosher Network focuses on “responsible consumerism, the Jewish way”.
Canfei
Nesharim (“The Wings of Eagles”) is an
Orthodox Jewish environmental organization.
The Shalom
Center is a “prophetic voice in Jewish,
multireligious, & American life”.
In Israel, Anonymous for Animal Rights is the leading animal rights group in English and Hebrew.
CHAI is the Concern for Helping Animals in Israel in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
ALI is Animal Liberation Israel in English and Hebrew.
Let the
Animals Live (Israel) in English and Hebrew.
One Struggle
(Ma’avak Ehad) is an “anarchist group for animal rights” in English and Hebrew.
SPNI is the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel in Hebrew and English.
Most of the foods and herbs are organically grown on the premises.
People are welcome for visits and vacations:
21. Kosher
Vegetarian organizations:
The Kosher and Vegetarian Team is about selling products.
KEROV, Kosher Ethical RawFoods Organic Vegans is a Los Angeles-based group.
Kosher Vegetarian Food B Chez
Alaine may be worth a look.
Likewise with Beit HaChatulim – A Jewish Vegetarian
Homeschool.
22. Miscellaneous
Jewish vegetarian resources:
There are also four Green Mitzvah Booklets:
Booklet #1: Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., Judaism, Health, Nutrition and
Vegetarianism;
Booklet #2: Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., Judaism and Animals;
Booklet #3: Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., Judaism and Animal Research; and
Booklet #4: Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., Vegetarianism and the Jewish Holidays.
Also, see the Jewish Encyclopedia entry on Vegetarianism.
Further, there is a useful Judaism and Ecology Bibliography;
Richard Schwartz’s Bibliography of Vegetarian Material; and
Richard Schwartz & Norm Phelps’ Religion and Vegetarianism Bibliography.
The heeb’n’vegan is a hip
Jewish vegan blog. So is Kosher and Humane.
There’s a little used JewishVeg Discussion Board on VegSource that could certainly be more used.
Here’s Jewish Vegetarians/Vegans on Tribe.net.
Also, one can explore the (limited) JewishVegan and Jewish Vegetarian and Ecological Society sites.
23. Kosher
Vegetarian restaurants (very incomplete):
Singapore Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant (Chinese) (Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania)
Cherry Street Chinese Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant (Chinese)
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Shangri-La (Chinese) (San Francisco, California)
Pongal (South Indian)
(Manhattan, NYC)
Madras Mahal (Indian) (Manhattan, NYC)
Great American Health Bar (American) (Manhattan, NYC)
Kingdom of Vegetarians Restaurant (Chinese) (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Maccabeam (Sephardic Israeli) (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Denver Woodlands (Indian) (Aurora, Colorado)
24. Kosher
Vegetarian caterers (very incomplete):
Milk & Honey is another one in the South Bay Area (Foster City).
To receive a free vegetarian starter kit,
go to Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine’s Vegetarian Starter Kit,
to Mercy for Animals’ Vegetarian Starter Kit,
to Animal Protection Institute’s Vegetarian
Starter Kit,
to Compassion Over Killing’s Vegetarian
Starter Guide,
to PETA’s Vegetarian
Starter Kit,
to Vegan Outreach’s Guide to Compassionate
Living,
to Animal Place’s Veggie Starter Kit for Teens,
take the VegPledge and receive a free booklet,
call (toll-free) 1-866-MEAT-FREE,
and/or call (toll-free) 1-800-MEAT-OUT.
vegetarian (male) – tzimchoni vegan (male) – t’ivoni
vegetarian (female) – tzimchonit vegan (female) – t’ivonit
For related albeit secular information, please visit Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg.
This Vegetarian Mitzvah web page is located at: www.brook.com/jveg
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