1. God’s original
dietary law
And God said: "Behold, I
have given you every herb-yielding seed which
is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree that has seed-yielding fruit - to you it
shall be for food."
Genesis 1:29
God did not permit Adam and his
wife to kill a creature to eat its flesh. Only
every green herb shall they all eat together.
Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 1:29
You are permitted to use the animals
and employ them for work, have dominion over
them in order to utilize their services for
your subsistence, but must not hold their life
cheap nor slaughter them for food. Your natural
diet is vegetarian....
Moses Cassuto (1883 -1951) in his commentary
From Adam to Noah
Adam was not permitted meat for
purposes of eating.
Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 59b)
2. Attitude toward animals
A righteous person regards the
life of his or her animal, but the tender mercies
of the wicked are cruel.
Proverbs 12:10
The Lord is good to all and His
tender mercies are over all His creatures.
Psalms 145:9
The tzaddik (righteous person)
acts according to the laws of justice; not only
does he act according to these laws with human
beings, but also with animals.
The Malbim
Living creatures possess a soul
and a certain spiritual superiority which in
this respect make them similar to those who
possess intellect (people) and they have the
power of affecting their welfare and their food
and they flee from pain and death.
Nachmanides, commentary on Genesis 1:29
There is no difference between
the pain of humans and the pain of other living
beings, since the love and tenderness of the
mother for the young are not produced by reasoning,
but by feeling, and this faculty exists not
only in humans but in most living beings.
Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed
For that which befalls the sons
of men befalls animals; even one thing befalls
them; as the one dies, so dies the other; yes,
they all have one breath; so that man has no
preeminence above an animal; for all is vanity.
All go to one place; all are of the dust. Who
knows the spirit of men whether it goes upward;
and the spirit of the animal whether it goes
downward to the earth?
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21
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, even
if it is ownerless or belongs to a non Jew.
Code of Jewish Law
When horses, drawing a cart, come
to a rough road or a steep hill, and it is hard
for them to draw the cart without help, it is
our duty to help them, even when they belong
to a non-Jew, because of the precept not to
be cruel to animals, lest the owner smite them
to force them to draw more than their strength
permits.
Code of Jewish Law
It is forbidden to tie the legs
of a beast or of a bird in a manner as to cause
them pain.
Code of Jewish Law
You shall not muzzle the ox when
he threshes out the corn.
Deuteronomy 25:4
You shall not plow with an ox
and an ass together.
Deuteronomy 22:10
While our teacher Moses was tending
the flock of Jethro in the wilderness a kid
ran away from him. He ran after the kid until
it reached Hasuah. Upon reaching Hasuah, the
kid came upon a body of water and began to drink.
When Moses reached him he said, "I did
not know that you were running because [you
were] thirsty. You must be tired." He placed
the kid on his shoulder and began to walk. The
Holy One, blessed be He, said, "You are
compassionate in leading flocks belonging to
mortals; I swear you will similarly shepherd
my flock, Israel."
Midrash Exodus Rabbah 2:2
As God is merciful, so you also
be merciful. As he loves and cares for all His
creatures and His children and are related to
Him, because He is their Father, so you also
love all His creatures as your brethren. Let
their joys be your joys, and their sorrows yours.
Love them and with every power which God gives
you, work for their welfare and benefit, because
they are the children of your God, because they
are your brothers and sisters.
Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter
72, Section 482.
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 Rafael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter
60, Section 416.
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 beating as man. Thus man becomes the torturer
of the animal soul.
Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter
60, Section 415.
It seems doubtful from all that
has been said whether the Torah would sanction
'factory farming,' which treats animals as machines,
with apparent insensitivity to their natural
needs and instincts. This is a matter for decision
by halachic authorities.
Rabbi Aryeh Carmell, Masterplan: Judaism:
its Programs, Meanings, Goals (New York/Jerusalem:
Feldheim, 1991), 69.
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, "Vegetarianism:
An Orthodox Jewish Perspective", in Rabbis
and Vegetarianism: An Evolving Tradition, edited
by Roberta Kalechofsky (Micah Publications:
Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1995), 53.
3. Messianic times
And the wolf shall dwell with
the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
And the calf and the young lion and the falling
together;
And a little child shall lead them
And the cow and the bear shall feed;
Their young ones shall lie down together,
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox . .
. .
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain...
Isaiah 11:6-9
The progress of dynamic ideals
will not be eternally blocked. Through general,
moral and intellectual advancement... shall
the latent aspiration of justice for the animal
kingdom come out into the open, when the time
is ripe.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, A Vision
of Vegetarianism and Peace
4. Attitudes toward vegetarianism
The removal of blood which kashrut
teaches is one of the most powerful means of
making us constantly aware of the concession
and compromise which the whole act of eating
meat, in reality, is. Again it teaches us reverence
for life.
Samuel Dresner, The Jewish Dietary Laws,
29
Apparently the Torah was in principle
opposed to the eating of meat. When Noah and
his descendants were permitted to eat meat this
was a concession conditional on the prohibition
of the blood. This prohibition implied respect
for the principle of life ("for the blood
is the life") and an allusion to the fact
that in reality all meat should have been prohibited.
This partial prohibition was designed to call
to mind the previously total one.
Rabbi Moses Cassutto, quoted by Nehama Leibowitz,
Studies in Genesis, 77.
The Torah teaches a lesson in
moral conduct, that man shall not eat meat unless
he has a special craving for it... and shall
eat it only occasionally and sparingly.
B.T. Chulin 84a
Only a scholar of Torah may eat
meat, but one who is ignorant of Torah is forbidden
to eat meat.
B.T. Sanhedrin 49b
What was the necessity for the
entire procedure of ritual slaughter? For the
sake of self discipline. 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. Perhaps because
of the bother and annoyance of the whole procedure,
he will be restrained from such a strong and
uncontrollable desire for meat.
Rabbi Solomon Efraim Lunchitz, Kli Yakar
Accordingly, the laws of kashrut
come to teach us that a Jew's first preference
should be a vegetarian meal. If, however, one
cannot control a craving for meat, it should
be kosher meat, which would serve as a reminder
that the animal being eaten is a creature of
God, that the death of such a creature cannot
be taken lightly, that hunting for sport is
forbidden, that we cannot treat any living thing
callously, and that we are responsible for what
happens to other beings (human or animal) even
if we did not personally come into contact with
them.
Rabbi Pinchas Peli, Torah Today, Washington,
D.C.: B’Nai B’rith Books, 1987,
118.
5. Emphasis on plant foods
For the Lord your God brings you
into a good land, a land of brooks of water,
of fountains and depths, springing forth in
valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley,
of vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land
of olive trees and honey; a land wherein you
shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall
not lack anything in it... And you shall eat
and be satisfied, and bless the Lord your God
for the good land which He has given you.
Deuteronomy 8: 7-10
I will give you the rain of your
land in its due season, the first rain and the
latter rain, that you may gather in your corn,
and your wine, and your oil.
Deuteronomy 11:14
I shall return my people from
captivity, and they shall build up the waste
cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant
vineyards and drink the wine from them, and
they shall make gardens and eat the fruit from
them, and I shall plant them upon their land.
Amos 9:14-15
Build houses and dwell in them,
and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.
Jeremiah 29:5
6. Covenants with animals
"As for me," says the
Lord, "behold I establish My Covenant with
you and with your seed after you, and with every
living creature that is with you, the fowl,
the cattle, and every animal of the earth with
you; of all that go out of the ark, even every
animal of the earth."
Genesis 9:9-10
And in that day will I make a
covenant for them with the animals of the field
and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping
things of the ground. And I will break the bow
and the sword and the battle out of the land
and I will make them to lie down safely.
Hosea 2:20
7. Views on Health
You may not rob yourself of your
life nor cause your body the slightest injury...
Only if the body is healthy is it an efficient
instrument for the spirit's activity... Therefore
you should avoid everything which might possibly
impair your health... And the law asks you to
be even more circumspect in avoiding danger
to life and limb than in the avoidance of other
transgressions.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter
62, Section 428.
Since maintaining a healthy and
sound body is among the ways of God - for one
cannot understand or have any knowledge of the
Creator if he is ill - therefore he must avoid
that which harms the body and accustom himself
to that which is helpful and helps the body
become stronger.
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Deot,
4:1
Limiting our presumption against
our own body, God's word calls to us: "Do
not commit suicide!" "Do not injure
yourself!" "Do not ruin yourself!"
"Do not weaken yourself!" "Preserve
yourself!"
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter
62, Section 427
Following the many precedents prescribed in
the Code of Jewish Law, we would have little
difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that,
if indeed eating meat is injurious to one's
health, it is not only permissible, but possibly
even mandatory that we reduce our ingestion
of an unhealthful product to the minimal level.
Rabbi Alfred Cohen, "Vegetarianism
From a Jewish Perspective", Journal of
Halacha and Contemporary Society, Vol. 1, No.
II, (Fall, 1981), 61.
As it is halachically prohibited
to harm oneself and as healthy, nutritious vegetarian
alternatives are easily available, meat consumption
has become halachically unjustifiable.
Rosen, Rabbi David, "Vegetarianism:
An Orthodox Jewish Perspective", in Rabbis
and Vegetarianism: An Evolving Tradition, edited
by Roberta Kalechofsky (Micah Publications:
Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1995), 54.
8. Prophets’ views
on sacrifices
For I spoke not unto your fathers,
nor commanded them on the day that I brought
them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-
offerings or sacrifices; but this thing I commanded
them, saying, "Obey my voice, and I will
be your God, and you shall be my people; and
walk in all the ways that I have commanded you,
that it may be well unto you.
Jeremiah 7:22 –23
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
Hosea 6:6
"To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto Me?" says the Lord.
"I am full of the burnt offerings of rams,
and the fat of beasts; and I delight not in
the blood of bullocks, or of lambs or of he-goats.
. . bring no more vain oblations... Your new
moon and your appointed feasts my soul hates;
... and when you spread forth your hands, I
will hide my eyes from you; yes, when you make
many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are
full of blood."
Isaiah 1:11-16
I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Though you offer me burnt offerings and your
meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither
will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat
beasts. Take away from me the noise of your
song; and let Me not hear the melody of your
psalteries. But let justice well up as waters,
and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Amos 5:21- 4
He that kills an ox is as if he slew a person.
Isaiah 66:3
