Judaism and Veganism: Natural Partners
Judaism and veganism go hand in hand. Included in their common ideals are kindness to animals, promotion of other mitzvot, the way of life before Noah, and aspiration for the future.
Key Jewish Values
- • Tza'ar ba'alei chayim - Preventing animal suffering
- • Bal tashchit - Avoiding waste and protecting the Earth
- • Pikuach nefesh - Guarding human life and health
- • Tzedakah - Using food systems to reduce hunger
1. Kindness to Animals (Tza'ar ba'alei chayim)
Consideration for the well-being of animals features in several Torah commandments. The Torah teaches us to prevent unnecessary suffering and to treat all living creatures with compassion.
Biblical Examples:
Exodus 23:5: “If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under its burden, thou shalt forebear to pass by him; thou shalt surely release it with him.”
Deuteronomy 25:4: “Thou shall not muzzle the ox when he treadeth the corn.”
Deuteronomy 5:14: The Sabbath rest extends to animals: “the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord thy God, in it thou shall not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle...”
Rabbinic Teachings:
“It is prohibited to kill an animal with its young on the same day, in order that people should be restrained and prevented from killing the two together in such a manner that the young is slain in the sight of the mother; for the pain of animals under such circumstances is very great. There is no difference in this case between the pain of people and the pain of other living beings.”
“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 pain of any creature, even if it is ownerless or belongs to a non-Jew.”
“G-d'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 though no fault of yours.”
Jewish tradition is filled with compassion for animals. Many commentators, drawing on the statement, “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast” (Proverbs 12:10), argue that it is impossible to be righteous if one is unkind to animals.
2. Support for Other Mitzvot
Jewish Law requires us to give food to the hungry, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, and preserve human health. In each case, vegetarianism accords with these requirements while meat-eating practices often conflict with them.
Giving Food to the Hungry
In the Passover Haggadah we read, “This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat”, and the Talmud states that “Providing charity for poor and hungry people weighs as heavily as all the other commandments of the Torah combined” (Baba Batra 9a).
Jean Mayer, a leading twentieth-century expert on hunger issues, showed how vegetarianism can help fulfil this mitzvah when he estimated that if people reduced their meat consumption by just 10 percent, enough grain would be released to feed 60 million people.
Protecting the Environment
The Talmud asserts that people's role is to enhance the world as “co-partners of G-d in the work of creation” (Shabbat 7a). The Midrash teaches us to think upon G-d's works and not destroy or desolate the world.
A 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stated that animal agriculture is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” The FAO estimates that livestock production is responsible for up to 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with more recent estimates putting the figure as high as 51%.
Conserving Natural Resources
The Psalms celebrate the harmony of creation and the provision of water for all living beings. The harmony of vegetarianism with these sentiments is emphatically illustrated by the statistical estimate that 634 gallons of fresh water are required to produce a single beef burger.
In short, reducing meat consumption saves water and aligns with Jewish values of stewardship over creation.
Preserving Human Health
In the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides stated: “Since maintaining a healthy and sound body is among the ways of G-d – for one cannot understand or have knowledge of the Creator if one is ill – therefore one must avoid that which harms the body and accustom oneself to that which is helpful and helps the body become stronger.”
A recent study carried out at Oxford University found that eating meat no more than three times a week could prevent 31,000 deaths from heart disease, 9,000 deaths from cancer, and 5,000 deaths from stroke, as well as save the NHS £1.2 billion in costs each year.
3. The Original Intention: Life Before Noah
Many leading Jewish commentators throughout the ages have held that G-d originally intended human beings to be vegetarian. They argue that the permission to eat meat given to the generation of Noah after the flood was only a temporary concession.
The Original Diet in Genesis:
“And G-d said: 'Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed – to you it shall be for food; and to every beast of the earth, and to every foul of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.' And it was so.”
Commentaries on the Original Vegetarian Diet:
“G-d did not permit Adam and his wife to kill a creature and to eat its flesh, but all alike were to eat herbs.”
“Living creatures possess a moving 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.”
“In the killing of animals there is cruelty, rage, and the accustoming of oneself to the bad habit of shedding innocent blood...”
“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...”
It is also stated in the Talmud that “Adam was not permitted meat for purposes of eating” (Sanhedrin 59b). The permission to eat meat after the flood was not unconditional and came with immediate restrictions, such as the prohibition against eating blood (Genesis 9:4).
4. Aspiration for the Future: The Messianic Vision
Many commentators believe that in the days of the Messiah, people will again be vegetarians, returning to the original ideal state of harmony between all living beings.
The Messianic Vision in Isaiah:
“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 fatling 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.”
Rabbinic Interpretations:
“In the primitive ideal age (as also in the Messianic future …), the animals were not to prey on one another.”
“The effect of knowledge will spread even to animals...and sacrifices in the Temple will consist of vegetation, and it will be pleasing to God as in days of old...”
“A day will come when people will detest the eating of the flesh of animals because of a moral loathing, and then it shall be said that 'because your soul does not long to eat meat, you will not eat meat.'”
Rabbi Kook believed that the high moral level involved in the vegetarianism of the generations before Noah is a virtue of such great value that it cannot be lost forever. The laws of kashrut, while permitting some meat consumption, greatly limited people's permission to eat meat and served as a constant reminder of the concession and compromise that eating meat represents.
Further Reading and Resources
Recommended Reading:
- • A Case for Jewish Vegetarianism - endorsed by JVS Patron Rabbi David Rosen
- • Rabbinic teachings on Judaism and vegetarianism
- • Professor Richard Schwartz's webpage
- • Jewish Vegetarians of North America