For the Co-Tenants of Eden
Jewish Vegetarian - Vegan Articles From All-Creatures.org Articles Archive

Jewish Vegetarian - Vegan Articles that discuss ways of living in peace with humans, animals, and the environment.

For the Co-Tenants of Eden

By Leonard Goff

The Pentateuch and the Talmud do not come out explicitly against killing animals; instead, they offer an implicit rebuke to it. - (With a couple of exceptions, I will take my proof-texts from the Torah (i.e. the Pentateuch) and the Babylonian Talmud because if I included all the sources, this paper would be too long).

From the Torah:

1. Gen. 1:29 states that "every herb-yielding seed and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit that is on the earth shall be ours for food." Since this is one of the three original blessings (along with procreation and dominion/subduing), as well as a commandment (Gen.2:16), is it any wonder the world is in such bad shape?

2. Permission was given to Noah to kill animals because of man's lust and cruelty, not because he has dominion over the animals! (See #2, pg.3). Animal consumption is a consequence of the sin in the Garden, in that man listens to the voice of the animal inside us instead of listening to the word/voice of God outside. "I've given you every tree of the Garden to eat, but you also want to eat your fellow creatures. Don't expect any good to come from this; in fact, expect a curse." The curse is finally coming to fruition now with our explosion in population (1 billion in 1900 to 6 billion in 2005 [Our "being fruitful and multiplying" is a blessing (the First Blessing), but in order for it to be blessing and not a curse we cannot rely on our dominion/sub-duction (the Second Blessing) alone. It has to be accompanied by a vegan diet (the Third Blessing). All three go together.]. God help us if the S.A.D. diet (Standard American Diet) is followed by the emerging middle classes in India, China and elsewhere. Unfortunately, livestock/farming associations, the World Bank and other international groups are planning on doubling the consumption of meat worldwide in the next 10 years.

3. In the Desert, if an Israelite wanted to eat meat, he had to bring the animal to the Sanctuary first. Later, in Israel, permission was given- begrudgingly(Deut.12:20-24)- to eat it after spilling its blood on the ground and covering it, implying that life("the life of the soul is the blood"- Gen.9:4;Lev.17:11,14;Deut.12:23,24) belongs to God and you have no right to take it; but if you [l]ust, at least show some shame, regret, and respect in your blood lust. The increasingly complex and innumerable restrictions certainly made it inconvenient for an Israelite to eat animals (e.g. draining the blood and salting it implies: you will make the meat less juicy/tasty and make it dry/bitter- i.e. maybe that will encourage you to stop eating rotting carcasses). The Torah- and certainly the Talmud- treats animal consumption as we treat radioactivity: with extreme caution. The Jewish kitchen can be compared to a nuclear power plant with its potential "spills", "leaks", and "meltdowns" which would be obviated by switching to a vegan (all plants) diet. This "inconvenience" is reflected in Deut.12:22 where it states that "Just as you may eat the deer and the hart, thus shall you eat them"(i.e. your cattle and your flocks). In other words, "as you consume the former infrequently because they are wild creatures that must be trapped (i.e. because of the effort involved, a person limits his eating of them), thus shall you eat even ordinary meat."(Rabbi David Sears). Note: meat eating was infrequent in the olden days. Nimrod, Esau, and Ishmael- all hunters in Genesis- are portrayed in an evil light. How much more now that hunting is unnecessary to survive in the Western World.

4. Dairy? (Remember: only infants drink milk in nature). "Don't seethe a kid in its mother's milk"(Ex.23:19). One who consumes meat and dairy together is doing something reminiscent of the above abominable pagan practice. This barbaric practice is the basis for the laws of milk and meat separation, which are notorious for their number and complexity (this implies a rebuke). As you can see by the verse, the basis of these laws is humanitarian and compassionate.

5. Eggs? Not taking the eggs in the presence of the mother bird (Deut.22:6-7) implies a rebuke on egg eating. How much more now that we are "taking" the birds' freedom and comfort away from them(i.e. just the females; the male chicks are killed) in factory farms where they are packed like sardines into cages and then- just like dairy cows- are killed for their meat when they are used up.

6. There are several "comfort" laws in the Torah which Jews should look at again in the context of the modern phenomenon of factory farming:

Animals must also rest on the Sabbath (Ex.20:10; Deut.5:14). Is it "kosher" that they weren't "rested" on the Sabbath (i.e. since kosher slaughterers get 95% of their animals/eggs/milk from non-observant factory farms)? "When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him."(Ex.23:5). "You shall not muzzle an ox when it is threshing."(Deut.25:4). "You shall not yoke a stronger animal with a weaker animal"(Dt.22:10). Let's not forget the first commandment towards animals (which applies to all mankind): "Do not tear the limb off a live animal"(Gen.9:4).

7. "Graves of Lust"/quails incident (Numb 11), where the people lusted for (i.e. didn't need) meat and were killed while they were chewing it.

8. Messianic times will be where the "lamb lies down with the wolf and there will be no more hurting/destruction on my holy mount"(Isaiah chps.11:6-9; 65:25). Thus we have a bracketing in the Hebrew Scriptures of a vegan paradise at the beginning and vegan images at the end. This implies that a vegan diet will hasten the coming of Messianic Days, which can be seen as simply a lifting of the curse that our lust for meat brings down on us. After all, meat=death, whereas vegetable (from the Latin vegutus-lively) =life. Perhaps this is why in the presence of God- at the Burning Bush- Moses was told to remove his [leather] sandals (same goes for the Tabernacle/Temple, where one had to remove their [leather] sandals). This is reflected in the ancient tradition of not wearing animals on Yom Kippur (i.e. it is unseemly to beg/plead for mercy before G-d while wearing the skins of animals who pleaded for their lives and their cries went unheard).

9. Lev.22:27-28 forbids killing a mother and her young on the same day at the altar. Obviously, this law alone, as well as the previous ones, is not strong statements against animal consumption. However, taken together, they strongly suggest that the Pentateuch is committed to weaning us slowly away from it. Note: It seems to be working: Israel (and India) has more vegans/vegetarians per-capita than any other nation.

Addendum: imbedded in ELS (Equidistant Letter Sequence) "computer code", between Gen.ch.2:7 and 3:3 are all the 26 plants mentioned in the Torah. "Only here do we find such a phenomenon and here it is more pertinent than anywhere else because this is where G-d plants a garden in Eden!"- see http://www.britam.org/codesarticles/Codhttp://www.b (and go to bottom of page)

From the [Babylonian] Talmud:

1. "Only a scholar of Torah may eat meat, but one who is ignorant of Torah is forbidden to eat meat... as for others, only on the Sabbath"(Talmud, Pesachim 49b). "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"(Talmud Chulin 84b). "This shows clearly that the eating of flesh was permitted only because of necessity."(R. Sears). Since the destruction of the Temple, Jews are not required to eat meat on festivals (Pesachim 109a).

2. The Talmud (San.59b) says that "dominion" only means using animals for work- i.e., since the blessing of dominion over the animals (Gen.ch.1) was given way before Noah was allowed to eat meat (ch.9). "Dominion “is part of the "very good" trio which includes subduing the earth and procreation (no problem if we switch to an all plants diet). The meaning of "dominion" doesn't change in the post-Flood world. Killing animals was allowed only because the harshness of this new world sometimes necessitated it. However, there is no excuse for it here in the "Western World". It is simply lust- "basar taavah"(meat of lust, Num.ch.11- see #7 pg.2) - not dominion.

3. There is no special blessing for meat/fish/dairy/eggs (you say the same blessing for water). This implies a rebuke- c.f. Brakhot 40b: "Over anything which does not grow from the earth one says...."

For the complete article, please contact the author by email.

---

Return to Jewish Vegetarian - Vegan Articles
Return to Articles Directory
Return to Articles Reflecting a Vegan Lifestyle