The Blogs: Why Jews Should Be Vegans

There are many important reasons why Jews should be vegans, including the following (listed below and then discussed):

Veganism is the diet most consistent with basic Jewish teachings.
Eating meat and other animal-based foods is arguably halachically (according to Jewish law) unjustifiable today
Veganism is the ideal Jewish diet, the diet of the Garden of Eden and the future Messianic period
Animal-based diets have major negative effects on human health, animals, the environment, resource conservation, world hunger, and prospects for peace
Human beings are biologically herbivorous.
There have been many scandals in the kosher meat industry.

All of these reasons are discussed below.. Any one of the arguments should be enough to persuade Jews to refrain from consuming animal products.

1. Veganism is the diet most consistent with basic Jewish teachings.

The production and consumption of meat and other animal products significantly conflicts with Judaism in at least six important areas:

While Judaism stresses that people should carefully preserve their health and their lives, many scientific studies have linked animal-based diets to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, many forms of cancer, and other life-threatening diseases.
While Judaism teaches that “the earth is the Lord’s” (Psalm 24:1) and that we are to be God’s partners and co-workers in preserving the world, compared to plant-based agriculture modern intensive livestock agriculture contributes disproportionately to climate change, soil erosion and depletion, air and water pollution, overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the destruction of tropical rain forests and other habitats, desertification, and other environmental damage.
While Judaism mandates bal tashchit (that we are not to waste or unnecessarily destroy anything of value, and that we are not to use more resources than is needed to accomplish a purpose), animal agriculture requires us to squander grain, land, water, energy, and other resources.
While Judaism stresses that we are to assist the poor and share our bread with hungry people, about 70% of the grain grown in the United States is fed to animals destined for slaughter, while an estimated nine million people worldwide die because of hunger and its effects each year.
While Judaism forbids tsa’ar ba’alei chayim, inflicting unnecessary pain on animals, most farmed animals — including those raised for kosher consumers — are raised on ‘factory farms,’ where they live in cramped, confined spaces, and are often drugged, mutilated, and denied fresh air, sunlight, exercise, and any enjoyment of life, before they are slaughtered and eaten.
While Judaism stresses that we must seek and pursue peace and that violence results from unjust conditions, the wasteful depletion of vital resources by animal-based diets sows hunger and poverty which breed political instability and war.

In view of these important Jewish mandates, committed Jews (and others) should sharply reduce or eliminate their consumption of animal products.

One could say dayenu (it would be enough) after any of the arguments above, because each constitutes a serious conflict between Jewish values and current practices that should impel Jews to switch to a plant-based diet. Combined, they make a compelling case for change.

2. Eating meat and other animal foods is halachically unjustifiable today

This analysis is based on the powerful, challenging words below, written 20 years ago by Rabbi David Rosen, former chief rabbi of Ireland. He has since become a vegan and has informed me that he would refer to veganism today rather than vegetarianism in these statements.

As it is halachically prohibited to harm oneself and as healthy, nutritious vegetarian alternatives are easily available, meat consumption has become halachically unjustifiable [contrary to Jewish law].

. . . the current treatment of animals in the livestock trade definitely renders the consumption of meat as halachically unacceptable as the product of illegitimate means.

Indeed, a central precept regarding the relationship between humans and animals in halacha [Jewish law] is the prohibition against causing cruelty to animals, tsa’ar ba’alei chayim. Practices in the livestock trade today constitute a flagrant violation of this prohibition. I refer not only to the most obvious and outrageous of these, such as the production of veal and goose liver, but also to common practices in the livestock trade, such as hormonal treatment and massive drug dosing.

Today not only are we able to enjoy a healthy balanced vegetarian diet as perhaps never before, and not only are there in fact the above mentioned compelling halachic reasons for not eating meat, but above all, if we strive for that which Judaism aspires to – namely the ennoblement of the spirit – then a vegetarian diet becomes a moral imperative…[an] authentic Jewish ethical dietary way of life for our time and for all times.

Having such a distinguished Israeli Orthodox rabbi, a former chief rabbi of Ireland, strongly arguing that eating meat today is halachically unjustifiable, provides a very valuable message. Rabbi Rosen has stressed that “products from animal sources on the market today are not truly kosher.”

Rabbi Rosen brilliantly, eloquently, and sensitively discusses all aspects

of Jewish teachings on veganism in a 37-minute video that can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsppkMyBufs. Rabbi Rosen’s points in this video are so clear and powerful that I believe it should be seen by every Jew, especially rabbis and other Jewish leaders. I believe it would convince any sensitive, open-minded Jew to seriously consider becoming a vegan.

Reinforcing Rabbi Rosen’s message are the challenging words by Jerusalem-based Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Dean of the David Cardozo Academy, in his 2018 book, Jewish Law as Rebellion: A Plea for Religious Authenticity and Halachic Courage (page 405):

Since when is the actual shechita [ritual slaughter] more important than the laws of tza’ar ba’alei chayim [the prohibition against causing harm to animals]? . . . Are not [mistreated farmed animals] as treif (non-kosher) as any other animal that is not slaughtered according to Halacha (Jewish law)? Can we hide behind the laws of shechita and look the other way when the laws of tza’ar ba’alei chaim are violated?

In all honesty: How many of our glatt [strictly] kosher kitchens, including my own, are still truthfully kosher?

I admire my fellowJews who try to live according to the kashrut laws. But, I wonder, respectfully, how many can confidently answer ‘yes’ to he above question, since it is hard to reconcile eating animals with the spirit and letter of these laws.

3. Veganism is the ideal Jewish diet – the diet of the Garden of Eden and the future Messianic period, the two ideal periods in the Jewish tradition.

God’s first dietary regimen, given in the very first chapter of the Torah, is strictly vegan: “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). As indicated below, this is consistent with modern scientific findings that humans are closer to herbivorous animals than to omnivorous or carnivorous animals, in terms of our hands, teeth, intestinal system, stomach acids, and other features.

God’s original dietary plan represents a unique statement in

humanity’s spiritual history. It is a blueprint of a vegan world

order. Yet many millions of people have read this Torah verse (Genesis

1:29) without fully considering its meaning.

Although most Jews eat meat today, the high ideal of God, the initial

vegan dietary law, stands supreme in the Torah for Jews and the whole world to see – an ultimate goal toward which all people should strive.

In addition, according to Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (Rav Kook), first chief rabbi of pre-state Israel, as well as other Jewish scholars, the Messianic period will also be vegan, based on Isaiah’s prophecy (11:6 – 9): “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, . . . , the lion shall eat straw like the ox, . . ., and no one shall hurt nor destroy in all of [God’s] holy mountain.”

Rav Kook stated that the high moral level of the veganism practiced by the generations before Noah was a virtue of such great value it cannot be lost forever. In the future ideal period, he believed, people and predatory animals would again not eat flesh. Human lives would not be maintained at the expense of animals’ lives.

In his booklet summarizing many of Rav Kook’s vegetarian/vegan teachings, Joseph Green, a 20th-century South African Jewish vegetarian writer, concludes that Jewish religious and ethical vegetarians are forerunners of the messianic era. They are leading lives that make the coming of the Messiah more likely.

The Jewish tradition asserts that one way to speed the coming of the

Messiah is to adopt the practices that will prevail in the messianic

time. For example, the Talmud teaches that if all Jews properly observed

two consecutive Shabbats, the Messiah would immediately come (Shabbat 118b). This may mean symbolically that when all Jews have reached the level of fully observing Shabbat through devotion to God and compassion for people and animals, the conditions would be such that the messianic period would have arrived.

Hence, based on Rav Kook’s teaching, if all Jews become vegans in the proper spirit, working to honor and preserve all of God’s world, the spiritual conditions arguably will have been fulfilled for the Messianic period.

4. Animal-based diets have major negative effects on human health, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, resource conservation, hungry people, and prospects for peace.

To summarise, animal-based diets do great harm in many important ways, and this is completely unnecessary, since so many delicious, nutritious vegan substitutes are readily available. Unfortunately, we humans are creatures of habit, resistant to changing our ways, even when negative consequences are clearly pointed out to us.

5. Human beings are biologically herbivorous

Clearly, human beings are not carnivores, as we need plant foods in order to thrive, but are we omnivores or herbivores? Actually both. People are omnivores in practice, with most eating from both the plant and animal kingdoms. However, physiologically/biologically, we are herbivores, as explained below. The differences between our eating habits and our natural conditions and inclinations are why so many people are suffering and dying from heart disease, cancer, and other life-threatening diseases.

The following comparisons support the conclusion that humans are biologically herbivorous:

1. Our small and large intestines, like those of primates, are up to four times longer, in proportion to height, than those of omnivores. Because of the long intestines, meat passes very slowly through the human digestive system; it takes up to 4 days, during which the disease-causing products of decaying meat are in constant contact with the digestive organs.

2. Unlike omnivores, humans do not have claws that can rip flesh, but instead have hands for picking fruits, vegetables, leaves, flowers, seeds, etc.

3. Our saliva is alkaline like that of the higher species of apes; it contains ptyalin to digest carbohydrates. Carnivores and omnivores have acidic’ saliva.

4. Unlike omnivores, humans do not have long, hard, dagger-like teeth for biting into flesh. Our so-called canine teeth are not truly canine like those of lions, tigers, bears, and other carnivorous and omnivorous animals.

5. Human’s nails are rounded, and they are unlike he claws of carnivorous animals, who tear flesh.

6. Humans are not constituted to prey upon animals, rip apart their bodies, or bite into their flesh.

7. Omnivores have proportionally larger kidneys and livers than humans have; they need these larger organs in order to handle the greater amount of nitrogenous waste of a flesh-based diet.

8. The stomach acids of omnivores and carnivores are up to 20 times stronger than that of human beings.

6. There have been many scandals in the kosher meat industry

Much of the material in this section comes from Israel’s 2017 annual State Comptroller Report, which cited widespread corruption and mismanagement in Israel’s kosher certification process. The report’s first chapter blamed the local religious councils and the Israeli Chief Rabbinate for failing to create significant reforms in the system.

One of the report’s major complaints was that the vast majority of the supervisors receive money from the businesses they supervise, creating a conflict of interest and the potential for bribery. Another concern in the report is that supervisors were receiving pay for hours they did not work. Incredibly, a supervisor was reportedly paid for working 27 hours a day. Another concern was widespread reports of nepotism, including the appointment of unqualified inspectors.

Rabbi Aaron Liebowitz, a Jerusalem council member who founded ‘Private Supervision,’ an alternative supervisory agency that is more attentive to restaurants, praised the comptroller’s report for spotlighting the “significant violations, failures, lies, and corruption” of the main kosher inspection system. He commented, “It’s very sad to see how the rabbinate and some of the local religious councils brought kosher supervision in this country to levels of extreme violation and the absurd.”

Rabbi David Stav, chairman of Tzohar, an Israeli organization of many Israeli Orthodox rabbis working to bridge the gaps between Israel’s religious and secular populations, said “The kashrut system in this country is in a downward spiral,” and needs to be privatized.

In a June 30, 2017 Jerusalem Post magazine cover story, “Has the Religious Minority Taken Over Israel?” Rabbi Stav is quoted as saying, “The reputation of the rabbinate supervision is very low. Most of the supervisors who give certification won’t eat in the places they certify,” and “that the [kashrut inspection] system is broken, everybody knows. That it is corrupt, everyone knows.”

In a recent online interview, renowned Israeli Orthodox rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo asserts that he has doubts “about the kashrut of kosher slaughtering of animals in America and here in Israel” because “the number of cows and chickens which have to be slaughtered every day is so enormous that I can’t see how this will ever work halachically. He concludes: “I don’t believe that any piece of meat today is Kasher l’mehadrin (perfectly kosher). We should start educating people to no longer eat meat.”

The cover story in the November 1 Jerusalem Post magazine, “Thou shalt not be indifferent” by Uri Bollag, indicated the many ways the current mistreatment of animals on factory farms violates basic Jewish teachings on compassion to animals. Because the issue of kashrut supervision is so important and is generally not being adequately considered, I am providing below several relevant examples from that important article:

1. Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber, president of Advanced Torah Studies at Bar-Ilan University, believes that the severity of modern meat production practices poses serious halachic issues regarding kashrut, that, for example, maintaining the shechita laws is unfeasible in mass production. After discussing the terrible ways that farmed animals are treated, he adds:

Their suffering also affects their health. Their internal organs may be affected, which means they would no longer be kosher, and they are not all carefully examined, as they should be… it’s impossible for the mashgichim (supervisors) that exist to really do so very carefully… It is very likely that a good percentage of the many animals on the market are not really kosher.

2. Sabi Amar, quit his job as shochet (slaughterer) after seeing utter disregard of religious requirements is Jewish slaughterhouses. He says that, although there is awareness by kashrut supervisors, no one is willing to take responsibility. He claims that, ‘there is no kosher meat in this industry.’

After reading the Jerusalem Post article, Rabbi Cardozo emailed me the following message:

This is a most important article. In fact, it’s totally shocking, and the situation is much worse than I imagined. I thought that the chickens were at least a little better off.

But that is clearly not true. It seems that any meat eating person seems to run the risk to eat trefa (non-kosher) and helps an industry which is violating the most basic Jewish religious values, and the rabbinate does not say a word.

How can we stop this tragedy?

As I was reviewing this material on June 20, 2019, reports of an additional scandal strongly reinforced the above conclusion. In the city of Liverpool in England, Roseman’s Delicatessen, the main kosher eatery for Jews there, was found to have been selling non-kosher meat and chicken. The Liverpool Kashrut Commission said in a letter to residents that “serious breaches of kashrut have taken place at Roseman’s Delicatessen.”

Rabbi Fagelman, a member of the Liverpool Kashrut Commission, called on Roseman’s Delicatessen patrons not to use “all utensils that have ever been used to cook meat/poultry bought at Roseman’s” and to discard all food bearing the Liverpool Kashrut Commission symbol.

The Jewish News wrote in an editorial that “Beyond the immediate cost and disruption to families, there must be a serious investigation into how non-kosher food was sold in good faith as kosher. It’s truly scandalous.”

In situations like the Liverpool case discussed above, Jews who are trying to observe the kosher laws and being very careful to do everything possible to avoid violating them, have suddenly found out that their dishes, silverware and pots are not kosher. Needless to say, this is very frustrating to them. Many halachic factors have to be considered. An Orthodox rabbi should be consulted. Information can also be obtained on the Internet.

A similar scandal occurred at a Jerusalem slaughterhouse, as reported in a

Based on all of the above, as well as the other considerations in this article, it seems that the best way to keep kosher today is to be a vegan, or at least a vegetarian.