Vegans, Vegetarians, and Sensitivity

See alos the post titled, “Judaism and Veganism”

   March, 2022    

Almost all complaints I have received for something I’ve said -say, during a drasha – was about words perceived or inferred as being political. I once said before an election, “We have a moral obligation to vote” which someone understood as a push for a party that is professed to focus on ‘morals’.

      A pulpit rabbi must be careful not to even give the appearance that he is letting his politics and general worldviews cloud his role as a posek and leader. All it takes is one unnecessary statement -unrelated to Torah -and one can turn someone off for years.

      This was certainly true during Covid where there are passionate views on all sides which sometimes irrevocably destroy family and shul dynamics.

    However, in more intimate settings this can be tricker to avoid, and it is where a rav must use extreme caution, e.g. a walk home from shul, or guests by a Shabbos seudah.

         The conversation-not to mention wine–is flowing, and a deeper connection is being sought on both ends. It is during these moments that people will feel comfortable asking for my opinion on matters not necessarily related to Torah, or even hashkafa; topics I would generally avoid unless in a shiur setting.

         A relaxing seudah is not a senate hearing; I can’t answer every question with a ‘No comment’, or, ‘On the advice of counsel, I plead the fifth’ for the entirety of the meal!

       Recently, we noticed a guest who was hardly eating. While I would never point this out, the guest herself must have felt awkward, and so shared that she is a vegan -abstaining not just from all meat, poultry and fish, but also eggs, milk, etc.

    My Shabbos table might be considered a vegan’s worst nightmare. While my wife makes wonderful salads and exquisite deserts, one can’t avoid homemade ptcha, gribbeness, and even the shmaltz I make to shmear on my challah, etc. I may have personally caused the inflated price of oil this year!

     Before I continue, I would urge that guests always make their hosts aware of this, or any food allergies, before Shabbos. Far from being intrusive, it aids one’s hosts in making sure the guest will enjoy  their food and company.

     Growing up in the 80’s I was almost alone in my peanut allergy and learnt the hard way to always share my allergy before the host begins their preparations. Sometimes, even that didn’t work back when food allergies were rare. Once I was eating a desert at a friend’s home when I realized there was a distinct peanut taste in the desert. The mother said, “Oy! You’re also allergic to peanut butter?”!!

    I did not aim to initiate a discussion on my guest’s dietary choice. However, she then sincerely asked me what I thought of her food ethics. And, as a rabbi, continued to ask of me, “Do you think this is an issue in halacha?”

   Now, like the reader, I too have personal opinions on this matter. But my job as a rabbi is not to be a part of the legislative branch (who makes the rules) -that ended with chazal -rather to be a representative of the judicial branch; seeking simply to understand and then share the words of our mesorah as handed down to us.

      So what did I share with this guest?

        To be sure, we are all rachmanim bnei rachmanim, and we may not cause avert, needless and senseless pain to any of Hashem’s creatures. Rav Moshe Feinstein even writes that when we kill even a bug it must only be for a need, and even then, we should not do so directly (shu’t Igros Moshe, choshen mishpat, 2:47). People who make this diet choice for the above moral reason do not only mean well, but we have what to learn from them. Nevertheless, certain hashkafa and world realties must sometimes be made clear.

      Often one has medical or dietary reasons for such a choice. By the mitzvah of the nazir, the pasuk states “…and he shall atone…” (Bamidbar 6:11). To this, a bereissa wonders, “Rabbi Elazar HaKafar b’rebbe asked ‘In what way did this person sin?  He afflicted himself by abstaining from wine! From this one can make a kal v’chomer: just as this person who afflicted himself by abstaining only from wine is nevertheless called a sinner, one who afflicts himself by abstaining from everything [through fasting -Rashi] all the more so is he as well described as a sinner’” (Bava Kama 91b, Taanis 11, Nazir 19).

     Does this mean one can never choose on their own to abstain from a particular food item? Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked if there is any issue in restricting food to lose weight for cosmetic reasons. He proves that so long as one is doing so for another enjoyment -e.g., to feel healthy -then there is no concern in abstaining. Rav Moshe does however warn that making oneself stam hungry -by not eating anything for long periods of time – is something that at times should be avoided unless there is a particular need (shu’t Ig’m, ibid. #47, last paragraph).

      So then, if someone is just personally ‘grossed-out’ by animal flesh, there is no concern in abstaining. However, if one informs me that they think killing/eating animals is morally wrong, we have the obligation to share certain information, if they are sincere and willing to learn. Of course, hashkafa at first may seem to find some area of agreement. Only after the mabul were we allowed to eat meat. Ramban goes as far as to say that our current state is the unnatural one, and by zman moshiach -Yeshayahu 65:25, et al. -will be the returning to the natural order of even animals not harming each other. However, to state that what Hashem and the Torah now sanction -and indeed sanctifies by way of kodshim –is something ‘immoral’ can’t be tolerated as a Torah worldview.

       Academics -and I have hosted many -especially those who are not-yet-frum will start pushing back on this, challenging me in the name of famed vegan philosopher Peter Singer that there is no way to morally justify killing animals for our pleasure, and since we know Hashem anyway desires a world like that one day, what would be wrong from abstaining for this reason.

     To this, I gently remind them of two important points. First, virtue can never be tied to a specific epoch. Real virtue must be accessible in every generation and in all circumstances. Just because someone in 2022 of even modest wealth can afford and find many options to eat a healthy diet -with protein- without consuming meat, doesn’t make it true for someone in other times and places. Does one believe we would be here today without meat? There were no Impossible Burgers -or even large vegetable sections -in the shtetle, and on the many fields of battle that give us the bounty we now enjoy.

      But secondly, there is a larger point to consider. When I eat a steak, one animal died. But when one chooses a salad instead, they have caused the death of untold thousands of living creatures! For produce to grow, pesticides and even animals are used to kill bugs, vermin, and even mammals from destroying one’s crops. Then, when the fruit or vegetable is ready to be harvested, millions more of living things are killed when the tractors roll threw to suck up the potato you are now eating. And then, when you finally buy and make your animal-killing salad, one is either chalila eating or hopefully removing even more living things. I then end with a joke to lighten the mood. “Caesar Salad can indeed be a great source of protein!”

    Maybe this is why they chose the name ‘Impossible Burger’, for there is simply no way not to cause the death of living things no matter how ‘pure’ our diet chooses may be. It is, in fact, ‘impossible’.

      The Aruch Hashulchan alludes to this when he points out that even a walk in a woody area in the summertime likely results in our swallowing countless living organisms! (See there why this would not be a halachic concern).

     All the above leads to a question many rabbanim have been getting of late. “Why can’t I eat at vegetarian restaurants with questionable hashgachos? After all, what really could be the issue?”

     To be discussed iy’H next week.