Q&A: Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism
Question
I spoke with a vegetarian, and he argued that I am not moral. Just as it is immoral to harm another person for no reason, to hurt someone when he did nothing to you, so too it is wrong and immoral to cause pain to an animal and kill it in order to use its skin or eat it. A. Am I immoral? B. What good answer can I give him for why it is in fact okay, and moral, to hurt an animal, kill it, and then eat it? Thank you.
Answer
If you cause suffering to animals, that really is immoral (and it is also forbidden by Jewish law). Consuming animal products indirectly supports an industry that abuses them and makes use of the products of a transgression. In cases of great need, when there is no alternative, then of course people also use animals, even if they suffer as a result (and there should be some proportion between the need and the level of suffering. Lizard fights or cockfights do not seem to me to be a significant need). The question is whether consuming animal-based food is such a need or not. In any case, it is clear that someone who refrains from this is on a higher moral level, even if we do not view someone who consumes it as an outright wrongdoer.
Discussion on Answer
With personal slaughter it is not so bad, because the suffering is not great. The main suffering is in the industrial process.
He argued to me that beyond the suffering, the very taking of life and the separation of a calf from its mother are immoral.
As stated, where there is suffering there is a moral problem. Separating a calf from its mother is indeed immoral. In taking life itself, I do not see a moral problem, except perhaps something like needless destruction. But if there is a use for it, then it is not needless destruction. Animal life has no intrinsic value. One should not harm them or cause them suffering, but that is our obligation, not their right. Rights exist only for human beings.
It seems to me that Rabbi Kook's article on vegetarianism will set your mind at ease. (The language is heavy; I think there is a side-by-side translation, and a concise explanation on practically every two words by Rabbi Aviner.)
Broadly speaking, in the current state of morality in the world, eating animals, and making a sharp distinction between eating animal flesh and human flesh, is the most moral position at present.
Otherwise this would cause a major moral deterioration, and there would be more people murdering human beings.
So eating animals serves a higher moral purpose.
Also, in the article, both directly and indirectly, he apparently connects hundreds of commandments, positive commandments and prohibitions, precisely to this issue.
And seemingly, when the world rises morally and returns to the state before the Flood, and eating animals becomes forbidden, hundreds of commandments will automatically be nullified.
And perhaps that is the plain meaning of "A new Torah shall go forth from Me"?
Okay. And suppose I am a certified ritual slaughterer who slaughters a sheep according to Jewish law. Even then, can it be argued that I am not moral?