Q&A: Meat Consumption Today
Meat Consumption Today
Question
We all know (and you wrote about this too) about the cruelty in the livestock industry today. You don’t need to convince me of that.
My question is: from a halakhic standpoint (not a moral one), is it forbidden to buy from places like that? Does the prohibition apply to the buyer as well, and why? And do you know of any responsa literature on the subject?
Answer
A few halakhic things have been written on this topic (for example, works by Rabbi Asa Keisar and a few others), but as far as I know not by the leading halakhic decisors.
Consuming products from places where there is cruelty is hard to classify as “do not place a stumbling block,” but there is probably a prohibition of assisting involved here (very tenuous, because your share is minuscule). Still, it is hard to state categorically that there is an outright prohibition, especially since it is very difficult to live up to this and the public is not careful about it. But it is certainly, certainly proper to do so.
Discussion on Answer
If you mentioned the thread, it would have been proper to read it too and see that my position has not changed.
The abuse is a prohibition of causing suffering to animals, and consumption involves assisting. But one can be lenient halakhically because your contribution is negligible and because the public cannot live up to this. Exactly as I wrote here.
There it says: “it is a full-fledged prohibition.” Here: “Still, it is hard to state categorically that there is an outright prohibition.” For some reason it seemed a bit different to me, but really this history isn’t important. In any case, in your view there is a prohibition here.
And by the way, Rabbi Keisar’s book is really not convincing, and in my opinion there are distortions there. At any rate, regarding the last part (not the first part related to our case).
And what will his honor do with the words of the Rema (Yoreh De’ah 33:31): “And so the practice in our city is to be lenient regarding those geese that are force-fed in order to make fat from them”? It seems that to the Rema (and other halakhic decisors), the suffering of fattened geese was not troubling, and apparently they held that there is no problem (halakhically).
And yes, I’m aware that today there is cruelty beyond the force-feeding of geese, and still, why didn’t the force-feeding bother them?
Is it possible that because in the end a person benefits from it, this is considered a “human need” that was permitted? But if so, where is the line drawn?
I don’t know what “his honor” will do, but in my opinion it is forbidden, and I do not agree with the Rema.
Just to note that the Rema’s source is apparently a responsum of Terumat HaDeshen (Responsum 105), who writes that there is no halakhic prohibition if it is for human need, but the practice is to refrain from things that involve a trait of cruelty, and one may also be punished for it by Heaven, as is learned from the story of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and the calf.
Thank you.
After I wrote the question I found that you addressed this about a year ago on the site and wrote that “it is a full-fledged prohibition.” Now you’ve already qualified that, right?
https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%98%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA/