Q&A: Encouraging Consumption in Non-Kosher Vegan Restaurants — Is It Appropriate?
Encouraging Consumption in Non-Kosher Vegan Restaurants — Is It Appropriate?
Question
Dear Rabbi Michael, greetings!
A. Eating non-sacrificial meat in the Torah is described as “slaughter” — “and you shall slaughter.” A person should eat for the sake of Heaven. Eating is not an act detached from some normative system. As part of that system there are the laws of kashrut.
B. Isaiah protests against sacrifices being offered while people commit moral sins, and the Kuzari protests the observance of ritual commandments without the rational commandments.
C. The Rabbi writes that it is not certain that the entire Torah was given at Sinai. Doesn’t that mean there can be logical priority for a practice established מתוך a human normative system over established Jewish law?
The question:
In the Rabbi’s opinion, if restricting consumption at vegan restaurants that do not check their products and have no kashrut certificate causes a national moral wrong on the level of cruelty to animals, is it proper to follow meta-halakhic principles, which would instruct us to set aside the “slaughter” element in the laws of kashrut in favor of the moral repair involved in strengthening veganism, and to rule that a vegan restaurant does not need kashrut supervision at all until the national moral situation is corrected, so that religious people will ensure there are kosher vegan restaurants? (And it seems to me that the situation today really is disgraceful regarding kosher vegan restaurants compared to non-kosher ones.)
Many thanks!
Ofir
Answer
It seems to me that it is not eating that is called “slaughter,” but the act of slaughtering. But the term “slaughter” does not mean something connected to sanctity or Heaven. It is borrowed usage because of the slaughtering of sacrifices. Slaughter simply means slaughtering.
I did not understand the connection between the two parts of the question. One may not eat non-kosher food. Period. Entirely apart from the considerations you raised. The requirement of kashrut does not cause cruelty to animals. Let them make sure those restaurants keep kosher.
Discussion on Answer
Of course the kashrut requirement does not do that, and I didn’t write that either. But the fact that they do not meet the kashrut requirement causes people not to eat there. And there is no reason at all to waive that for the sake of animals. Hold back and don’t eat at a restaurant, or look for a kosher one.
It’s not the kashrut requirement from the restaurants that causes cruelty, but the requirement not to eat in vegan restaurants at all (since there are barely any kosher ones).
The connection between the parts of the question is, of course, that people are missing the essence of the need for proper eating. For example, “Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk” is a prohibition that, in my opinion (it seems to me in line with Rabbi Kook), teaches not to be cruel. “Have you murdered and also inherited?” — both to kill the kid and also to take the milk that was supposed to be meant for it. But if that is the essence of kashrut — compassion for animals — then it seems to me ridiculous to keep kosher and because of that avoid the vegan restaurant market.