Q&A: Blessing Before Eating Animal-Based Food
Blessing Before Eating Animal-Based Food
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Unfortunately, דווקא when I speak with religious people, even the most idealistic among them, I find closed ears to anything having to do with veganism. They idealize eating meat (the vision of vegetarianism and peace), avoid even the very dilemma because “the Torah permitted it,” and so on. So when I saw what you wrote about veganism, I was very happy.
I wanted to ask a question that has been bothering me for a long time. For the past year I have basically been vegan, but it is very hard for me, and sometimes I can’t overcome it and I eat animal-based food. Am I supposed to recite a blessing over such food?
I keep thinking about the Talmudic passage that says it is forbidden to recite a blessing over stolen matzah, because “one who blesses over robbery blasphemes God.” There is something disgraceful toward Heaven when one recites a blessing over food that was obtained in immoral ways.
Should I, as someone who knows the price of eating meat, milk, and eggs, recite a blessing over them when I fail and eat them?
Thank you very much,
Yoni
Answer
Hello Yoni.
I think it is unreasonable not to recite a blessing when you eat it. From a halakhic standpoint, this applies to a blessing over food that was obtained through a prohibition of Jewish law (like theft), not to a moral problem. And even regarding prohibitions, not necessarily all of them. The food does not involve a clear halakhic prohibition. It may support growers who abuse animals, but that is not enough to justify not reciting a blessing.
I think the fact that you sometimes do not meet this standard (and so do I) shows that even in your own eyes this is not a regular halakhic prohibition (like pork and the like). We live among our people, and unfortunately today this is the norm. In my view, it is unreasonable to declare a standard situation to be a prohibition at a level where one should not recite a blessing over the food.
Discussion on Answer
But that doesn’t stop you from eating it.
The thief also is not stopped from stealing, and still the question arises whether he should recite a blessing, because it is not right to obtain something through immoral means and then come before God with it and recite a blessing.
From my point of view, animal products are the same thing. I try very hard not to eat them, but because they are so common I sometimes fail in this. And when I recite a blessing, I feel that it is really like coming before God with hands stained with blood.
The thief does not actually ask whether to recite a blessing. And if he did ask, I would answer him exactly this way. Even if there were no rule of “one who blesses over robbery” (that one may not recite a blessing over stolen food), I would tell him the same thing: don’t ask whether you may recite a blessing over theft—just stop stealing. If in your eyes, in such a situation, the hands are stained with blood, then you should stop doing it, not stop reciting a blessing over it. So my claim is that you too understand that the comparison to murder and to blood-stained hands is not precise. That is why you allow yourself nevertheless to fail in this (I hope you do not fail in theft or in eating pork), and therefore in my opinion this is not a situation that justifies not reciting a blessing. And again, I write all this even though I identify with the problematic nature of what you are talking about. But we live in a certain world, and one has to be clear-eyed and realistic.
Not that you need my agreement, but I wanted to write that from my point of view this was a wise and profound answer. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, and thank you for the answer.
What you wrote relates to the halakhic status of the food (a moral problem rather than a halakhic one). But what about my subjective feeling when I eat it? I feel like a sinner, and that the blessing is blasphemy toward Heaven.