An ideological battle is being waged between those who would argue that animals have rights equal to humans (or almost equal to human rights) and those who would insist that people have the right to use animals in any way they would choose. Between those two extremes there appears to be no discussion, dialogue, or any interest in a deeper understanding. One side views the other as tofu vegbos and they, in turn, see their opponents and blood-thirsty rednecks.
One will look in vain for a traditional Jewish assertion that animals have rights on par with human beings. After all, the Torah records the unique status of humanity as made in God’s image, and the rituals of biblical Israel included animal sacrifice and eating meat on festive occasions (the core of Passover, for example, was the Pascal sacrifice which was eaten, barbecue style, by the entire household on this hills of Jerusalem.)
But there is a great space between saying that animals should have equal rights and asserting that animals are merely animate machines, rightly subjected to any use people would impose. In that middle space, which sees people as unique and rightly dominant, yet also sees compassion to animals as a mitzvah (a religious obligation), you will find Judaism.
Not surprisingly, that controversy erupts around one mitzvah found in today’s Torah portion: the mitzvah of kashrut (the dietary laws). The Torah relays God’s permission to eat a limited number of animals, and only if they are slaughtered, and insists on separating milk and meat. The justification given for these restrictions in diet is: "you are a people consecrated to the Lord your God."
Not lack of refrigeration, not health concerns, but holiness and our role as the human embodiments of God’s love and justice motivate the distinctive eating practices of biblical Israel and today’s faithful Jews.
But what of compassion to animals? Isn’t that also a mitzvah? How can we square taking animal’s life for food with caring for them and with minimizing their pain? Even if they don’t have rights equivalent to human rights, is it just as necessary to eat them?
The first fact that to recall is that the Torah nowhere mandates the eating of meat (except for the Pascal sacrifice which is no longer an option among Jewry). Instead, it provides an option: "you may eat…" not "you must eat." Again, in our portion, the Lord permits eating meat to those "who have the urge to eat meat."
Here the insights of the ancient rabbis strikes a remarkable balance, rejecting the stance of those who would eat meat as an assertion of human right and supremacy and the position of those who reject eating meat as species-ism. The Talmud records the offer to eat meat when one has an urge, and states: "The Torah here teaches the rule of conduct that a person should not eat meat unless he has an urge to eat it." Only those people whose urge to eat meat cannot be denied are authorized to the Torah to eat meat at all! In fact, the same talmudic passage continues that "a parent should not accustom his child to meat and wine," apparently to discourage the development of that urge.
Rav, one of the greatest of talmudic sages, had a reputation for not eating meat, because "he comes from a healthy family." But, for those whose health requires it, the Talmud urges the general practice of eating meat "only on Erev Shabbat(Friday night)."
In our own age, applying this talmudic insight requires us to ask of ourselves not whether or not we like the taste of meat-such a motivation is unbecoming for members of a holy people. Instead, we can justify the eating of meat only if it is necessary for our own health and well-being. If it is necessary (not merely desirable or pleasant) then it is entirely permissible according to the Torah and rabbinic law. Indeed, in such a case it is morally permissible and unassailable as well.
But how many of us can really claim that we take the lives of animals for food only out of necessity? In all likelihood, most people eat meat because they don’t want to think about where it came from and the suffering that went into turning a living animal into a carcass into a meal. Or they eat it because it’s pleasant or it’s habitual. Those justifications suggest a moral laxity and laziness that we can ill afford.
But equally objectionable is the drive of some zealots to impose their own agenda. The Torah and its traditions place the responsibility for determining whether or not one is driven to eat meat on the individual person. If you don’t have the "urge", don’t eat meat. But don’t accuse other individuals of not having that urge just because you don’t.
Each of us must grow to take seriously the mitzvah of tza’ar ba’alei hayyim(compassion for animals). And each of us must restrict our meat eating to as little as is necessary, without imposing our own criteria on each other.
Shabbat shalom.