S/o vegetarians and pets and other related thoughts

amother

Powderblue

Wed, Jun 17 2020, 4:42 pm

@Ginger -
Please don't keep offering your recollection of what was around in the 80s. Although I didn't become a pescatarian until the late 90s, vegetarianism became in vogue in the 70s--yes, I was married by then. We had lots of veggie friends over for Shabbat meals. I assure you I knew not to serve them chicken soup because no self-respecting vegetarian would eat it. Maybe it was different in different parts of the country. I did not live in the NE.

I do agree with you that the word "vegetarian" meant someone who did not eat red meat or poultry, but who would eat fish. Iirc, "strict vegetarian" was the term then for someone who didn't eat fish either.

princessleah

Wed, Jun 17 2020, 5:10 pm

amother [ Silver ] wrote:

Please explain/expand, I want to learn/know. He said you shouldn't kill animals to eat because its wrong to? The torah gives very specific how to's.

Just a snippet, sources are widely available. I found this on https://www.jewishvirtuallibra.....-kook

Rav Kook believed that the permission to eat meat was only a temporary concession; he felt that a God who is merciful to his creatures would not institute an everlasting law permitting the killing of animals for food. [1] He stated:

It is inconceivable that the Creator who had planned a world of harmony and a perfect way for man to live should, many thousands of years later, find that this plan was wrong. [2]

According to Rav Kook, because people had sunk to an extremely low level of spirituality (in the time of Noah), it was necessary that they be given an elevated image of themselves as compared to animals, and that they concentrate their efforts into first improving relationships between people. He felt that were people denied permission to eat meat, they might eat the flesh of human beings due to their inability to control their lust for flesh. He regarded the permission to slaughter animals for food as a "transitional tax" or temporary dispensation until a "brighter era" is reached when people would return to vegetarian diets. [3] Perhaps to reinforce the idea that the ideal vegetarian time had not yet arrived, Rav Kook ate a symbolic small amount of chicken on the Shabbat day.

Rabbi Kook believed that the permission to eat meat "after all the desire of your soul" was a concealed reproach and a qualified command. [4] He stated that a day will come when people will detest the eating of the flesh of animals because of a moral loathing, and then it shall be said that "because your soul does not long to eat meat, you will not eat meat." [5] Along with permission to eat meat, Judaism provides many laws and restrictions (the laws of kashrut). Rabbi Kook believed that the reprimand implied by these regulations is an elaborate apparatus designed to keep alive a sense of reverence for life, with the aim of eventually leading people away from their meat-eating habit. [6]

According to Rav Kook, all the laws and restrictions serve to raise the consciousness of Jews, to get them to think about what they are eating, and to decide if the fare meets religious requirements. The eating of meat is thus not taken for granted, and this mandated consideration of what is on the plate can be a first step toward rejecting meat consumption.

This idea is echoed by Torah commentator Solomon Efraim Lunchitz, author of K'lee Yakar:

What was the necessity for the entire procedure of ritual slaughter? For the sake of self-discipline. It is far more appropriate for man not to eat meat; only if he has a strong desire for meat does the Torah permit it, and even this only after the trouble and inconvenience necessary to satisfy his desire. Perhaps because of the bother and annoyance of the whole procedure, he will be restrained from such a strong and uncontrollable desire for meat. [7]

amother

Silver

Wed, Jun 17 2020, 5:57 pm

princessleah wrote:

Thank you princessleah. That is very interesting. I never knew of this opinion. I just had heard many times over in speeches that if Gd allows us to eat animals it is wrong to say that it shouldnt be done. But maybe that is the dumbed down school brainwashing version. Seems there is a lot more to understand.