D'var Torah: All Your Soul Desires
Rabbi Andy Shapiro Katz, Conservative Yeshiva Director of Engagement
One of the great pleasures of visiting Israel for many kosher-keepers is the ready availability of kosher meat and meat restaurants. Whether we're talking about high-end cuisine or street food, the quality, variety, and value in Israel put Manhattan, Teaneck, Paris, Los Angeles, and Miami to shame. The poultry is raised locally, but the vast quantity of red meat on offer is a mix of domestically raised sheep and cattle and imports from South America or Central/Eastern Europe. Whereas in the past meat was likely to appear only for Shabbat and holiday meals, as Israel has developed into a wealthier country, meat consumption has gone up dramatically, even as Israelis continue to love their fresh fruit and vegetables.
But despite Israeli and Jewish love for meat, our Torah is far more ambivalent. A simple reading of Bereishit reveals that God's plan had been for humans and animals to eat the yield of seed-bearing plants and trees, and "every green herb." (Bereishit 1:29-30). It is only after the world has fallen so completely and God brings a flood to wipe it out that Noach and his family are given permission to eat meat. But this concession, perhaps necessary to keep humans from eating each other, came with the caveat not to eat either blood or limbs torn from a living animal. This move acknowledged our animal nature and placed us at the top of the food chain, but it also sought to "humanize" our consumption as well.
We see meat again being given as a concession when the Israelites were in the desert. God wanted the Israelites to eat only the manna, but they complained so bitterly about missing meat that God sent enough quail to kill them (Bemidbar 11:4-34).
With the building of the Mishkan and institution of the sacrifices, the consumption of meat was both limited, and elevated, further. One could only eat the meat of certain kosher animals (see Vayikra 11 Parashat Shmini, and Devarim 14:3-21 in our parashah), and only then when bringing them as a korban shelamim (peace offering) - the main course of a shared holy meal with the priests and God. And to the prohibition of consuming blood, the Torah added the prohibition of eating meat with milk - like blood, another symbol of life.
With everything trending in that direction, it may seem odd that in our parashah we find a verse that widens the consumption of meat. Deuteronomy 12:20 says "When the LORD your God expands your borders, as he has promised you, and you say, 'I shall eat some meat', because you long to eat meat; you may eat meat whenever you wish." We might have expected this to mean that altars would be set up throughout Israelite territory so that one would not have to travel to bring and consume sacrificial meat. But with the Torah's preference for a single sacrificial center, and its repeated injunctions not to do as the idol worshipers had done and build multiple altars, meat-eating becomes disconnected from sacrifices. Slaughtered properly, meat can be eaten whenever and by whomever.
And that brings us to today. There is a strong Torah-case to be made for vegetarianism as God's preferred way for us to eat. At the same time, the concession God makes to our nature seems to reflect the deep desire many people have to eat meat, and the great satisfaction they get from it. But even if we accept the latter argument, the rules of kashrut and the connection of meat-eating to Temple worship call upon us not to eat meat casually or with abandon.
This can express itself in any number of ways. There are many who, in imitation of Rav Kook, only eat meat on Shabbat. There are others who are particularly careful about the treatment of the animals when they are being raised, transported, and slaughtered. More humane treatment raises the price of the meat they consume, leading them to eat meat more rarely. Still, others try to stay conscious of what they are eating by witnessing or even conducting the ritual slaughter themselves. At the Conservative Yeshiva, multiple students study each year with Rabbi Shlomo Zacharow to do proper shechita (kosher slaughter).
When the Torah permits us to eat meat "b'chol avat nafshecha" (Devarim 12:20-21) we can translate it, as some do, to mean "to our heart's content." But we can also see in the Torah's use of "nefesh" (soul) as the source of this desire, a hint to bring a greater degree of soulfulness and elevated consciousness to our consumption.
