(ח) נְבֵלָ֧ה וּטְרֵפָ֛ה לֹ֥א יֹאכַ֖ל לְטָמְאָה־בָ֑הּ אֲנִ֖י יהוה׃
(8) He shall not eat anything that died or was torn by beasts, thereby becoming unclean: I am the LORD.
(כא) לֹ֣א תֹאכְל֣וּ כׇל־נְ֠בֵלָ֠ה לַגֵּ֨ר אֲשֶׁר־בִּשְׁעָרֶ֜יךָ תִּתְּנֶ֣נָּה וַאֲכָלָ֗הּ א֤וֹ מָכֹר֙ לְנׇכְרִ֔י כִּ֣י עַ֤ם קָדוֹשׁ֙ אַתָּ֔ה לַיהוה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹ׃ {פ}
(21) You shall not eat anything that has died a natural death; give it to the stranger in your community to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people consecrated to your God יהוה. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
(א) כָּל טַבָּח שֶׁאֵינוֹ יוֹדֵעַ הִלְכוֹת שְׁחִיטָה אָסוּר לֶאֱכֹל מִשְּׁחִיטָתוֹ; וְאֵלּוּ הֵן: שְׁהִיָּה, דְּרָסָה, חֲלָדָה, הַגְרָמָה וְעִקּוּר.
(1) Any butcher which does not know the laws of shechita it is not permissible to eat from his shechita. And these are the laws: pausing(shehiya), chopping (drasa), covering (halada), missing (cutting outside the permitted area - hagrama), and tearing (ikour).
הקובע סכין בגלגל אם מותר לשחוט בו. ובו סעיף אחד:יכול אדם לקבוע סכין בגלגל של אבן או של עץ ומסבב הגלגל בידו או ברגלו. ומשים שם צואר הבהמה או העוף עד שישחט בסביבת הגלגל. ואם המים הם המסבבים את הגלגל ושם הצואר כנגדו בשעה שסבב ונשחט הרי זו פסולה (ל' הרמב"ם שם דין י"ג) ואם פטר אדם את המים עד שבאו וסבבו את הגלגל ושחט בסביבתו הרי זה כשרה בדיעבד שהרי מכח אדם בא במה דברים אמורים בסביבה ראשונה שהיא מכח האדם אבל מסביבה שנייה ולאחריה פסולה שהרי אינה מכח האדם אלא מכח המים בהילוכן:
A person may set a knife on a wheel of stone or wood that rotates by one's hand or foot, and proceed (with the contraption) to the neck of the animal or fowl until it is slaughtered by turning the wheel. (and it is acceptable). And if water rotates the wheel and he places the neck of [the animal] opposite it while it was turning causing it to be slaughtered, it is unacceptable. An exemption is made if a person caused the water to flow until they turned the wheel and caused it to slaughter by turning it, [if so the slaughter] is acceptable after the fact because the act came as a result of man's actions. However (a slaughtering that results) from a second rotation is unacceptable because the force did not come from man's power, but from the power of the flowing water.
הכל שוחטין ולעולם שוחטין: הכל שוחטין הכל בשחיטה ואפילו עוף
§ The mishna teaches: All slaughter [hakkol shoḥatin] and one may always slaughter. The Gemara interprets the phrase: All slaughter [hakkol shoḥatin], to mean all animals are included in the mitzva of slaughter, and even a bird.
אלא אמר רב יוסף רבי עקיבא היא דתניא (דברים יב, כא) כי ירחק ממך המקום אשר יבחר יהוה אלהיך לשום שמו שם וזבחת מבקרך ומצאנך ר' עקיבא אומר לא בא הכתוב אלא לאסור להן בשר נחירה שבתחלה הותר להן בשר נחירה משנכנסו לארץ נאסר להן בשר נחירה
Rather, Rav Yosef said: The tanna who teaches this halakhais Rabbi Akiva, as it is taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “If the place that the Lord your God shall choose to put His name there be too far from you, then you shall slaughter of your herd and of your flock” (Deuteronomy 12:21), Rabbi Akiva says: The verse comes only to prohibit for them consumption of meat of an animal killed by means of stabbing rather than valid slaughter, as, initially, the meat of stabbing was permitted for them. When they entered into Eretz Yisrael, the meat of stabbing was forbidden to them, and it was permitted to eat the meat of an animal only after valid slaughter.
ועכשיו שגלו יכול יחזרו להתירן הראשון לכך שנינו לעולם שוחטין:
Rav Yosef added: And now that the Jewish people were exiled, might one have thought that stabbed animals are restored to their initial permitted state? Therefore, we learned in the mishna: One must always slaughter the animal to eat its meat.
Here we can see that "slaughter", or shechita, is a very specific set of actions; what other methods of killing animals are being excluded by the commandment to slaughter?
(א) וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֶת־נֹ֖חַ וְאֶת־בָּנָ֑יו וַיֹּ֧אמֶר לָהֶ֛ם פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֖וּ וּמִלְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ׃(ב) וּמוֹרַאֲכֶ֤ם וְחִתְּכֶם֙ יִֽהְיֶ֔ה עַ֚ל כָּל־חַיַּ֣ת הָאָ֔רֶץ וְעַ֖ל כָּל־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם בְּכֹל֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּרְמֹ֧שׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֛ה וּֽבְכָל־דְּגֵ֥י הַיָּ֖ם בְּיֶדְכֶ֥ם נִתָּֽנוּ׃(ג) כָּל־רֶ֙מֶשׂ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הוּא־חַ֔י לָכֶ֥ם יִהְיֶ֖ה לְאָכְלָ֑ה כְּיֶ֣רֶק עֵ֔שֶׂב נָתַ֥תִּי לָכֶ֖ם אֶת־כֹּֽל׃(ד) אַךְ־בָּשָׂ֕ר בְּנַפְשׁ֥וֹ דָמ֖וֹ לֹ֥א תֹאכֵֽלוּ׃
(1) God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fertile and increase, and fill the earth.(2) The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth and upon all the birds of the sky—everything with which the earth is astir—and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand.(3) Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.(4) You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it.
כבר כתבתי בסוף סדר צו באסור דם (מצוה קמח), ובראש אחרי מות מצוה דכסוי הדם (מצוה קפז), בענין ההרחקה שהרחיקה ממנו התורה דם כל בשר מה שידעתי. ואומר גם כן על צד הפשט, כי מצות השחיטה היא מאותו הטעם, לפי שידוע כי מן הצואר יצא דם הגוף יותר מבשאר מקומות הגוף, ולכן נצטוינו לשחטו משם טרם שנאכלהו, כי משם יצא כל דמו, ולא נאכל הנפש עם הבשר. ועוד נאמר בטעם השחיטה מן הצואר ובסכין בדוק, כדי שלא נצער בעלי החיים יותר מדאי, כי התורה התירן לאדם למעלתו לזון מהם ולכל צרכיו ולא לצערן חנם. וכבר דברו חכמים הרבה באסור צער בעלי חיים בבבא מציעא (לב, א) ושבת (קכח, ב) אם הוא באסור דאוריתא, והעלו לפי הדומה שאסור דאוריתא הוא (עי' רמב''ם הל' רוצח פי''ג הי''ג).
I have already written at the end of the Order of Tsav about the prohibition of blood (Sefer HaChinukh 148) and at the beginning of Achrei Mot [about] the commandment of covering the blood (Sefer HaChinukh 187) all that I have known about the matter of distancing that the Torah distanced us from the blood of all flesh. And I say from the angle of the simple understanding that the commandment of slaughter is also from the same reason. Since it is well-known that the body's blood comes out of the neck more than from other places of the body, hence we were commanded to slaughter from there before we eat it. As [in this way] all of its blood will come out from there, and we will 'not eat the soul with the flesh.' And we can also say as a reason for slaughter from the neck with a knife that has been checked [for sharpness], [is that it is] in order that we not cause too much pain to living beings. As the Torah [only] permitted man - due to his status - to derive nourishment from them for all of his needs, but not to cause them pain for no reason. And the Sages have already spoken much about the prohibition of pain to living beings in Bava Metzia 32a and in Shabbat 128b, [as to] whether it is a Torah prohibition. And it appears to come out that it is a Torah prohibition (See Mishneh Torah, Laws of Murderer and the Preservation of Life 13:13).
אמר ר' יוחנן (דברים יב, כג) לא תאכל הנפש עם הבשר זה אבר מן החי (שמות כב, ל) ובשר בשדה טרפה לא תאכלו זה בשר מן החי ובשר מן הטרפה
§ The Gemara discusses the source of the prohibition of eating a limb from a living animal. Rabbi Yoḥanan says: “You shall not eat the life with the flesh” (Deuteronomy 12:23); this is the source for the prohibition of eating a limb from a living animal. And the verse: “And you shall not eat any flesh that is torn in the field” (Exodus 22:30); this is the source for the prohibition of eating flesh severed from the living and flesh severed from a tereifa, even if it is not an entire limb.
ואמנם טעם 'אבר מן החי' הוא היותו מקנה ומלמד אכזריות.
It is prohibited to cut off a limb of a living animal and eat it, because such act would produce cruelty, and develop it.
https://www.929.org.il/lang/en/page/107/post/45344
Leviticus 17 is filled with rules legislating aspects of the meat production process that are—for many of us—unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Who has the right to kill animals intended for consumption? What is done with the blood?
This past year I had the privilege of studying shechita—the rules and practice of kosher slaughter—under Rabbi Shlomo Zacharov at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. One of the practices we studied comes from verse 13: anyone who kills a bird for food “shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.” This mitzvah of kisui dam (covering the blood) is one we still observe to this day for chickens and other fowl.
Before “shechting” (ritually slaughtering), we make sure earth is placed on the ground and once the process has been completed, we “cover” the blood with more earth. We read three times in Chapter 17 that the “soul” of a creature is in its blood. This “burial” practice forces us to pause after we have taken a life to honor the animal whose flesh will find its way onto our plate. It’s important to remember that true kashrut intended we build in time to pause, reflect and appreciate what had to happen for us to enjoy the schnitzel we’re having for dinner.
מדברי שניהם נלמד צער בעלי חיים דאורייתא
From the statements of both of these tanna’im it can be learned that the requirement to prevent suffering to animals is by Torah law.
ואמנם מצות שחיטת בהמה היא הכרחית מפני שהמזון הטבעי לבני אדם הוא מן הזרעים הצומחים בארץ ומבשר בעלי חיים והטוב שבבשר הוא מה שהותר לנו לאכלו - וזה מה שלא יסופק בו רופא. וכאשר הביא הכרח טוב המזון להריגת בעלי חיים כונה התורה לקלה שבמיתות ואסרה שיענה אותם בשחיטה רעה ולא יחתוך מהם אבר - כמו שבארנו:
The commandment concerning the killing of animals is necessary, because the natural food of man consists of vegetables and of the flesh of animals: the best meat is that of animals permitted to be used as food. No doctor has any doubts about this. Since, therefore, the desire of procuring good food necessitates the slaying of animals, the Law enjoins that the death of the animal should be the easiest. It is not allowed to torment the animal by cutting the throat in a clumsy manner, by poleaxing, or by cutting off a limb whilst the animal is alive.
(א)לכם יהיה לאכלה ולכל חית הארץ. הִשְׁוָה לָהֶם בְּהֵמוֹת וְחַיּוֹת לְמַאֲכָל, וְלֹא הִרְשָׁה לְאָדָם וּלְאִשְׁתּוֹ לְהָמִית בְּרִיָּה וְלֶאֱכֹל בָּשָׂר, אַךְ כָּל יֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב יֹאכְלוּ יַחַד כֻּלָם, וּכְשֶׁבָּאוּ בְנֵי נֹחַ הִתִּיר לָהֶם בָּשָׂר, שֶׁנֶאֱמַר כָּל רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא חַי וְגוֹ' כְּיֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב שֶׁהִתַּרְתִּי לְאָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת כֹּל:
(1) ולכל חית הארץ AND TO EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH — Scripture places cattle and beasts on a level with them (human beings: that is, it places all alike in the same category) with regard to food, and did not permit Adam to kill any creature and eat its flesh, but all alike were to eat herbs. But when the era of the “Sons of Noah” began He permitted them to eat meat, for it is said, (Genesis 9:3) “every moving thing that lives should be for food for yourselves … “even as the herb” that I permitted to the first man, so do “I give to you everything” (Sanhedrin 59b).
והיה זה מפני שבעלי נפש התנועה יש להם קצת מעלה בנפשם, נדמו בה לבעלי הנפש המשכלת, ויש להם בחירה בטובתם ומזוניהם ויברחו מן הצער והמיתה, והכתוב אומר "מִי יוֹדֵעַ רוּחַ בְּנֵי הָאָדָם הָעֹלָה הִיא לְמָעְלָה וְרוּחַ הַבְּהֵמָה הַיֹּרֶדֶת הִיא לְמַטָּה לָאָרֶץ" (קהלת ג כא). וכאשר חטאו והשחית כל בשר את דרכו על הארץ, ונגזר שימותו במבול ובעבור נח הציל מהם לקיום המין נתן להם רשות לשחוט ולאכול כי קיומם בעבורו. ועם כל זה לא נתן להם הרשות בנפש ואסר להם אבר מן החי. והוסיף לנו במצות לאסור כל דם מפני שהוא מעמד לנפש כדכתיב (ויקרא יז יד) "כִּי נֶפֶשׁ כָּל בָּשָׂר דָּמוֹ בְנַפְשׁוֹ הוּא, וָאֹמַר לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: דַּם כָּל בָּשָׂר לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ כִּי נֶפֶשׁ כָּל בָּשָׂר דָּמוֹ הִוא", כי התיר הגוף בחי שאינו מדבר אחר המיתה, לא הנפש עצמה. וזה טעם השחיטה. ומה שאמרו (ב"מ לב) "צער בעלי חיים דאורייתא", וזו ברכתנו שמברך "אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על השחיטה"
And [the original prohibition to kill animals to eat their meat] is because moving souls have a bit of stature to their souls: they resemble intelligent souls and seek their [own] benefit and their food and run away from pain and death; and the verse states (Ecclesiastes 3:23), "Who knows the spirit of man whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goes downward to the earth?" And when they sinned and all flesh corrupted its way upon the earth and it was decreed that they would die in the flood, and because of Noach, He saved some of them for the preservation of the species, He gave them permission to slaughter and eat [animals] since their existence was for [man's] sake. And in spite of all this, He did not give them permission with regards to the soul and forbade them a limb from a living animal. And He added commandments for us to forbid all blood since it is the support of the soul, as it is written (Leviticus 17:14), "Since the soul of all flesh, its blood is in its soul; and say to the Children of Israel, 'the blood of all flesh do not eat, since the soul of all flesh, it is the blood.'" [This is all] because He permitted the body of an animal that does not speak but not the soul itself. And this is [also] the reason for ritual slaughter (shechita) - and for what they said (Bava Metzia 32:), "[the prohibition of causing] pain to living animals is from the Torah" - and this is our blessing for it: "who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us on ritual slaughter."
השגות הרמב"ן לספר המצות שורש א
וכן נטילת הידים אין מצותה בחיוב כלל ולא הטילו חכמים על האדם שיטול ידיו כלל ולאכול והנוטל ידיו עשרה פעמים ביום ואוכל אין לזה מצוה יותר מזה. אבל אלו היתר האיסור הן. דומה למצות השחיטה שתקנו בה נמי (פס' ז ב) וצונו על השחיטה ודקדקו בה לימא לשחוט לא סגיא דלא שחיט.
Ramban, Comments on Sefer HaMitzvot, Shoresh 1
And so too the need to wash hands before eating bread, there is no requirement [to eat bread, and thereby] the rabbis never required one to wash their hands and eat. And if someone washes and eats ten times a day there is no Mitzvah involved. But rather, it is a permit for a prohibition. Similar to shechitah (ritual slaughter) which the rabbis decreed we should say a blessing of "...and commanded us on shechitah." And they were precise with their language that they didn't say "...commanded us to shecht" [implying that it is an activity we are all required to perform, instead of a permit we are allowed to do.]
הגה… כל דבר הצריך לרפואה או לשאר דברים לית ביה משום איסור צער בעלי חיים (א"ו הארוך סימן נ"ט) ולכן מותר למרוט נוצות מאוזות חיות וליכא למיחש משום צער בעלי חיים (מהרא"י סי' ק"ה) ומ"מ העולם נמנעים דהוי אכזריות:
Any [action] needed for healing or other reasons, there is no prohibition of "causing pain to animals" (Issur V'Heter Extended 59). And therefore it is permitted to pluck the feathers of wild geese, and there is no potential problem of "causing pain to animals" (Mahar"i 105). Nevertheless, the world withholds from it because of its cruelty.
ספר העקרים, מאמר ג, פרק טו
ובאור כל זה לפי מה שאחשוב הוא על זה הדרך, כי מלבד מה שיש בהריגת הבעלי חיים אכזריות חמה ושטף אף ולמוד תכונה רעה אל האדם לשפוך דם חנם, עוד יוליד אכילת בשר קצת הבעלי חיים עובי ועכירות ואטימות בנפש, כמו שבאר הכתוב זה כשאסר לישראל קצת בעלי חיים
R. Yosef Albo, Ikkarim, 3:15
And the explanation of all of this according to what I think is that, besides the fact that killing a living thing involves cruelty, anger, capriciousness, and a generally bad educational message to learn, in that he freely spills blood, eating meat also causes a dimming and dirtying of the soul, as the Torah explains when it forbids certain animals to the Jewish people.
R. Saadiah Gaon (9th. c.), Commentary on BeReishit 1:29-30
Two questions can be raised here, and both have the same answer. The first: He said to Adam, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed," which implies that He did not permit him to eat meat. And the second: How could he say, "And to every beast of the earth"? Surely we see that the lion and other animals devour flesh and not herbs!
And for the two questions there are two possible answers. The first, the Torah speaks about the majority and ignores the minority… And since most of what man eats is vegetable, and without them he could not exist, and since for him eating meat is less common and it is not necessary, and animals too eat mostly vegetables and only a minority eat meat, the verse mentions what is more common and omits what is less common…
And the second answer is that He prohibited man to eat the meat of animals, and He also prohibited animals to eat one another, only at the beginning, for there were then only a small number of each species, and had they eaten each other, they would all have been destroyed and disappeared. Therefore, He pushed off [the allowance to eat meat] until they increased in number, and then He permitted them.
“There is a distinct reluctance, almost an unwillingness, on the part of the Torah to grant man the privilege to consume meat. Man as an animal-eater is looked on askance by the Torah. There are definitive vegetarian tendencies in the Bible.”
אשר יצודלמדה תורה דרך ארץ שלא יאכל אדם בשר אלא בהזמנה הזאתת"ר(דברים יב, כ) כי ירחיב יהוה אלהיך את גבולך למדה תורה דרך ארץ שלא יאכל אדם בשר אלא לתאבוןיכול יקח אדם מן השוק ויאכלת"ל(דברים יב, כא) וזבחת מבקרך ומצאנךיכול יזבח כל בקרו ויאכל כל צאנו ויאכלת"למבקרך ולא כל בקרך מצאנך ולא כל צאנך
"...trapped [animals] which are trapped" (Leviticus 17:13), the Torah teachers proper manners that one should not eat meat regularly. "When God expands your boarders [you will eat meat]" (Deut. 12:20), the Torah teaches proper manners that a person should only eat meat when he craves it. I would have thought one could [preemptively] buy meat from the market and eat it, the Torah says "You shall slaughter from your cattle and livestock" (Deut. 12:21) [meaning only your own animals, in the moment of craving]. I would have thought I could eat all of my livestock and cattle, the Torah says "from your cattle" and not all of your cattle, "from your livestock" and not all of your livestock.
(ב)ירבה בבשר ויין ומגדנות כפי יכלתו:
(2) A person should have more meat, wine and treats, to the best of his ability.
ר׳ ירוחם פישל פערלא על רס“ג, צה
וזהו שמסיים הכתוב בכל אות נפשך תאכל בשר. שהוא לשון ציווי ככל המצות שבתורה. ולאו דוקא בשר אלא כל דבר כיו"ב בכלל המצוה. ומדנקט קרא בשר ס"ל לר"י שבא הכתוב להתיר להם בשר תאוה. שמתחילה נאסר להם. אבל פשטי' דקרא הוא מצות עשה גמורה כדכתיבנא. והיינו דאמרינן בירושלמי (סוף קידושין) רבי חזקי' רבי כהן בשם רב עתיד אדם ליתן דין וחשבון על כל שראתה עינו ולא אכל.
R. Yeruchem Fishel Perla on Rasag, 95
And this is the conclusion of the verse "...in all the desires of your soul you shall eat meat," for this formulation is that of a command like all the mitzvot in the Torah. And not only meat, rather anything you desire to eat is within this commandment. But, since the Torah used the example of meat, Rabbi Yishmael [in the Gemara in Chullin] concluded that meat must have been previously forbidden and this verse is coming to permit it. But the simple meaning of the verse is that this is a complete positive commandment. And it is like that which is written in the Yerushalmi (in the end of Kiddushin), Rabbi Chizkiyah said in the name of Rabbi Kohen in the name of Rav, in the future, man will have to give an accounting before God on everything his eye saw and desired but he did not eat.
There is little doubt that one of the functions of the kashrut laws is to protect the animal from pain even during the slaughtering. ... Still, we cannot deny that in our own slaughterhouses, where proper shechita is done, there have been serious violations of another law –- tza’ar baalei chayim (the Torah’s prohibition against inflicting unnecessary pain on animals). How are these animals handled just before the shechita takes place? Are they treated with mercy when they are put on their backs so as to make the shechita easier? (This can easily be accomplished with the known Weinberg Pen, or by other methods.) What if chickens or other fowl are kept under the most unacceptable conditions, such as in overcrowded containers? Are these animals and chickens still kosher, even if the shechita was 100% accurate? Since when is the actual shechita more important than the laws of tza’ar baalei chayim? ... Since the massive growth of the meat industry, in which thousands and thousands of animals are slaughtered daily, it has become more and more difficult, if not impossible, to treat animals humanely, as Jewish law requires. The laws of shechita and tzaar ba’alei chayim were meant for Jewish communities who would eat meat occasionally, not for the huge industry we have today where these laws can no longer be properly applied. That being the case, wouldn’t it be appropriate and advisable for religious Jews to become vegetarians? In all honesty, how many of our “glatt kosher” kitchens, including my own, are still truthfully kosher? A haunting question, from which we cannot hide!
"Glatt" means smooth; in its narrow technical sense it refers to animals whose lungs are examined post-shechita and found to be free of adhesions, which some communities consider to be a defect which would render the animal unfit for consumption. Because this is a particularly stringent approach, "glatt kosher" is used in a looser sense to mean "strictly kosher".
Rabbi David Rosen:
I have not eaten chicken or meat for decades. I readily acknowledge that Judaism does not ask this of me. Kashrut is not vegetarianism. But kashrut is a reminder of Judaism’s concern with animal suffering.... Many biblical heroes are shepherds; animals too must rest on the Sabbath (Ex. 20:20) and the bible legislates many other protections for animals. We are the custodians of creation. Our first responsibility is to be kind.
Increasingly, debates over the perceived purpose of kashrut--be it health, obedience to Torah, avoiding cruelty, spiritual development, etc.--have led to debates regarding the core practices of kashrut, especially as industrialised food production has given rise to concerns about environmental damage, food waste, and unfair labour practices in the manufacturing of kosher food. A number of recent commentators have made arguments to expand understandings of kashrut to encompass these concerns. What are the core concerns each of these commentators identifies? How do they use the language of kashrut, and references to Torah, to present their arguments?
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Some people will drink only kosher wine, while others believe this category is no longer relevant.
Some keep "Biblical kashrut," only abstaining from Biblically forbidden foods.
Some are willing to eat non-kosher foods in restaurants and in other people's homes, others are willing only to eat intrinsically kosher foods such as fish and vegetables on non-kosher utensils when they are away from home, while still others do not eat any cooked foods away from home.
A new kashrut that drew on the ethical strands of Torah would also demand that people make choices about how to observe. For example: Some might treat the principle of oshek (not oppressing workers) as paramount, and choose to use only products that are grown or made without any oppression of food workers (food, for example, from one's own backyard or neighborhood garden, or from a kibbutz where all workers are also co-owners and co-managers).
Others might make the principle of bal tashchit (protection of the environment) paramount, and put oshek in a secondary place -- perhaps applying it only when specifically asked to do so by workers who are protesting their plight.
But there might also be some important differences in the way choices will work in an ethical kashrut, from the way choices work in traditional kashrut. In the new approach, there might be so many ethical values to weigh that it would be rare to face a black-and-white choice in a particular product.
This one is grown by union workers, that one with special care for the earth and water, another . . . .
So choices would depend more on a balancing and synthesizing of the underlying values than on an absolute sense of Good and Bad. More on a sense of Both/And than of Either/Or.
. . . intended to assure purchasers that a kashrus-compliant product also conforms to Biblical and Talmudic ethical values and standards regarding the treatment of workers, animal welfare, environmental impact and fair business dealings. Criteria for product certification include: living-wage compensation and decent benefits, neutrality in labor organizing drives, documented compliance with EPA and OSHA regulations, adherence to humane animal treatment and farm standards, responsible energy and water consumption, use of sustainable materials and alternative fuels, and fair treatment of immigrant workers.
He also urged a decrease in meat consumption, pointing out that one fifth of all human-produced greenhouse emissions come from the meat industry and that a meat meal requires five times the fossil fuel as compared to a vegan meal. The Religious Action Center has a variety of materials available for those interested in sustainability and food justice.
I invented the word eco-kosher, to say that something is ecologically kosher. I'll give you an example of eco-kosher. The regular kosher way is about the dishes that mustn't be contaminated, etc. If I pick up a cup to have coffee, styrofoam would be the best thing to have. It hasn't been used before and after I drink from it, I'll throw it away and nobody else will use it. From the usual kosher place that's the direction to go...but in comparison to what will happen to the planet by my drinking in a styrofoam, I'd much rather make the other choice...that's eco-kosher. [Teaching at the Naropa Institute, late 1970's]
Q: In 1971, you were the only Orthodox rabbis to declare that non-union lettuce and grapes should be regarded as non-kosher and you urged Jews to boycott them. What is the basis in Judaism for that position?
R. Greenberg:
We were both students of the Rav, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. From him we learned the idea that Halacha is not just a list of ritual dos and don'ts, but a comprehensive worldview that applies to everything that happens around us. The Torah prohibits the exploitation of workers- so why shouldn't that apply to migrant farm workers picking lettuce or grapes? They were being mistreated, so it was natural for us to apply the principle of non-exploitation to their situation, too. It seemed obvious. But not everyone in my shul was enthusiastic about it. There were some who felt that Jewish involvement in liberal causes was never reciprocated - they felt the Jewish community had been burned when the New Left and black militants began spouting anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic rhetoric. On the other hand, the Orthodox college students with whom I worked in those days loved the idea of Jews boycotting non-union lettuce.
R. Lookstein:
The young couples in my congregation were also very enthusiastic about the lettuce boycott idea. In general, one can say that there are some people in the Jewish community who have gone to one extreme, embracing universalism to the point of ignoring Jewish concerns. And then there are others who have gone to the other extreme, cutting themselves off from the world. Yitz and I have always looked for that middle path, standing up for Jewish causes but also taking an interest in what goes on in the rest of the world.
["These Olympics Are Not Kosher" ~ Jerusalem Post Interview with R. Haskel Lookstein and R. Yitz Greenberg, May 1 2008; https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/These-Olympics-are-not-kosher]
God’s Torah not only demands of us to love our neighbor in that we concern ourselves with his welfare and property, but it insists further on a conduct of uncompromising straightness ("yoshor") which is inspired not only by the letter of the law but is guided by the ethical principle of honesty which, then, would deserve the honorable title of "yeshurun."