Eating Animals

EATING ANIMALS

Starting the Conversation Watching the movie Eating Animals can be an intense experience. The name alone – Eating Animals – is thought-provoking. The movie may have brought up a range of feelings and ideas, some familiar, some uncomfortable. These texts and questions may help you, as individuals and as a community, explore what arose and start a conversation about, well, eating animals. Whether in pairs (chevruta), small groups, or as a large group, we encourage you to spend some time exploring the intersection of Judaism, food, and animal welfare.

The Top of the Food Chain The Jewish creation narrative shows that in the Garden of Eden it is “green plants” that are given to us for food.

Before the great flood, no animal flesh was permitted for human consumption. After the flood, more than 1,600 years later, God gives Noah and his sons permission to eat animals.

In the Garden of Eden And God said, “Let us make adam in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.”

27 And God created adam in God’s image, in the image of God, God created him; male and female God created them. 28God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.”

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God said, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. 30 And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, [I give] all the green plants for food.” And it was so.

– Genesis 1:26-30 29

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After the Flood 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 lifeblood in it. – Genesis 9:3-4 3

But make sure that you do not partake of the blood; for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the life with the flesh.

24 You must not partake of it; you must pour it out on the ground like water. 25 You must not partake of it, in order that it may go well with you and with your descendants to come, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. – Deuteronomy 12:23-25 23

Why do you think eating animals was permitted for Noah, but forbidden for Adam and Eve? What changed?

After the flood, eating animals was permitted, but with a specific condition. What is that condition and what are the reasons given for it? What do you think about this?

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Keeping Kosher and Jewish Dietary Laws For more than 2,000 years, through the laws on keeping kosher, Jews have been thinking about what is “fit” (the literal translation of kosher) to eat. Jewish dietary laws, or kashrut, are built upon three separate sets of laws: There are permitted (tahor, which means pure) and prohibited (tamei, which means impure) species (which are listed in Deuteronomy 14 and Leviticus 11). Some of the requirements for animals to be considered kosher are: fish that have fins and scales, animals that chew their cud and have split hooves (like cows, sheep, and goats), and birds that are not birds of prey.

Jewish tradition tells us that we should not view animals as created only for the sake of human pleasure.

Yet, at the same time, Jewish law has authorized the killing of animals to produce meat and other goods that people desire. How do we reconcile these two ideas?

The separation of milk and meat comes from the biblical injunction lo tevashel gedi bechalev imo – don’t cook a kid (baby goat) in its mother’s milk.

He has forbidden any lamb or kid or other like kind of livestock to be snatched away from its mother before it was weaned… If anyone thinks it good to boil flesh in milk let him do so without cruelty and keeping clear of impiety… The person who boils the flesh of lambs or kids or any other young animal in their mother’s milk, shows himself cruelly brutal in character and gelded of compassion.

– Philo of Alexandria (4th century), On the Virtues, 143-44 What do you think of Philo’s explanation?

The third main element of kashrut is kosher slaughter, the rules of which are set out in the Talmud in Masekhet Chulin.

Agriculture has changed more in the last century than in the last millennium. In the past, the greatest welfare problems were at the time of slaughter; now the greatest welfare problems are on the farm, where kosher law has little to say.

What are the challenges of modernity that are affecting and putting pressure on historical cultural systems? How do we apply knowledge from biblical and Talmudic times to today’s vastly different farming system?

The story of our food does not begin and end on our plate. Food is produced somewhere, by someone, under some circumstances. While Jewish tradition has taught us to consider what is “fit” according to kosher laws, more and more people are also asking, “Is this good for my body?” and “Is this food good for the world?”

In what ways do kosher laws and your answers to these other questions shape what you eat? And what new ethical questions arise from modern practices of meat production?

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Tzaar Baalei Chayim A core Jewish value is tzaar baalei chayim (literally, “[do not cause unnecessary] suffering to living beings”).

As Jews, the Torah mitzvah and moral imperative of tzaar baalei chayim calls upon us to provide animals with thoughtful care and protection that attends to both their physical and mental well being, whether on the level of the individual, or on the level of a whole group or species.

Do not buy an animal before buying food for that animal to eat.

– Jerusalem Talmud, Ketubot 4:8 You must not sit down to your own meal before you have fed your pets and barnyard animals.

– Talmud, Berachot 40a When an animal must be killed for food, it must be done in such a way that the pain to the animal is as little as possible.

– Talmud, Bava Metzi’a 31a-32b

What does our tradition tell us about how we should relate to animals, and what does that mean for our food choices today?

What does the word “suffering” suggest to you? Why do you think our tradition uses the term “suffering” or “sorrow” (another translation of tzaar) rather than pain?

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Eating Animals and Family, Tradition, Culture, and Community The movie Eating Animals is based on the book of the same title, by author Jonathan Safran Foer. In addition to his research and journalism, which is featured in the movie, the book includes Foer’s personal journey of deciding whether or not to eat animals, a complicated exploration delving into the way eating intersects with family, tradition, culture, and community.

Jonathan Safran Foer writes of his Jewish grandmother:

“The story of her relationship to food holds all of the other stories that could be told about her. Food, for her, is not food. It is terror, dignity, gratitude, vengeance, joyfulness, humiliation, religion, history, and, of course, love.”

– Eating Animals What is food for you? What is food for your family of origin?

“The stories that are served with food matter. These stories bind our family together, and bind our family to others. Stories about food are stories about us – our history and our values. Within my family’s Jewish tradition, I came to learn that food serves two parallel purposes: it nourishes and it helps you remember.

Eating and storytelling are inseparable – the saltwater is also tears; the honey not only tastes sweet, but makes us think of sweetness; the matzo is the bread of our affliction.”

– Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals What stories were served with the food you grew up eating?

What stories do you like to serve with your food now?

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“Our decisions about food are complicated by the fact that we don’t eat alone. Table fellowship has forged social bonds as far back as the archaeological record allows us to look. Food, family, and memory are primordially linked. We are not merely animals that eat, but eating animals. Some of my fondest memories are of weekly sushi dinners with my best friend, and eating my dad’s turkey burgers with mustard and grilled onions at backyard celebrations, and tasting the salty gefilte fish at my grandmother’s house every Passover.

These occasions simply aren’t the same without those foods – and that matters.

“To give up the taste of sushi or roasted chicken is a loss that extends beyond giving up a pleasurable eating experience. Changing what we eat and letting tastes fade from memory creates a kind of cultural loss, a forgetting. But perhaps this kind of forgetfulness is worth accepting – even worth cultivating (forgetting, too, can be cultivated). To remember animals and my concern for their well-being, I may need to lose certain tastes and find other handles for the memories that they once helped me carry.”

– Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals One of the consequences of keeping kosher is that it can bind together people who keep kosher; yet it can also separate people who keep kosher from those who don’t. Perhaps the same thing can be said about vegetarians or vegans. How have you experienced how you eat as a way to strengthen bonds? How has it weakened bonds?

“I realize that I’m coming dangerously close to suggesting that quaint notion that every person can make a difference. The reality is more complicated of course. As a ‘solitary eater,’ your decisions will, in and of themselves, do nothing to alter the industry. That said, unless you obtain your food in secret and eat it in the closet, you don’t eat alone. We eat as sons and daughters, as families, as communities, as generations, as nations, and increasingly as a globe. We can’t stop our eating from radiating influence even if we want to.”

– Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals In what ways have you been influenced by how others around you eat?

What are examples of how your eating has influenced others?

From Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, copyright © 2009, 2010.

Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Co., an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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Continuing the Conversation…

“It’s clear enough that factory farming is more than something I just personally dislike, but it’s not clear what conclusions follow. Does the fact that factory farming is cruel to animals and ecologically wasteful and polluting mean everyone needs to boycott factory farms products all the time? Is a partial withdrawal from the system good enough – a sort of preferred purchasing program for non-factory food that stops short of a boycott? Is the issue not our personal buying choices at all, but one that needs to be resolved through legislation and collective personal action? Where should I respectfully disagree with someone and where, for the sake of deeper values, should I take a stand and ask others to stand with me? Where do agreed-upon facts leave room for reasonable people to disagree and where do they demand we all act? I’ve not insisted that meat eating is always wrong for everyone or that the meat industry is irredeemable despite its present sorry state.

What position on eating animals would I insist are basic to moral decency?”

– Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals The process of researching and writing Eating Animals seems to have left Jonathan Safran Foer with as many questions as answers. What are some of the questions that arose for you from watching the movie Eating Animals? Are any of them the same as Foer’s questions?

“We can’t plead ignorance, only indifference. Those alive today are the generations that came to know better.

We have the burden and the opportunity of living in the moment when the critique of factory farming broke into the popular consciousness. We are the ones of whom it will be fairly asked, What did you do when you learned the truth about eating animals?”

– Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals After watching Eating Animals, do you feel more like you now have a burden or an opportunity? What are your thoughts about how your eating choices might change?

About Hazon Hazon is the Jewish lab for sustainability. We work to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community, and a healthier and more sustainable world for all.

The word hazon means vision. We are turning Jewish life outwards to make a difference in the world and, in that process, we are strengthening Jewish life. Our work engages individuals, institutions, and the wider community. And we renew Jewish life by exploring three millennia of Jewish wisdom to address some of the most complex challenges of our time, including climate change, environmental degradation, and food justice issues.

To learn more about Judaism and animal welfare, visit hazon.org/animalwelfare and eatinganimalsmovie.com. info@hazon.org • 212.644.2332 • hazon.org Thank you to EJF Philanthropies, without whom this work would not be possible.