Jewish vegetarianism

Jewish vegetarianism is a commitment to vegetarianism that is connected to Judaism, Jewish ethics or Jewish identity. Jewish vegetarians often cite Jewish principles regarding animal welfare, environmental ethics, moral character, and health as reasons for adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet. Vegetarianism was not traditionally a component of mainstream pre-modern Judaism, though the laws of kashrut limit consumption of certain animals or their products, with precise requirements for how animals are to be sacrificed and slaughtered (shechita). According to Rabbis Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz and Abraham Isaac Kook the complexity of these laws was intended to discourage the consumption of meat. Kashrut may also be designed to discourage killing living beings. There are also examples of vegetarianism as an ideal in ancient Judaism. Genesis 1:29 states "And God said: Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit—to you it shall be for food." Many scholars see the Torah as thereby pointing to vegetarianism as an ideal, as Adam and Eve did not partake of the flesh of animals as all humans and animals were originally commanded by God to only eat plants. According to some interpretations, God's original plan was for mankind to be vegetarian, and God only later gave permission for man to eat meat in a covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:1–17) as a temporary concession because of Man's weak nature. This concessionary view of meat-consumption is based on the scriptural analysis of several Rishonim. Some writers assert that the Jewish prophet Isaiah was a vegetarian, on the basis of passages in the Book of Isaiah that extol nonviolence and reverence for life, such as , , , and . Some of these writers refer to "the vegetarian Isaiah", "the notorious vegetarian Isaiah", and "Isaiah, the vegetarian prophet". Critics of this view argue that none of the Biblical verses in question refer to a human diet: they either condemn certain animal sacrifices, or else prophesize that carnivorous animals will become herbivorous at the end of days.