Shabbat Shalom

As the proud Cantor of Temple Beth Am, I am pleased to make available, on-line, my thoughts which were shared with the congregation during services.

These sermons are readily available for viewing or downloading and reading at your convenience.

Cantor’s Sabbath Message
Shabbat Service
November 4, 2005

Noach and Vegetarianism
I grew up the oldest of four children in a non-vegetarian, non-kosher home.  My mom was a gourmet cook, so we certainly we treated to delicious meals of all kinds, but three out of the four of us are now vegetarians.

When I began graduate school at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, I was 25 years old.  I was surrounded by people who kept kosher to varying degrees, and I decided that that was something I should try.  I wanted to see if it would make a difference to me Jewishly.  I kept kosher for almost 2 years, and I have to say that it did not have an affect on me.  I was certainly more aware of anything that I chose to eat, but beyond that, it did not feel more Jewish to me.

During that time, however, as I pursued my studies at HUC, I began reading about Judaism and vegetarianism.  It was all based on the idea of tsa-ar ba-alei chayim – the Jewish concept of not causing harm to any living creature.  I had been an animal lover all my life, and I was particularly fascinated by the implications of this subject.  The more I read, the more I was intrigued by the possibilities.

The first thing I did was cut out red meat.  It seemed that the health benefits alone of this choice were worth any sacrifice, so it was pretty easy to do.  A few months later, I also began refraining from eating chicken.  I have to admit that I continued to eat fish for another year.  My road to vegetarianism was truly a progression and not a cold turkey (pardon the phrase) kind of decision.

The section of Noach which we read this week in the Torah is only one of many, many references in the bible about our treatment of animals.  Deut. 22:10 says that “you shall not plow with an ox and an ass together”, clearly because such an act would cause the weaker animal great pain in trying to keep up with the stronger animal.  Deut. 25:4 says, “You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the corn.”  At the time time of threshing, the ox is surrounded by the food that it enjoys so much, so it should not be prevented from satisfying its appetite.

The bible gives us many instructions regarding animals, including that they, too, must rest on the Sabbath, and that their owners/caretakers should make sure that the animals have food and water before they themselves eat and drink.  And Leviticus 22:28 strictly prohibits killing an animal and its young on the same day, because the authors of the bible understood that the pain of a mother animal seeing the slaying of her young would be too great. In this case, the pain of people and the pain of other living beings is no different, since the love and tenderness of a mother for her young is not produced by reasoning, but by feeling, and this faculty exists not only in people, but in most living things.

And so we come to the issue of kosher slaughtering, or shechitah.  Ironically enough, my last name, Schechtman, comes from the same Hebrew root as shocheit, the ritual slaughterer.  Somewhere in Russia, my great-great-grandfather, the shochet of his community, is turning over in his grave knowing that 75% of his great great grandchildren are vegetarians!

Because the consumption of meat was permitted, as we read in Noach, as a concession to people’s weaknesses and people thought it was necessary for proper nutrition, it was desired to make slaughter as painless as possible through shechitah.  The original laws of shechtah were designed to provide the most humane way of slaughtering animals.  The shocheit was required to be a pious and learned person, and he must recite a blessing prior to slaughter as a reminder that he must have reverence for the life that he takes.

Unfortunately, that is not what kosher slaughter now is.  Because of the combination of ancient practices and the modern requirements, kosher slaughter is now one of the most inhumane processes of slaughter in this country.  I don’t think that this is the best venue to go into the details of this, but I will be happy to provide information privately for anyone who is interested.

There is so much to be said about this subject, and I won’t take the time here to go on about it.  But suffice it to say that for me, being a vegetarian is the most Jewish thing that I do.  Since the destruction of the Temple and the end of animal sacrifices, prayer, the service of the heart, has played a major role in Judaism.  Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, and a highly respected and beloved Jewish spiritual leader in the early 20^th century, said that based on the prophecy of Isaiah 11 (and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb…), the messianic period will be vegetarian.

Rest assured, I am not looking to convert people to vegetarianism this evening.  Nor am I looking to be judgmental about anyone else’s choices. 

  But I am grateful for the opportunity to explain why I have made the choices that I have.  For me, it is not enough just to know that there is a God, but to know and imitate God’s ways which involve kindness, justice and righteousness.  These characteristics are all consistent with vegetarian diets.

We work for righteousness when we eat in such a way that there is no violence toward either human or beast.

We work for justice when our diets are such that ll can get their just share of God’s bountiful harvests.

We show loving-kindness to all people when our diets enable them to lead a properly nourished life.

May we all live by the words of the prophet Micah 6:8

What does the Lord require of you but that you act justly, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

We show compassion for animals when our diets do not require their mistreatment and slaughter.

Amen.

Cantor Jodi Schechtman