Posted on November 1, 2024 by Rabbi David Katz
When I was a first year Rabbinical student studying in Jerusalem quite a few of my friends were vegetarians. I scoffed. Not out loud, of course – but most definitely to myself. Where will it end, I thought. Just because we cannot hear the head of lettuce scream when it’s cut, should we care for animals more than plants?
But then one good friend, a long-time vegetarian, posed this simple question: “Well,” she said, “if you don’t have to kill an animal to eat, why would you?” It was a very simple question and I had no good answer. Because that’s how I was brought up?” “Because I’d feel deprived if I didn’t?” “Because it tastes good?” Every answer was weak, and I knew it.
Through the years this one question plagued me. Why couldn’t I answer such a simple question?
In 1996, my friend, Peter Lovenheim, and I co-edited a book called Reading Between the Lines: New Stories From the Bible. It was a compilation of modern midrashim, i.e. newly written legends based on Bible stories. One of the reasons we wanted to do the book was because a friend of mine had had his story rejected by many publishers and we wanted to include it in our volume. The story was called “The First Hamburger” and every publishing house deemed it too “horrifying” to put into a children’s book. Our book, however, would be written for adults.
I’m not going to tell you how the story of the first hamburger ends, for that you’ll have to come to tomorrow morning’s Shabbat service, where there will be few children. Know that after I tell the story, I’m going to pose the question that’s bothered me for so many years: “If you don’t have to kill an animal to eat, why would you?” I want to see if anyone has a good answer.
The service begins at 10:00 a.m. See you then.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Katz
