[Avodah] anti-meat rhetoric "according to Judaism"

[Jacob Farkas]

> On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 12:22:58AM -0400, Jacob Farkas wrote:
> : RMF discusses this regarding veal. See our discussion from a few years back:
> : http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol17/v17n079.shtml#08
>
> RMF's line, after looking in IM EH 4:92, appears to be between luxury
> and common staple. If I could borrow an idiom from elsewhere, he would
> permit a "davar hashaveh lekhol nefesh".

It is possible that he would permit factory farming. I'm merely
pointing out that his rationale includes a limited definition of
Tzorekh. In this model, there is room to argue that if possible to
raise cattle without Tza'ar, the method of raising with Tza'ar could
be challenged because there is no Tzorekh to do the cheaper process.
While in the Teshuva his limit of Tzorekh is on limited to category of
product, the reasoning can just as easily be applied against shifting
to a process that has Tza'ar, even if the product is a staple.

> The approach I gave in my previous post on this thread if roughly that
> of the Terumas haDeshen II #105. There is an akhzariyus issue, but no
> actual violation of TBC. However, his justifying philosophy is not based
> on making a chiluq between pain and suffering, which I tried to do,
> but rather because animals were created for the purpose of man, and
> therefore it doesn't take much pain to justify TBC. Even "just" profit.
>

I agree. In the TH model, profit and/or luxury is totally acceptable.

I totally appreciate your distinction between pain and suffering. It
is consistent with my understanding of TBC as our roles in advocating
animal welfare as they cannot fend for themselves. In both our models,
the pain is not the Issur in its own right, allowing an animal to
experience avoidable pain is the issue. (except in cases of Tzorekh-
which ever way you define it)

--Jacob Farkas