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Share“There is a distinct reluctance, almost an unwillingness, on the part of the Torah to grant man the privilege to consume meat. Man as an animal-eater is looked on askance by the Torah. There are definitive vegetarian tendencies in the Bible.”
(א) הִנֵּה נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת כָּל עֵשֶׂב זֹרֵעַ זֶרַע לא הרשה לאדם ולאשתו להמית בריה ולאכול בשר, אך כל ירק עשב יאכלו יחדיו כלם. וכשבאו בני נח התיר להם בשר שנאמר (להלן ט ג) "כָּל רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא חַי לָכֶם יִהְיֶה לְאָכְלָה, כְּיֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת כֹּל" - את כל כירק עשב שהתרתי לאדם הראשון התרתי לכם את כל. לשון רש"י... אבל נתן לאדם ולאשתו "כָּל עֵשֶׂב זֹרֵעַ זֶרַע" וכל פרי עץ, ולחית הארץ ולעוף השמים נתן "כל ירק עשב" לא פרי העץ ולא הזרעים, ואין מאכלם יחד כלם בשוה, אך הבשר לא הורשו בו עד בני נח כדעת רבותינו, והוא פשוטו של מקרא. והיה זה מפני שבעלי נפש התנועה יש להם קצת מעלה בנפשם, נדמו בה לבעלי הנפש המשכלת, ויש להם בחירה בטובתם ומזוניהם ויברחו מן הצער והמיתה... וכאשר חטאו והשחית כל בשר את דרכו על הארץ, ונגזר שימותו במבול ובעבור נח הציל מהם לקיום המין נתן להם רשות לשחוט ולאכול כי קיומם בעבורו. ועם כל זה לא נתן להם הרשות בנפש ואסר להם אבר מן החי. והוסיף לנו במצות לאסור כל דם מפני שהוא מעמד לנפש כדכתיב (ויקרא יז יד) "כִּי נֶפֶשׁ כָּל בָּשָׂר דָּמוֹ בְנַפְשׁוֹ הוּא, וָאֹמַר לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: דַּם כָּל בָּשָׂר לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ כִּי נֶפֶשׁ כָּל בָּשָׂר דָּמוֹ הִוא", כי התיר הגוף בחי שאינו מדבר אחר המיתה, לא הנפש עצמה. וזה טעם השחיטה. ומה שאמרו (ב"מ לב) "צער בעלי חיים דאורייתא", וזו ברכתנו שמברך "אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על השחיטה"
(1) "Behold, I have given to you all of the herbs that gives seed:" "He did not permit Adam and his wife to kill a creature and to eat its meat; only every green herb were they all permitted to eat together. And when the Children of Noach came, He permitted them to eat meat, as it is stated (below 9:3), 'Every creeping thing that is alive, for you is it to eat, like the green herb have I given to you every thing' Like the green herbs, which I permitted to the first man, I have given you everything." [These are] the words of Rashi... He gave to Adam and his wife, "every herb that gives seed" and all the fruit of the trees; and to the animals of the field and the fowl of the skies, He gave "every green herb" - [but] not the fruit of the trees and not seeds; and their food is not equally for all. However meat was not permitted to him until the Children of Noach, as per the opinion of our Rabbis, and that is the simple meaning of the text. And [the original prohibition to kill animals to eat their meat] is because moving souls have a bit of stature to their souls: they resemble intelligent souls and seek their [own] benefit and their food and run away from pain and death... And when they sinned and all flesh corrupted its way upon the earth and it was decreed that they would die in the flood, and because of Noach, He saved some of them for the preservation of the species, He gave them permission to slaughter and eat [animals] since their existence was for [man's] sake. And in spite of all this, He did not give them permission with regards to the soul and forbade them a limb from a living animal. And He added commandments for us to forbid all blood since it is the support of the soul, as it is written (Leviticus 17:14), "Since the soul of all flesh, its blood is in its soul; and say to the Children of Israel, 'the blood of all flesh do not eat, since the soul of all flesh, it is the blood.'" [This is all] because He permitted the body of an animal that does not speak but not the soul itself. And this is [also] the reason for ritual slaughter (shechita) - and for what they said (Bava Metzia 32:), "[the prohibition of causing] pain to living animals is from the Torah" - and this is our blessing for it: "who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us on ritual slaughter."
"...trapped [animals] which are trapped" (Leviticus 17:13), the Torah teachers proper manners that one should not eat meat regularly. "When God expands your boarders [you will eat meat]" (Deut. 12:20), the Torah teaches proper manners that a person should only eat meat when he craves it. I would have thought one could [preemptively] buy meat from the market and eat it, the Torah says "You shall slaughter from your cattle and livestock" (Deut. 12:21) [meaning only your own animals, in the moment of craving]. I would have thought I could eat all of my livestock and cattle, the Torah says "from your cattle" and not all of your cattle, "from your livestock" and not all of your livestock.
Two questions can be raised here, and both have the same answer. The first: He said to Adam, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed," which implies that He did not permit him to eat meat. And the second: How could he say, "And to every beast of the earth"? Surely we see that the lion and other animals devour flesh and not herbs!
And for the two questions there are two possible answers. The first, the Torah speaks about the majority and ignores the minority… And since most of what man eats is vegetable, and without them he could not exist, and since for him eating meat is less common and it is not necessary, and animals too eat mostly vegetables and only a minority eat meat, the verse mentions what is more common and omits what is less common…
And the second answer is that He prohibited man to eat the meat of animals, and He also prohibited animals to eat one another, only at the beginning, for there were then only a small number of each species, and had they eaten each other, they would all have been destroyed and disappeared. Therefore, He pushed off [the allowance to eat meat] until they increased in number, and then He permitted them.
Anyone who eats meat in exile is unclean, as it is written, "All who eat it will be unclean" (Hoshea 9:4), because meat was not permitted without an altar from the time of Adam until Noach offered sacrifices. And afterwards it is written: "Every moving thing that lives shall be your food." Therefore, it is forbidden to eat meat in exile. (Hoshea 9:10)
השגות הרמב"ן לספר המצות שורש א
וכן נטילת הידים אין מצותה בחיוב כלל ולא הטילו חכמים על האדם שיטול ידיו כלל ולאכול והנוטל ידיו עשרה פעמים ביום ואוכל אין לזה מצוה יותר מזה. אבל אלו היתר האיסור הן. דומה למצות השחיטה שתקנו בה נמי (פס' ז ב) וצונו על השחיטה ודקדקו בה לימא לשחוט לא סגיא דלא שחיט.
Ramban, Comments on Sefer HaMitzvot, Shoresh 1
And so too the need to wash hands before eating brand, there is no requirement [to eat bread, and thereby] the rabbis never required one to wash their hands and eat. And if someone washes and eats ten times a day there is no Mitzvah involved. But rather, it is a permit for a prohibition. Similar to shechitah (ritual slaughter) which the rabbis decreed we should say a blessing of "...and commanded us on shechitah." And they were precise with their language that they didn't say "...commanded us to shecht" [implying that it is an activity we are all required to perform, instead of a permit we are allowed to do.]
קדש ראשית גזך, ומתנות זבחיך ארבע, הלכות שחיטה תחקור כדת, ולכסות דם הנובע:
רחב גבולך והתאוית תדשנה טובי ותשבע תט אחרי רבים, במדרשי פנים שבע:
ר׳ ירוחם פישל פערלא על רס“ג, צה
ולכן נראה לי יותר דכוונת רבינו הגאון ז"ל וסייעתו בזה דס"ל דלפום פשטי' דקרא דכי ירחיב ה"א את גבולך וגו' היא מצוה חיובית. שאם הרחיב השם גבולו ותאוה נפשו לאכול בשר חייב הוא לאכול. וזהו שמסיים הכתוב בכל אות נפשך תאכל בשר. שהוא לשון ציווי ככל המצות שבתורה. ולאו דוקא בשר אלא כל דבר כיו"ב בכלל המצוה. ומדנקט קרא בשר ס"ל לר"י שבא הכתוב להתיר להם בשר תאוה. שמתחילה נאסר להם. אבל פשטי' דקרא הוא מצות עשה גמורה כדכתיבנא. והיינו דאמרינן בירושלמי (סוף קידושין) רבי חזקי' רבי כהן בשם רב עתיד אדם ליתן דין וחשבון על כל שראתה עינו ולא אכל.
R. Yeruchem Fishel Perla on Rasag, 95
Therefore it appears to me that [R' Saadiah Gaon] holds according to the simple meaning of the verse, that "when Hashem your God expands your boarder [you shall eat the meat of your desire] is an active Mitzvah. If God expands your boarders, and it is your desire to eat meat, you are obligated to eat it. And this is the conclusion of the verse "...in all the desires of your soul you shall eat meat," for this formulation is that of a command like all the mitzvot in the Torah. And not only meat, rather anything you desire to eat is within this commandment. But, since the Torah used the example of meat, Rabbi Yishmael [in the Gemara in Chullin] concluded that meat must have been previously forbidden and this verse is coming to permit it. But the simple meaning of the verse is that this is a complete positive commandment. And it is like that which is written in the Yerushalmi (in the end of Kiddushin), Rabbi Chizkiyah said in the name of Rabbi Kohen in the name of Rav, in the future, man will have to give an accounting before God on everything his eye saw and desired but he did not eat.
ספר העקרים, מאמר ג, פרק טו
ובאור כל זה לפי מה שאחשוב הוא על זה הדרך, כי מלבד מה שיש בהריגת הבעלי חיים אכזריות חמה ושטף אף ולמוד תכונה רעה אל האדם לשפוך דם חנם, עוד יוליד אכילת בשר קצת הבעלי חיים עובי ועכירות ואטימות בנפש, כמו שבאר הכתוב זה כשאסר לישראל קצת בעלי חיים
R. Yosef Albo, Ikkarim, 3:15
And the explanation of all of this according to what I think is that, besides the fact that killing a living thing involves cruelty, anger, capriciousness, and a generally bad educational message to learn, in that he freely spills blood, eating meat also causes a dimming and dirtying of the soul, as the Torah explains when it forbids certain animals to the Jewish people.