Regarding “Beefing Up Eco-Kosher” (Oct. 2), “The Chain-ing of Kosher Food” (Sept. 25) and “A Market For Ethical Kosher” (Sept. 18): For me, to be kosher is to be vegan. I don’t want to be involved in destroying the life of any animal, regardless of how that killing might be rationalized. True, we must eat organic matter, but we can at least avoid killing living, feeling creatures and restrict ourselves to a plant-based diet.
I agree with Isaac Bashevis Singer in his short story, “The Slaughterer” (in the collection “The Seance”), that it is unfortunate we have the role of the shochet in Jewish life, whose killing is defined in religious terms as a positive act in relation to God. I also hold with
Singer in “The Letter Writer,” in the same collection, that our species is the worst exploiter of other animal species, who are generally seen to exist solely for our use.
It is ironic that for Shabbat and the holidays, which are meant to celebrate creation, we kill an even larger number of birds, mammals and fish. Yet it would be good if we stopped destroying other animals to celebrate Shabbat. And if Pesach is to be truly celebrated as a holiday of liberation, we should keep it vegan and our rejection of killing would itself be a symbol of liberation.
Why not hold with the prophet Micah (6:6-8) when he speaks out against animal sacrifice: “With what shall I approach the Lord,/ .... Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings,/ With calves a year old?/ Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,/ ... He has told you. ... what the Lord requires of you:/ Only to do justice / And to love goodness,/ And to walk modestly with your God.”
Is not killing animals for our own eating pleasure also a highly unjust sacrifice?
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