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Originally Posted by GeddyBass2112
I'd be prepared to argue that both are equally as important as each other. The practice of the specific law is bound up in its intent, and intent is shown through observance.
I can answer the point about vegetarianism though. Typically Jewish practice, although it recognises the possiblity of living happily on a vegetarian diet, rejects many attempts to rationalize it based on the Bible, from Genesis and Isiah passages. From MyJewishLearning.com:
You might want to read this: Vegetarianism and Kashrut - My Jewish Learning
It'll explain better than I can about vegetarianism and the eating of meat in Judaism in terms of its spiritual significance. |
Thanks, Geddy, for responding. I agree with you that the intent of a religious law and its practice should be bound up together. When people seem to follow a law for its own sake without considering the intent, then I feel worried.
I read the essay you recommended about Judaism and vegetarianism...thank you! It was interesting to read the Rabbi's views on this debate about whether vegetarianism best matches what people within Judaism interpret as the deepest desires of God:
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Vegetarianism and Kashrut - My Jewish Learning
Vegetarians often quote two biblical passages in support of their view that it is morally wrong for human beings to kill animals for food. In the creation narrative (Genesis 2:29-30) both man and animals were given the herbs of the field for their food and they were not permitted to prey on one another. In Isaiah's vision (Isaiah 11:7), "the lion shall eat straw like an ox."
The first passage, however, only expresses the ideal that obtained at the beginning of creation and the second an ideal for 'the end of days,' later understood as referring to the Messianic age. It is nowhere stated in the Bible that in the here and now vegetarianism is an ideal.
To be sure, Judaism is firmly opposed to cruelty to animals, but it does allow man to use animals for his needs—to work for him and provide him with wool, skins, and milk, for instance—and even permits him to kill them for food, though insisting that the pain caused to animals in the process be reduced to a minimum.
There is, of course, no actual obligation for a man to eat meat and there are even a number of Jewish vegetarian societies. But it can be argued that for a Jew to adopt vegetarianism on the grounds that it is wrong to kill animals for food is to introduce a moral and theological idea that implies that Judaism has, in fact, been wrong all the time in not advocating vegetarianism.
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While I realize that the Old Testament does clearly state that God allowed humans to eat other animals after the Fall, I've often felt an argument could be made that the apparent vegetarianism *before* the Fall was what the Judeo-Christian god originally intended and envisioned...so that *would* be the ideal.
I assume a god would not *want* people to sin such that the rules had to be changed for them, allowing meat-eating. Therefore, I would think that trying to fulfill the original vision for humanity would seem the way to most thoroughly follow whatever intent was behind the original dietary law that gave all animals (including humans) "the herbs of the field for their food" and prohibited them from preying on one another.
Trying to figure out what religious rules to observe, and how deeply, can get very tricky since not only are religious laws open to interpretation, but also the intent behind the laws are open to interpretation, too, and some laws come from human traditions separate from any godly mandate. This is one reason your thread question that opened the thread interested me. I'm curious how people who think of themselves as religious think through these issues.
I've been impressed with the tradition of questioning and debate that I think is an important part of the Jewish tradition for many of the Jewish people I've known and loved, most of whom are secular and follow Jewish traditions as part of their heritage and not out of a belief in a deity. It sounds like you appreciate the openness to questioning that you've experienced within Judaism, too. One of the scariest situations to be in among humans, I feel, is when they do not welcome questioning and debate!