blogs/rabbi-huberman

The Ethics of Eating

About ten years ago, a series of charges were laid against the owners of one of the largest kosher slaughterhouses in the United States. It sent shockwaves across the Jewish world.

The charges, which ultimately led to a series of convictions and prison sentences, alleged that owners of this Iowa meat facility mistreated animals, employed illegal and underaged workers, forged immigration documents, and polluted the local environment.

After a series of inspections from across the Jewish spectrum, it was declared by some rabbis that the kashrut, (kosherness) of meat produced from this facility was not diminished by the legal and ethical issues raised.

After a series of inspections from across the Jewish spectrum, it was declared by some rabbis that the kashrut, (kosherness) of meat produced from this facility was not technically diminished by the legal and ethical issues raised.

Many other rabbis, however, asked, "Is kashrut only about the way an animal is killed, or must there be a link to the ethical path it follows on the way to our dinner table?"

A few years ago, a story was shared with me of a colleague in Toronto who during a wedding celebration, walked into the synagogue kitchen only to observe the caterer verbally abusing his kitchen staff.

He declared that until further notice, within his synagogue, the food produced by that caterer would be deemed treif, or unkosher.

This raises the question:Is the observance of kashrut about a physical process, or is the act of holy eating inseparably linked to humane conduct, dignity, animal rights, labor practices, the environmental record, and an understood minimum standard and practice of ethics?

To some extent, we have to make our own decisions on this issue.For example, in our congregation, although veal and duck liver are technically kosher, I have declared them off limits, due to documented abuse by some kosher meat producers in mistreating these animals.

In 2016, the vast majority of Jews do not follow strict kashrut.But perhaps we need to redefine what kosher really means.

Early in the Torah, as Noah restructures society following the Great Flood, seven commandments are given by God to all humanity. One of these relates to the rights and dignities owed to animals: We are commanded not to take the limb from a live animal.

In other words, we are divinely directed to value all of God's creation: to see dignity in all creatures, to preserve quality of life wherever life is found, to understand the capacity for suffering and refuse to be an agent of that suffering.

We learn from this, that from the early pages of the Torah, ethical issues are embedded within Jewish life.

The Torah teaches us to be fair to the worker. It commands us to both tend to and respect the environment. It compels us to appreciate and bless what we eat.

How can we do any of these things if the road from the fields and pastures to our tables is littered with ethical abuses?

In this week's Torah portion, called Re'ei (See!), the laws of kashrutare laid out. We are told not to cook a baby goat in its mother's milk. From this we learn that we should not mix the consumption of a living thing with something a mother provides for the purpose of nurture.

We are told not to eat birds or animals which eat other birds or animals, or consume that which is unclean: vultures, buzzards, swine. We are told not to eat meat with blood in it, blood - "lifeblood" -- being understood as the essence of life.

Underpinning each of these laws, although never specifically stated, we can see ethical principles at work. Today more than ever before we cross -- examine and expand our ethics: we demand more of our principles.

Enter Magen Tzedek, or the Justice Shield, an initiative launched by Conservative Judaism in 2008. This established a series of standards which, according to its mission statement, "meet or exceed industry best practices for treatment of workers, animals, and the Earth; and delineates the criteria a food manufacturer must meet to achieve certification."

What this means is that ensuring a company's ethical conduct has become no less important than ensuring its technical practice.Magen Tzedek has attracted a following as well within the non Jewish world.  We're all starting to feel like this is the right thing to do.

For many Jews today, the laws of kashrut seem irrelevant. Every year we lose more kosher delis and restaurants in the non-Orthodox areas of our cities. Somehow, we assume that paying attention to what we eat, is something our parents or grandparents did -- not us.

I put it to you that if Judaism -- its movements, its rabbis and other leaders -- turned up the volume on the ethics and dignity associated with food production, instead of splitting kosher hairs, just about all of us could improve our lives and our spirituality, within a more relevant Judaism.

Kashrut could once again become a vital and central gathering point for Judaism and Jews, grounded not only in the comfort of common practice and sacred tradition but also by the values of justice, healing, and gratitude for our many blessings that guide so many other fundamental Jewish tenets.

So as we reflect upon this week's Torah portion, I believe we can be inspired to enhance our traditional view of holy eating. We can commit to a more ethical and holistic understanding of kashrut, and put the technical aspects of our practice into perspective. I believe that what and how we eat can either increase or diminish our integrity, our spirituality, and our holiness.

The choices we make at the store do matter. What are the labor practices of the brands we buy? What artificial materials have been added? What holistic path did our food follow, or not?

Too often these days, Jews define themselves as "not religious" partially because of the laws of kashrut that they don't follow. So let us redefine, or at least expand upon, our definition of what is kosher.

The word "kosher" in Hebrew means "fit" for consumption. What is your definition of food which is fit for consumption? We can, and should, be ethically assertive about those choices.

This week's Torah portion begins with a statement from God, asserting that, every day, it is incumbent upon us to make good choices.

There is no activity which we engage in each day which is more critical than what we eat.

There have been great individual and communal improvements in recent years regarding the content and quality of what we eat. It is now time to expand that to a more evolved view within the Jewish world, because the sobering events of ten years' past must never happen again.

It is up to us to promote a more ethical communal standard. Let us teach and model this expanded definition to our children and grandchildren.

We are what we eat. This week we should be inspired to ask, by virtue of our food choices, "So, then, who are we?"

What are we but the choices we make every day? With each one, we have the power to either enhance or diminish holiness.

More importantly, as this week's Torah portion inspires us to consider, how can we do better?

Shabbat shalom, v'kol tuv (with all goodness).

Rabbi Irwin Huberman