Vegetarianism in Judaism

(2) [...On shabbos] a person should have more meat, wine and treats, to the best of his ability.

[...On Yom tov] people should eat meat and drink wine, for there is no real rejoicing without the use of meat and wine. While eating and drinking, one must feed the stranger, the orphan, the widow, and other poor unfortunates. Anyone, however, who locks the doors of his courtyard and eats and drinks along with his wife and children, without giving anything to eat and drink to the poor and the desperate, does not observe a religious celebration but indulges in the celebration of his stomach.

(29) God said, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. (30) And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, [I give] all the green plants for food.” And it was so.

The sages instructed us that the proper path is that one should not eat meat save when craving it, even as it is said: "Because thy soul desires to eat flesh" (Deut. 12.20). It is enough for a healthy person to eat meat from Friday night to Friday night.

The Gemara raises an objection from a baraita to the assertion that eating meat was prohibited to Adam: Rabbi Yehuda ben Teima would say: Adam, the first man, would dine in the Garden of Eden, and the ministering angels would roast meat for him and strain wine for him. The snake glanced at him and saw his glory, and was jealous of him, and for that reason the snake incited him to sin and caused his banishment from the Garden. According to this, evidently Adam would eat meat. The Gemara answers: There the reference is to meat that descended from heaven, which was created by a miracle and was not the meat of animals at all.

(1) "Behold, I have given to you all of the herbs that gives seed:" ...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 the verse states (Ecclesiastes 3:23), "Who knows the spirit of man whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goes downward to the earth?" 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 this is a difficulty! As it is implied from Rashi that if an animal died by itself, they wouldn't have been prohibited to consume it! And afterwords, Rashi wrote that "they should only eat herbage together and not meat" implying it was prohibited for them to eat animals that died naturally!

And I fear to say

[on shabbos] one should eat lots of meat, wine and sweets.

The Gemara stated that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s suffering came upon him due to an incident. What was that incident that led to his suffering? The Gemara answers that there was a certain calf that was being led to slaughter. The calf went and hung its head on the corner of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s garment and was weeping. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to it: Go, as you were created for this purpose. It was said in Heaven: Since he was not compassionatetoward the calf, let afflictions come upon him.

(3) The explanation of all this is, I think, as follows: In the killing of animals there is cruelty, rage, and the accustoming oneself to the bad habit of shedding innocent blood, but the eating of the flesh of some animals produces besides, coarseness, ugliness and stupidity... this is why he forbade Adam the eating of animal food....

When they were all destroyed and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained, God wanted to eradicate this opinion (that men and animals were equal). Hence when Noah, after leaving the ark, brought an animal offering to God because he knew that man is superior by virtue of his reason and can know his Creator and serve Him better than the animals and can be thankful to God for this privilege, his offering was accepted with favor, as is said, “And the Lord smelled the sweet savour.” But He feared that unless this opinion was made firm, the Noahites might deviate in the direction of Abel’s idea (that man could kill an animal only to serve G-d who is obviously above animals, unlike humans who are not) and assume that God accepted their father’s offering as he accepted Abel’s offering, thus going back to the former errors and wrongdoing. Hence immediately after the offering, He hastened to permit the killing of animals and the eating of their flesh, “As the green herb have I given you all.” The meaning is that as even Cain admitted that man is superior to the plants, since they are created for man, so all the animals are also for the sake of man, who is superior to them, and there is not the same spirit in all. For this reason He prohibited the shedding of human blood, giving as a reason that the spirit of man is not like the spirit of the animal, for in the image of God made He man, i. e. man has a rational form which is nobler than the spirit of the animal. For this reason it was necessary to permit all animals without distinction, which He did, in order to eradicate the former opinion and wipe off its memory.

Any action needed for healing or any other [substantial] reason, there is no prohibition of "causing pain to animals." And therefore it is permitted to pluck the feathers of wild geese [to use for writing utensils], and there is no potential problem of "causing pain to animals." Nevertheless, the world withholds from it because of its cruelty.

...And behold, one should ask why God didn't mention the eating of meat - not with man and not with animals. And many already believed that the slaughter of animals was not permitted before the flood. And this is very unlikely; since in his nature and the build of his body and the shape of his teeth, human-kind is fashioned for the eating of both [plants] and meat as one; and if it was not the will of the Creator that humans should eat meat, God would not have formed his body [in this way]. And it appears to me that the permission to eat meat is included in the expression, "and have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc." ...

(20) When the LORD enlarges your territory, as God has promised you, and you say, “I shall eat some meat,” for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish. (21) If the place where the LORD has chosen to establish God's name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of the cattle or sheep that the LORD gives you, as I have instructed you; and you may eat to your heart’s content in your settlements.

...he does not become a stubborn and rebellious son, unless he actually eats meat and actually drinks wine, as it is stated: “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he…is a glutton [zolel] and a drunkard [vesovei]” (Deuteronomy 21:20). One is not called a glutton and a drunkard unless he eats meat and drinks wine....as it is stated: “Be not among wine drunkards, nor among meat gluttons” (Proverbs 23:20).

It is taught in a baraita (Tosefta, Sota 15:10) that Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha said: From the day that the Temple was destroyed, by right, we should decree upon ourselves not to eat meat and not to drink wine, but the Sages do not issue a decree upon the public unless a majority of the public is able to abide by it.