(כט) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים הִנֵּה֩ נָתַ֨תִּי לָכֶ֜ם אֶת־כָּל־עֵ֣שֶׂב ׀ זֹרֵ֣עַ זֶ֗רַע אֲשֶׁר֙ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְאֶת־כָּל־הָעֵ֛ץ אֲשֶׁר־בּ֥וֹ פְרִי־עֵ֖ץ זֹרֵ֣עַ זָ֑רַע לָכֶ֥ם יִֽהְיֶ֖ה לְאָכְלָֽה׃ (ל) וּֽלְכָל־חַיַּ֣ת הָ֠אָרֶץ וּלְכָל־ע֨וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֜יִם וּלְכֹ֣ל ׀ רוֹמֵ֣שׂ עַל־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־בּוֹ֙ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֔ה אֶת־כָּל־יֶ֥רֶק עֵ֖שֶׂב לְאָכְלָ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃
(29) And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed—to you it shall be for food; (30) and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.’ And it was so.
Are humans given a diet any different than other animals?
Verse 4 contains a commandment (mitzvah) for all humans, not just Jews. What is it?
אדם הראשון לא הותר לו בשר לאכילה דכתיב (בראשית א, כט) לכם יהיה לאכלה ולכל חית הארץ ולא חית הארץ לכם וכשבאו בני נח התיר להם שנאמר (בראשית ט, ג) כירק עשב נתתי לכם את כל
The First Earthling was not permitted meat for eating, as it is written, "...to you it will be for the eating. And to all the animals of the earth..." (Genesis 1:29-30) and not [written] "the animals of the earth for you." And when the children of Noah came [out of the ark] it was permitted for them [to eat meat], as it is said, "as the green herb I have given for you all" (Genesis 9:3).
What wordplay do the Rabbis use to emphasize this difference between Adam and Noah's diets?
Literal Blood Thirst
You are permitted to make use of the living creatures and their service, you are allowed to exercise power over them so that they may promote your subsistence; but you may not treat the life force within them contemptuously and slay them in order to eat their flesh; your proper diet shall be vegetable food. It is true that the eating of flesh is not specifically forbidden here, but the prohibition is clearly to be inferred. ...Apparently the Torah seeks to convey that in principle man should refrain from eating meat, and that when Noah and his sons were granted permission to eat flesh, this was only a concession subject to the condition that the blood was not to be consumed. This prohibition implies respect for the principle of life (‘for the blood is the life’), and it serves also... to remind us that rightly all parts of the flesh should have been forbidden. It behooves us, therefore, to eschew eating at least one element thereof in order to remember the earlier prohibition.
Umberto Moshe David Cassuto 1883-1951, Comment on Genesis 1:29 (translated by Israel Abrams)
One might think that meat could only be eaten as part of a sacrifice--here, the Torah gives permission to eat meat that is not made holy by a priest (kohein). This principle becomes the basis of Kosher slaughter outside of the Temple setting.
ת"ר חייב אדם לשמח בניו ובני ביתו ברגל שנא' (דברים טז, יד) ושמחת בחגך במה משמחם ביין רבי יהודה אומר אנשים בראוי להם ונשים בראוי להן אנשים בראוי להם ביין ונשים במאי תני רב יוסף בבבל בבגדי צבעונין בארץ ישראל בבגדי פשתן מגוהצין תניא רבי יהודה בן בתירא אומר בזמן שבית המקדש קיים אין שמחה אלא בבשר שנאמר (דברים כז, ז) וזבחת שלמים ואכלת שם ושמחת לפני ה' אלהיך ועכשיו שאין בית המקדש קיים אין שמחה אלא ביין שנאמר (תהלים קד, טו) ויין ישמח לבב אנוש
...Our Rabbis Taught ... A person must celebrate with his sons and the members of his household on a festival, as it says (Devarim 16:14) "you shall celebrate on your festivals". ... What should people celebrate with? with wine ... Rabbi Yehudah says ... Men with what is suitable for them and women with what is suitable for them. ... For men what is suitable - with wine, and what for women? ... Rabbi Yosef taught ... In Bavel, buying women coloured clothes. In Eretz Yisrael, buying women ironed linen clothes. It was taught: R' Yehuda b. Beteira says: "While the Temple is standing, there is no joy unless there is meat, as it says (Deut. 27) 'And you shall sacrifice peace-offerings and eat them there, and you will be joyful before the Lord, your God'. Now that the Temple is not standing, there is no joy without wine, as it says (Psalms 104) ' And wine will rejoice the heart of man.'"
This text is understood by many traditional Jews as requiring meat as a part of any required holiday, Shabbat, or life-cycle feast (se'udat mitzvah).
Like much of Isaiah's prophecy, this section talks about what we would today call the time of the Messiah.
The strongest support for vegetarianism as a positive ideal anywhere in Torah literature is in the writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook (1865-1935). Rav Kook was the first Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel and a highly respected and beloved Jewish spiritual leader in the early 20th century. He was a mystical thinker, a prolific writer, and a great Torah scholar.
...
According to Rav Kook, because people had sunk to an extremely low level of spirituality (in the time of Noah), it was necessary that they be given an elevated image of themselves as compared to animals, and that they concentrate their efforts into first improving relationships between people. He felt that were people denied permission to eat meat, they might eat the flesh of human beings due to their inability to control their lust for flesh. He regarded the permission to slaughter animals for food as a “transitional tax” or temporary dispensation until a “brighter era” is reached when people would return to vegetarian diets. Perhaps to reinforce the idea that the ideal vegetarian time had not yet arrived, Rav Kook ate a symbolic small amount of chicken on the Sabbath day.
(Richard H. Schwartz, "Rav Kook and Vegetarianism" http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rav-kook-vegetarianism/)
(13) And these ye shall have in detestation among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are a detestable thing: the eagle, and the bearded vulture, and the ospray; (14) and the kite, and the falcon after its kinds; (15) every raven after its kinds; (16) and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kinds; (17) and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl; (18) and the horned owl, and the pelican, and the carrion-vulture; (19) and the stork, and the heron after its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat.
Most birds are kosher, unless they are listed here. Many scholars have tried to explain what about the behaviors of these birds and other forbidden animals makes them unsuitable for our eating. Why do you think we are permitted a chicken or a sheep, but not an eagle or a lion?
Kashrut Cultivates a Peaceful Person: Controlling blood lust
The 16th to 17th century Polish Torah commentator Solomon Efraim Lunschitz, author of K’li Yakar [a commentary to the Torah]:
“What was the necessity for the entire procedure of ritual slaughter? For the sake of self-discipline. It is far more appropriate for a person not to eat meat; only if he has a strong desire for meat does the Torah permit it, and even this only after the trouble and inconvenience necessary to satisfy his desire. Perhaps because of the bother and annoyance of the whole procedure, he will be restrained from such a strong and uncontrollable desire for meat.”
(Quoted in http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rav-kook-vegetarianism/2/.)
(א) יָכוֹל אָדָם לִקְבֹּעַ סַכִּין בְּגַלְגַּל שֶׁל אֶבֶן אוֹ שֶׁל עֵץ, וּמְסַבֵּב הַגַּלְגַּל בְּיָדוֹ אוֹ בְּרַגְלוֹ, וּמֵשִׂים שָׁם צַוַּאר הַבְּהֵמָה אוֹ הָעוֹף עַד שֶׁיִּשְׁחֹט בִּסְבִיבַת הַגַּלְגַּל; וְאִם הַמַּיִם הֵם הַמְסַבְּבִים אֶת הַגַּלְגַּל וְשָׂם הַצַּוָּאר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁסִבֵּב וְנִשְׁחַט, הֲרֵי זוֹ פְּסוּלָה, (ל' הַרַמְבַּ''ם שָׁם דִּין י''ג) וְאִם פָּטַר אָדָם אֶת הַמַּיִם עַד שֶׁבָּאוּ וְסִבְּבוּ אֶת הַגַּלְגַּל, וְשָׁחַט בִּסְבִיבָתוֹ, הֲרֵי זֶה כְּשֵׁרָה בְּדִיעֲבַד, שֶׁהֲרֵי מִכֹּחַ אָדָם בָּא; בַּמֶּה דְּבָרִים אֲמוּרִים, בִּסְבִיבָה רִאשׁוֹנָה שֶׁהִיא מִכֹּחַ הָאָדָם, אֲבָל מִסְבִיבָה שְׁנִיָּה וּלְאַחֲרֶיהָ, פְּסוּלָה שֶׁהֲרֵי אֵינָהּ מִכֹּחַ הָאָדָם, אֶלָּא מִכֹּחַ הַמַּיִם בְּהִלּוּכָן.
A person may affix a knife to a wheel of stone or of wood, and then spin the wheel with their hand or their foot, and place there the throat of a beast or a fowl until it is slaughtered by the spinning of the wheel. And if water spins the wheel, and they place the throat against [the wheel] at the moment in which it spun, and the animal was slaughtered, this is not kosher. And if a person released water that flowed and spun a wheel, and the knife slaughtered with the spinning, this is considered kosher, but only after-the-fact--since this came from the force of a person. These things are only said about the first spin, which contains human force. But on the second spin or any after it, the animal is not kosher, since it wasn’t slaughtered from human force but rather the force of water flowing.
Why does it matter whether the force that kills the animal is guided directly by a human hand?