Kli Yakar on Babylonian Talmud, Chullin 84a

 

Original Text:

Translation:

A person should only eat meat on rare appointed occasions, and the reason is that a person should not become accustomed to eat meat, as it is written, "You shall eat meat with all your desire. Eat it, however, as you eat the gazelle and the deer," (Deuteronomy 12:21-22). This means that you should eat meat by circumstance [accident] rather than in a set way. For the gazelle and the deer are not easily found around human dwellings for they are wild, and their habitation is not with people, but in the deserts and forests. Consequently, they can only be eaten in small quantities for not everyday does such a miracle occur that a herd of gazelles appears when one is hunting.
Consequently, since one eats of them rarely, he will not come to habituate himself to eating ordinary meat since it gives birth to cruelty and other bad qualities in the body of a person. For it is the birds of prey that kill and eat meat, and the lion that kills prey and eats. Therefore it says that in the future, "The lion like the ox will eat straw. For there will be peace between all the living creatures" (Isaiah 11:7). Therefore, Isaac said, "Hunt me game" (Genesis 27:7) for he did not want to eat meat except if it was according to the circumstance [of the hunt].

Suggested Discussion Questions:

1. What does this text imply about food ethics and conscious eating?
2. According to this text, how might the way animals eat in nature inform our own eating ethics?

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