August 15

Check out this from the Jerusalem Post: Renewing the ancient New Year for animals with a vegan spin.

Chazal teach us that wherever the heretics attempt to bring proofs from the Torah for their false ideology, the proof against them is near that very place in the Torah. The Jerusalem Post presented a hilarious example of this in yet another puff piece celebrating veganism. Because, as we all know, vegans are more moral and compassionate than meat-eaters; better human beings and better Jews.

The article glorifies an initiative to mark the first day of Elul as “a day to focus on the harm done by eating animals”. According to the president of something called the Society Of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians: “Animal-based diets and agriculture seriously violate basic Jewish teachings on preserving our health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, helping hungry people and pursuing peace.”

If that is true, the name of this society is redundant, for how can anyone OTHER than a vegetarian be considered ethical and religious? Meat-eaters are cruel, destroying the planet, and even war-mongers.

Why the first of Elul? Because, in ancient times, this was the New Year for Tithing Animals, and thus it is a most appropriate day to save animals and, by extension, save the world.

One small inconvenient fact that the numerous ignoramuses involved with this article and initiative seem to have overlooked: the animals that were tithed were slaughtered and eaten by their owners. That was the mitzva. The purpose of this Rosh Hashana was simply to determine which animals in a flock belonged to which calendar year for purposes of tithing, after which it was barbecue time. Oops.

There is no need to present the numerous Torah sources favoring and even obligating eating meat; this article is a bunch of nonsense. But I cannot resist citing the teaching of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha from Sanhedrin 108A. The Gemara asks why the animals were wiped out in the flood when it was the people who sinned. Rabbi Yehoshua explains that Hashem only created the animals for the benefit and enjoyment of Man. If there were no people around, Hashem had no use for the animals.

The ignorance and absurdity of Jews who devote themselves to false ideologies, and the low bar for their receiving favorable media coverage, is simply astounding.