Parashat Noach: The Temporary Concession to Eat Meat - Is Eating Meat a Concession or an Ideal According to the Torah?

Parashat Noach: The Temporary Concession to Eat Meat 

Is Eating Meat a Concession or an Ideal According to the Torah? 

How Can Vegetarianism be a Preparation for Becoming Torah Observant? 

Emerging from the hippie counterculture of the sixties, many of us were vegetarians long before we became ba’alei teshuva – seekers embracing a Torah way of life. We had turned away from materialism and pursued a more natural, ethical, and sustainable existence through plant-based eating, communal living, and environmentally conscious practices. We believed that a plant-based diet was not only healthier but also more resource-efficient, since it required far less land, water, and energy than the production of animal-based foods, especially those from grazing animals like cows. Vegetarianism thus resonated with our yearning for purity and simplicity. It felt closer to the harmony of nature and to an ethical ideal that avoided taking animal life and entailed a more compassionate use of the earth’s resources. 

I myself gave up meat for a short time out of idealistic conviction, while my husband had practiced vegetarianism for several years after leaving college to live in a Buddhist monastery. When he later joined the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mount Zion, where we met, many of our peers shared this conviction that vegetarianism was, in its own way, a spiritual preparation for Torah observance. 

A vegetarian lifestyle naturally avoids many of the prohibitions of keeping kosher. It eliminates the risk of consuming non-kosher animals, eating blood, or partaking of meat not slaughtered according to halacha. It also prevents the mixing of milk and meat, and those who were vegan even abstained from non-kosher fish. Our rabbi often reminded us that eating forbidden foods dulls spiritual sensitivity. As Rabbeinu Bachya explains, “Do not defile yourselves with them, and you shall become impure through them” (Vayikra 11:43), to mean “do not defile yourselves by eating them with your body, for if you do so, you shall become defiled through them in your soul.” He notes that the word וְנִטְמֵתֶם/v’nitmetem – “you shall become impure” – is written missing an alef, alluding to טִמטוּם/timtum, ‘spiritual dullness.’ The heart becomes blocked through forbidden foods, preventing the Divine Spirit from resting upon a person. 

By living as vegetarians, our hearts became spiritually unblocked and our inner sensitivity awakened. We became more receptive to absorbing the Torah we learned in yeshiva and allowing it to transform our lives. 

 

Why Does the Torah Prohibit the Blood of an Animal? 

The first human beings were vegetarians, as it states, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb… and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit – to you it shall be for food” (Bereishit 1:29). After the flood, Hashem granted Noach and his descendants permission to eat meat: 

 
ספר בראשית פרק ט פסוק ג כָּל רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא חַי לָכֶם יִהְיֶה לְאָכְלָה כְּיֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת כֹּל: 

(ד) אַךְ בָּשָׂר בְּנַפְשׁוֹ דָמוֹ לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ:: 

“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all. Only flesh with its life, which is its blood, you shall not eat” (Bereishit 9:3-4). 

 

This moment marked a dramatic shift in the human relationship with food and with creation itself. The Torah thus begins with a clear vegetarian ideal. Human beings, created b’tzelem Elokim, were to preserve and nurture life, not consume it. Rabbi Moshe David Cassuto explains that the first permission to use living creatures was limited to their service – “you may employ them for work, but may not slay them for food.” He teaches that the Torah implies that “in principle man should refrain from eating meat,” and that Noach’s permission to eat flesh was only “a concession subject to the condition that the blood was not to be consumed,” as a reminder that “rightly all parts of the flesh should have been forbidden.” The introduction of blood into the laws of eating underscores that life belongs to Hashem alone.  

The Torah’s insistence on draining the blood from slaughtered animals preserves a lingering consciousness of the original prohibition. As Cassuto notes, abstaining from blood was meant to “remind us that all life is sacred” – a built-in ethical restraint within the concession itself (Cassuto, Bereishit 1:29). Ramban deepens this idea by explaining that blood symbolizes the very soul of the animal. When ingested, it fuses with the blood of the one who eats it, thickening and coarsening the human soul until it begins to resemble the animal’s spirit. By forbidding the consumption of blood, the Torah prevents the mingling of man’s higher, rational soul with the lower, instinctual life-force of animals, thereby safeguarding human holiness and spiritual sensitivity (Ramban, Vayikra 17:11). 

 

Why Does the Torah Permit Eating Meat After the Flood? 

Rabbi Yosef Albo explores why Hashem shifted the human diet. He explains that not only the blood but even the consumption of animal flesh coarsens the soul, dulling spiritual sensitivity and accustoming a person to cruelty. Therefore, in the beginning, Hashem prohibited killing animals “because the eating of flesh breeds cruelty, rage, and the evil habit of shedding innocent blood.” Only after the Flood, when humanity had descended morally and failed to recognize its higher spiritual potential, did Hashem temporarily permit meat so that humankind would at least affirm its superiority to the animal kingdom, and not sink into the moral confusion of Cain, who denied any distinction between human and beast (Rabbi Yosef Albo, Sefer Ha’Ikarim). 

Ramban likewise views Adam’s vegetarian diet as reflecting his elevated spiritual level. He writes that the first human being was forbidden meat because living creatures possess a soul and a certain spiritual superiority. This prohibition recognized the kinship between all sentient beings and the sanctity of life (Ramban, Bereishit 1:29). After the Flood, however, man was granted dominion over the animals, because the moral and spiritual gulf had widened. Humanity’s fall necessitated a more physical sustenance (Ramban, Bereishit 9:3). 

The Malbim offers three reasons for the permission to eat meat. First, Noach had earned dominion over the animals since their survival depended on him, as he saved them from perishing in the flood and cared for them in the ark. Second, the post-Flood climate and vegetation had changed, and human beings now required a stronger form of nourishment. Third, humanity had reached a new spiritual capacity, able to elevate the animal through mindful eating. Before the Flood, man and beast had shared a spiritual closeness that made consuming flesh unworthy; only after man rose above the animal could eating meat serve as a potential tikkun (Malbim, Bereishit 9:3). 

 

How Did the Torah Plant Seeds of Return to Vegetarianism in the Laws of Kashrut? 

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook harmonizes all these perspectives by describing meat consumption as a transitional stage in human spiritual development. According to Rav Kook, Hashem’s ideal world is one of peace and compassion, in which no creature harms another. The permission to eat meat was never a divine ideal but a temporary concession to human weakness, given after humanity’s moral collapse. Yet the prophets foresaw a future return to the original harmony: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb… and the lion shall eat straw like the ox” (Yeshayahu 11:6–7). Rav Kook envisioned the Messianic era as a time when humanity’s moral and spiritual refinement would make meat-eating unnecessary – a restoration of Eden through compassion (A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace, cited in Judaism and Vegetarianism, Richard Schwartz). 

As Rabbi Richard Schwartz explains, vegetarianism in Jewish thought is not merely a dietary choice but a moral aspiration. It reflects compassion for all living beings, respect for life, health of body and soul, and stewardship of the earth. When humanity lives according to these values, the prophetic vision of peace can take root – “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain” (Yeshayahu 11:9); (Judaism and Vegetarianism, 2001). 

The Torah’s progression from Adam’s plant-based sustenance to Noach’s permission to eat meat, and later to Israel’s dietary laws, reveals a pattern of descent and ascent. What began as an ideal of harmony became a concession to human frailty, yet within that concession, Hashem planted seeds of return. Kashrut – with its restrictions, blessings, and reverence – invites us to eat with consciousness, restoring holiness even to the act of consumption. 

 

How Will the Elevation of Animal Consciousness Affect Vegetarianism? 

Rav Kook deepens the prophetic vision by teaching that redemption will not only transform humanity but also elevate the consciousness of the animals themselves. As the world ascends spiritually, animals will awaken to a higher awareness and recognize Hashem. Humanity will then “recognize their companions in Creation – all the animals” and “walk the path of absolute good,” fulfilling the prophecy: “I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field…” (Hoshea 2:20); (Rav Kook, A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace, The Age of Pure Morality). 

Based on Sha’ar HaMitzvot by Rabbi Chayim Vital, Rav Kook teaches that as creation evolves, even animals will develop heightened awareness and refined senses, until the level of animal life attained in the future will resemble the present spiritual state of humanity because of the ascent of the worlds.  

Rav Kook understood that due to the transformation of the nature of animals to a level of intelligent awareness, mankind would be prohibited from taking their lives. Animals will also cease to harm or consume one another, living in harmony, as foretold by the prophet: “The wolf will live with the lamb… they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the world will be full of the knowledge of Hashem” (Yeshayahu 11:6-9). 

Together, these teachings form a powerful vision: in the time of Geulah, both humans and animals will rise in consciousness, all life will recognize Hashem, and the moral harmony of Creation will be restored. In our generation, as awareness grows of the ethical, ecological, and spiritual cost of eating animals, we may be witnessing the slow awakening of that Edenic ideal. Rav Kook foresaw a time when humanity’s compassion would mature enough to transcend the need to consume life. In the days of Geulah, when the Divine light will fill the world and peace will embrace all creation, we may once again partake only of what sustains life – returning to the pure nourishment of Gan Eden, where eating itself was an act of harmony with Hashem and His creatures (Rav Kook, A Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace, The Elevation of Animal Life in the Future to Come).