Among the ethical commandments (mitzvot) of Judaism are those within the category we call kosher, meaning "fit" for consumption. All of the mitzvot within a modern practice of kosher follow from three basic values, all central to Judaism.

The first of these key values is pikuach nefesh--the obligation to preserve life. Jewish law considers life to be the most valuable quality in the world. The Mishnah teaches that the body is the "temple" of the soul. Consequently, Jews must scrupulously avoid anything that might compromise good health.

Human life was thought by the rabbis to be so sacred that a person who saved a single life was to be honored as if he or she had saved the entire world. Maimonides considered the prohibition on endangering one's own life to be so essential that he recommended punishment for those who disregarded this commandment. Indeed, had the rabbis known in their time what we know today about the relationship of diet to health, they might well have included most animal products in the category called "treif" or unfit foods.

One study found a 60% lower incidence of cancer of the colon in the general population among Seventh Day Adventists, a group that abstain from eating meat. The average American male faces a 50 percent risk of death from a heart attack; for the non-meat eating male that risk is 15 percent.

Many of the leading diseases of the western world are directly related to the consumption of animal products. News stories report regularly report instances of E. Coli found in beef. Other toxins found in animal products include artificial hormones, drugs, and pesticides. These and other by-products (including Adrenaline) remain in animal tissue after slaughter. Ingesting these contributes to many cancers and other toxic conditions.

Today we know the hazards of eating animal products. A diet high in saturated fats and chemicals clearly does not fulfill the mitzvah of pikuach nefesh. Serious Jews should strive to reduce their consumption of these treif foods.

The second of the mitzvot underlying kashrut is "tsaar ba-aley chayyim," the prohibition of cruelty to living creatures. According to the Talmud, this mitzvah is biblical in origin. This makes it especially binding. Yet, precious few of us pause to consider the torment animals experience on their way from the feedlot to our dining room tables.

Tremendous cruelty is involved in the forced feeding of geese and ducks to produce pate de foie gras. These animals suffer excruciating pain before they are killed to remove their enormous, often sclerotic, livers. How shameful it is that Israel has become one of the world's largest exporters of this so-called delicacy.

The "raising" of veal is another example of inhumane treatment during food production. These creatures are intentionally made anemic, not given water so that they will drink a high calorie liquid, and prevented from moving so their muscle tissue will remain tender. Often these animals drop dead from the exertion of walking from the pen to the slaughter.

Raising creatures as objects to be processed by the most cost-effective method violates tsaar ba-aley chayyim. Food produced by these activities cannot be considered kosher for Jews who are sincere about Judaism.

The third ethical underpinning of kashrut is bal taschit--the prohibition against wasting anything of value. During their orientation to life in the Garden Of Eden, Adam and Eve received specific instructions regarding their responsibilities. God admonished them to care for the world since there would be no miraculous intervention later to clean up behind them. Dominion over creation includes an obligation of stewardship that is easily overlooked. Almost everything we eat and consume today has a direct bearing on human health, the well-being of the environment, and world hunger. The mitzvah of bal taschit demands of us not only conscious eating, it instructs us to follow a program of responsible consumption.

The impact of animal agriculture begins with the destruction of forests to create cropland needed to grow the grain required to raise animals for slaughter. Sixteen pounds of grain are needed to produce one pound of edible flesh. And while 20,000 pounds of potatoes can be grown on an acre of prime land, only 165 pounds of beef can be produced on this same land. The longer we continue such consumption, the more we do so at the expense of the world's malnourished.

The water supply is also victim to our dietary preferences. Most of the manure produced by US livestock drains directly into our streams and amounts to over 20 times the waste produced by the entire US population. The ethic of bal taschit tells us that if we care about the life we leave to our grandchildren, then we must care about how we treat the earth today.
Because meat consumption has such wide-ranging ethical implications, vegetarianism is arguably one of the most urgent human issues. If we are to be faithful to the historic Jewish demand that we behave justly, then certainly we cannot ignore our responsibility to spread the practice of vegetarianism as a Jewish value.