Rabbi Yehuda Ben Batheira, one of the outstanding
sages of the talmudic period, stated that the obligation
to eat meat for rejoicing only applied at the time
when the Holy Temple was in existence. (Pesachim
109a) He added that after the destruction of the
Temple one could rejoice with wine. Based on this,
Rabbi Yishmael stated, "From the day the Holy
Temple was destroyed, it would have been right to
have imposed upon ourselves a law prohibiting the
eating of flesh." (Baba Batra 60b) The reason
that the rabbis did not make such a law was that
they felt that most Jews were not ready to accept
such a prohibition.(Ibid)
Other sources who maintain that it is no longer
necessary to eat meat on festivals are Ritva, Kiddushin
36 and and Teshuvot Rashbash, No. 176. In a scholarly
article in The Journal of Halacha and Contemporary
Society (Fall, 1981), Rabbi Alfred Cohen, the publication's
editor, concluded: "If a person is more comfortable
not eating meat, there would be no obligation for
him to do so on the Sabbath" and "we may
clearly infer that eating meat, even on a Festival,
is not mandated by the Halacha [Jewish law]."
He also points out that "the Shulchan Aruch,
which is the foundation for normative law for Jews
today, does not insist upon the necessity to eat
meat as simchat Yom Tov (making the holiday joyful)."
In a responsum, an answer to a question based
on Jewish law, Rabbi Moshe Halevi Steinberg of Kiryat
Yam, Israel, stated, "One whose soul rebels
against eating living things can without any doubt
fulfill the commandment of enhancing the Sabbath
and rejoicing on festivals by eating vegetarian
foods....Each person should delight in the S abbath
according to his own sensibility, enjoyment, and
outlook." In the same responsum, Rabbi Steinberg
pointed out that there is no barrier or impediment
to converting a non-Jew who is a vegetarian, since
vegetarianism in no sense contradicts Jewish law.
Can sensitive, compassionate people enhance a
joyous occasion by eating meat if they are aware
that, for their eating pleasure, animals are cruelly
treated, huge amounts of grains are fed to animals
while millions of people starve, the environment
is negatively affected, and their own health is
being harmed?
All of the above is reinforced by the fact that
there are Chief Rabbis, including Rabbi Shear Yashuv
Cohen, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Haifa, and Rabbi
David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, who
are strict vegetarians, including on Shabbat and
Yom Tov. Also, the late Rabbi Shlomo Goren, former
Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, was also a strict
vegetarian.
