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Vegetarianism

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Rabbi Chaim Tabasky

7 Tishrei 5766
Question
Is Vegetarianism wrong? If so, how come Rabbi Feinsteen was praised for not eating meat during the holocaust out of solidarity to our brethren?
Answer
There is no prohibition to refrain from enjoying certain things that are permitted, and meat is no exception. However, it is best not to make vegetarianism an ideology or dogma. One may refrain from eating meat for health reasons, or to identify with starving people in the world, or to express love of animals, if one does not make it into an ideological position that consumption of meat is immoral. Re fraining from permitted pleasure when others are suffering or in a time of national crisis has biblical source. The midrash notes that Yosef's childre were born before the seven years of famine, because in those terrible years Yosef refrained from relations with his wife.
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