Meat and Slaughter
The seventh Noahide Law is the prohibition against eating meat that was taken from an animal while it was still alive. This law has a profound effect on one’s spiritual health.
The Seven Noahide Commandments, Part 8
7. Do not eat the limb of a living animal
For Gentiles and Jews alike, what we consume impacts our spiritual health, which may come as a surprise for some. Remember, God gave laws about what humans were to consume, or not consume, from the beginning. Prior to the flood humans were not to consume meat. After the flood these laws were added to- meat was allowed but only if the animal was totally without life prior to dissection. When Moses received the Torah the dietary laws were further refined for Jews. Kosher eating for Jews is much more restrictive. Certain animals could not be consumed by Jews. Certain mixtures became forbidden for Jews. Certain methods of slaughter had to be employed on animals to be consumed by Jews. Gentiles need to follow only the dietary law given to Noach, not the further refinements given for Jews.
It is important to internalize that God gave laws to Gentiles and to Jews and that these laws may be different. Gentiles can guilt free consume all kinds of food that is not appropriate for Jews to consume. It does not harm us spiritually. It does harm a Jew spiritually. There is no reason for a Gentile to feel obliged to take on a law that God created for a Jew. Some Gentiles and Jews choose to take on additional stringencies for a variety of reasons. This should be done carefully. Many recommend consulting with a rabbi before doing so. And we should certainly not feel pressured or pressure others into taking on an additional stringency, whether it relates to diet or anything else.
- Of course, Gentiles may consume kosher food without harming themselves spiritually. On the contrary, a Jew may not consume non-kosher food without inflicting spiritual harm unless under very specific and extreme circumstances. It may surprise you to learn that some Jews were so profoundly committed to kosher eating that even in Nazi concentration camps they ate kosher as much as possible.
- Torah rules about diet, for Jews and Gentiles, are about spiritual health. They have nothing to do with trichinosis, what clogs arteries, or levels of heavy metals in certain types of fish, etc. Kosher food may be physically healthy or physically unhealthy. A kosher steak may be fine from a spiritual perspective but terrible for you physically. Fried shrimp may be fine for a Gentile to consume in terms of spiritual health, but terrible for his or her physical health.
- Land animals are meat. Fish is not meat. Foul is not meat from a Torah perspective. But, and this is an important point, from a rabbinic perspective foul is meat for Jews and therefore for Jews it can not be mixed with dairy. For Gentiles, this is not an issue.
- Gentiles may eat shellfish.
- Gentiles may mix dairy and meat, dairy and foul, dairy and fish.
- The method of slaughter employed for meat to be consumed by a Gentile should be humane. And the limbs of the animal should no longer be moving before it is dissected.
- Fish are considered dead when they are removed from water.
- It is fine to be a vegetarian for health reasons, out of distrust of method of slaughter or cleanliness of slaughter houses, or because meat is gross to you from a taste perspective. However, it is not cruel to slaughter an animal humanely for the purpose of human consumption. One need not become a vegetarian out of kindness to animals from a Torah perspective.
- On the other hand, we should not wantonly extinguish any life, plant or animal.
- Pork, technically speaking, is totally fine for a Gentile to eat.
How do we know if land animals are humanely slaughtered and that the meat was taken after the limbs of the animal have ceased movement? This is a very complex and important question. As with many questions in Judaism the answer you get depends upon the rabbi you ask. And the answer may depend upon where on earth you are located and from whom you are purchasing meat. One perspective is that in the United States we have rules about humane slaughter and inspectors who ensure that these laws are followed, therefore Bnei Noach can eat meat from USDA inspected slaughter houses without worry.
Another perspective is that these facilities are too great in number, process such large quantities of meat, and are so infrequently inspected that it is not safe for a Ben or Bat Noach to eat the meat from these facilities. Therefore we should be purchasing kosher meat, which unfortunately is much more expensive and means that pork is out, clearly. Or we can eat vegetarian, with fish. So what are we to do?
Rabbi Brody makes the following suggestions: He agrees with the view that for land animals processed in a non-kosher manner the meat is often taken from the animal when the limbs are still moving or that it would be pretty much impossible to ensure this law was being followed. Therefore, when purchasing meat from a land animal, to be on the safe side, purchase kosher meat. What about foul? From Rabbi Brody’s perspective Gentiles should feel free to purchase non-kosher. Fish is not an issue.
Can Bnei Noach eat meat that comes from a hunted animal? The type of animal is not an issue for Bnei Noach from a technical perspective. But the type of slaughter is problematic. From a cruelty perspective it is not acceptable.
Some countries may have more thorough laws with regards to slaughter and better inspection. Some countries may have almost zero oversight. Therefore, we must pay close attention to this issue depending upon where on earth we find ourselves.
As I stated earlier, this is a complex issue. Meat doesn’t always come from huge slaughter houses, even in the US. There are boutique farms where animals are fed carefully, are free range, and may be handled very carefully in the slaughtering process. There are small ranchers and farmers who are invested in humane and small scale production of meat for the market. We are city folk, but know people who raise and slaughter their own chickens. Clearly in other parts of the world where people live more closely to the land people often own and slaughter their own mammals, or hire a person to come to their place to process the animal for them. With such close supervision it could easily be possible for the animals to be processed appropriately for Gentiles to consume even under a very careful approach to this law. This is not a one-answer-fits-all question.
This is a surface treatment of a very complicated subject. Because ignorance of the law is not an excuse for a misdeed, we need to learn as much as we can about this subject.
(The book The Seven Colors of the Rainbow, by Rabbi Yirmeyahu Bindman, contains an excellent and informative chapter on this topic that goes far beyond this brief article. Other excellent sources are The Path of the Righteous Gentile by Chaim Clorfene and Yakov Rogalsky; and The Seven Laws of Noach by Aaron Lichtenstein.)
Any meat or fowl is fine for Noahides, as long as it’s not taken from the bird or animal while it’s still alive.
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