Are We Supposed To Eat Animals?

You raise a cow in your own backyard. You treat it well, give it plenty of room to graze and tasty grass to eat. Should you kill it, just so you can enjoy a hamburger? What does the Torah have to say about this?

On the one hand, the Torah clearly allows us to eat meat. Eating meat can even be a mitzvah! But there are some clues, buried between the lines of Parshat Acharei Mot, that seem to suggest the opposite. Is eating animals a spiritual ideal? Or is it a concession to mankind's desire?

Join Beth Lesch as she explores these “mixed messages” and tries to suss out whether — in the eyes of the Torah — there is anything wrong with eating animals.

See more of Aleph Beta's related videos:

Is There Any Meaning Behind The Laws Of Kashrut?

Why Does Judaism Need The Written And Oral Law (explained through the example of not mixing milk and meat).