25th March 2025 Bulletin Eco-Corner

ECO CORNER ON TZAR BA'AALEI CHAIMNo one can accuse the Torah of being woke, but it was quite ahead of its time in taking a stand against animal cruelty.  In Genesis, when humans are first created, they are not allowed to harm another living creature.  God relaxes this prohibition after the Flood, but seeks to find a balance between humankind's use of animals for food, and the requirement for them not to be cruel to animals: for instance, it is not permitted to cut a limb from a living animal.  This became the basis for the Talmudic ethics centred on tzar ba'aalei chaim (the suffering of animals), which take on new dimensions in the modern context of sustainable and ethical eating practices.  Our exhortation to the community to bring vegetarian or vegan food to kiddush, and other communal eating events, fits in nicely with this ancient Talmudic principle.

However, you can still eat meat and not transgress against tzar ba'aalei chaim, if you opt for ethically-reared meat.  Typically organic meat, from regenerative farming producers, will meet both this Talmudic requirement and more modern ones around sustainability.  The Three Counties area has many such producers; an example local to Eco-Corner is Good Small Farms of Stroud, which offers regeneratively farmed beef from their organic herd that lives outdoors all year round. Having encountered these cows on a regular basis, your Eco-Cornerer can attest that they seem pretty happy with their lot - so Good Small Farms would presumably get a thumbs up from the Talmud!