צמחונות ודיאטות

00:01 Speaker 1 Okay, the letter that we're looking at today is on page Reish Yud. It is from Chaf Yod of Tov Shin Lamed Gimel, and I don't wanna look at it first. As a matter of fact, I wanna look at it last, so I'm just keeping it on the screen 'cause what else are you going to look at while I talk? But, uh, I wanna actually get to this letter at the very end of a discussion. The letter itself discusses diets. You can see that word over there, "B'negeila hila v'diet." Um, that word is diet. Um, so because of that, I wanted to do a little discussion of Api Halacha, Api Chasidus, Api Hashkafa, uh, whether there are diets that are suggested, not suggested. And in order to do that, I thought the easiest lens to cast over the whole thing would be the most common diet, which is the vegetarian diet. So by way of introduction, um, it doesn't seem that there's any Halakhic problem with vegetarianism. Now, that may surprise you because you can probably think of a couple things, a couple Halakhic reasons why you might have problem with being a vegetarian. But if you look in Chulin 11B, you'll find that it says there in the Gemara that the only time there's a Chiyuv DeOraisa to eat meat, the only time there's a Torah obligation to eat meat is by the Korban Pesach and the Korban Shlamim. So that gives us two Korbanot, neither of which we have right now, where you'd be

01:03 Speaker 1 obligated to eat meat. Other times, it doesn't seem that there's any Chiyuv DeOraisa. Uh, in Pesachim 49B, you might be familiar with the Din that Amarot says as to eat meat that, I'm not saying you're Amarot, I'm just saying that, uh, a person who's not a Talmid Chacham might not be allowed to eat meat in the first place. Amarot, "Asur lecha basar." It says there, "Kol ha'isekh b'Torah mutar lecha basar behemah ve'eid v'chol she'eino isekh b'Torah. Asur lecha basar behemah ve'eid." Somebody who doesn't learn Torah simply isn't allowed to eat meat in the first place. I have other Gemaras, I brought a bunch of them. This is basically an Ein Yaakov shiur that's been turned into the Yegers shiur by mistake. In, uh, Chulin 84A, there's a whole series of things they say about meat. None of them are terribly positive. None of them are encouraging us to go down the street and have a burger for lunch. You have, uh, you have, um, "Ma tamale miksheh yetzur lamde Torah de'ereitz," that the Torah teaches us, "de'ereitz sh'lo yeichola adambasar ele be'asmano," that a person can only eat meat when they've prepared properly. We have never eat meat out of hunger. You have to first, uh, satisfy whatever hunger you have with bread. You shouldn't eat meat when you're hungry, only when you're, on- only when you're already mostly full. Uh, there's another Gemara that it says that you should only eat meat when you're financially stable. If you don't have so much money, you

02:06 Speaker 1 shouldn't spend it on meat. As far as LeHalakha, though, that's Gemaras. LeHalakha, we have in Yoreh De'ah three forty-one one by an Onen. An Onen is someone whose parent has just, or close relative has just died and they haven't buried them yet. They're not allowed to eat meat, and then it says in Shulchan Aruch that on Shabbos they can. The Rama there says, very important words that become sort of our source LeHalakha for the lack of obligation to eat meat. The Shulchan Aruch says, "Veshabbos, Yom Tov echol basar v'sheya yin," that on Shabbos and Yom Tov you can eat the basar and drink, not you. Somebody who is an Onen can eat basar, and they can drink wine. And then the Rama adds, "Im yirtzeh," if they want. They can eat, they can eat meat on Shabbos if they want, strongly implying that they don't need to eat meat if they don't want. So it doesn't sound like you need to eat meat on Shabbos. When it comes to Yom Tov, you have in Orach Chayim five twenty-nine that "Vechayav ltzayach shtei kikaris," that on Yom Tov dinner, your chiyuv is to make a soda with two loaves of bread, "likbo kol soda al yayin," and to have wine, but it doesn't look like there's any obligation to have meat. That's not mentioned in Shulchan Aruch. The Magen Avraham does say mitzvah, but he doesn't say chiyuv. And that probably comes from the Gemara Masach- Masachas Pesachim one oh nine, which says that when there

03:08 Speaker 1 was a Beis Hamikdash, the mitzvah of Simchas Yom Tov was meat, but now that we don't have a Beis Hamikdash anymore, the mitzvah of Simchas Yom Tov is wine. Rambam disagrees with this pointedly, but that doesn't seem like how it comes down LeHalakha. So if we're talking Halakhically, when you meet a vegetarian and they say that they don't eat meat ever, um, the question of, well, what about, what do you do on Shabbos? What do you do on Yom Tov? Isn't necessarily an applicable question. They don't have to eat meat on Shabbos and Yom Tov. At least that's not how we pasken. It doesn't seem to be a Halakhic problem for the person never eating a piece of meat ever. Um, there is a substantial Hashkafic problem, though, and I think some of us are familiar with this from other places in Chasidus, but this is something I've never seen before. I wanna show you this Yichidas that I'm very excited about. This is printed in the Hasafis in the back of the Sefer Ha'sichos from Tov Shin Chaf Gimel, and it's a, it's a, uh, a Yichidas that the Rebbe had with Rav Shar Yashuv Cohen. He was a pretty famous guy. That's Rav Eliahu Yosef Shar Yashuv Cohen. He was the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Haifa, uh, for many years, from nineteen seventy-five till two thousand eleven. So he was there for a while. His father was known as the Nazir of Yerushalayim. You ever hear of the Nazir of Yerushalayim? Yeah, that

04:07 Speaker 1 was his father. So his father apparently tried to encourage him to be a Nazir too, and it didn't stick, but he took some of his father's habits, and one of them was that he became a vegetarian just like him, and just like his father's teacher, Rav Kook, probably the most famous rabbinic vegetarian ever, uh, Rav Kook. So, uh, the Rebbe sees him in Yichidas, or at least, uh, sees him there. They're in Yichidas and, uh, this conversation happens here. This person, who is, uh, Rav Shar Yashuv Cohen, says, the Yichidas is on the screen, says to the Rebbe, "Shehu tzimcheini," that he's a vegetarian. "Vanalai kaved kedushev zad meshlita," the Rebbe says back to him, "Zeinu nachen la'api Chasidus v'la'api Kabbalah." This is inappropriate according to Chasidus and Kabbalah. Note, he does not say api Halakha. As we've already demonstrated, there's no problem api Halakha, but the Rebbe says to him, "This is inappropriate api Chasidus and api Kabbalah." "Ki haide zeh chasid lei behabirurim," because birur is mitzva. We each have a little part of the world that we're responsible for fixing, for elevating those sparks through doing Torah and mitzvahs with the physicality that's been given to us. And when a person says that there's certain foods that they're not going to eat out of hand, like meat, that means that's an area of the world that I was assigned to fix that I don't get to fix. There is a chicken out there that has my name on it, and I'm supposed

05:13 Speaker 1 to be elevating it, and if I decide I'm gonna swear off chicken nuggets, that means that there will be no birur there. So that's what the Rebbe said to him. "Ki ein mevareir es ha'devarim she'eino ochel." He's not mevareir those things when he decides not to eat them. So now this is Rav Shar Yashuv Cohen responds back to the Rebbe. "Sheyesh na stei chemed shekesiv she'ein lahaligal tzimchenim." He says that there's a stei chemed that says you're not allowed to make fun of vegetarians, that you're not allowed to say that they shouldn't be. He quotes a stei chemed at the Rebbe. The Rebbe says back, "Amad b'makomei v'heivi stei chemed ve'ach kahamer." He stood in his place, they brought him a stei chemed, I believe. "Ve'ach kahamer zeh rak bishvil Yichidas Segula." The Rebbe said this is only for Yichidas Segula, this is only for very special people, that generally speaking, we should be mahaligal tzimchenim. That's the implication, that generally speaking, you should knock, kn- knock vegetarians off their high horse. It's just there's a couple Yichidas Segula we don't bother. So maybe Rav Kook is a Yichidas Segula. But, uh, the implication was that this individual, Rav Shar Yashuv Cohen, was not, and that he should be eating meat. That's the way the Rebbe addressed him, addressed him. Afterwards, the Rav Shar Yashuv Cohen asked when the Rebbe would come to Eretz HaKodesh, Eretz Yisrael. Remember, he was the chief rabbi of Haifa. And the Rebbe said back to him Is it nit

06:17 Speaker 1 tuly in mir, mela vizeh, vizechnit. Because it's not dependent on me, so I don't know. I don't know when I'm gonna be coming because it's dependent on something besides him, which has nothing to do with our discussion, but it's just a cool line down there. And they also spoke about how he was going to assist with Kamameistus. That's the Yiddish. So it does sound like we have such a strong hashkafic and, and Hasidic and Kabbalistic, uh, opposition to the idea of cutting yourself off from meat and the potential birur there, that there would be room to be malei. There'd be room to, uh, to actively oppose a vegetarian unless it was Yichud Nesigula, despite what the Steich Hamed says in general. Um, I've never seen anything like that before. Now, going to our letter, though, we're gonna kind of shift gears because there's another direction here the Rebbe takes with our letter that's different than everything we've seen up until now. He doesn't talk about vegetarianism specifically. He talks about fad diets, and the Rebbe's take is, uh, is not-- The Rebbe doesn't seem very concerned about birur. Here, read this with me. Uh, be'eton legila kedai she is, she's ani beshiduch. He says, "Given your age, it's time to start looking into a shidduch. Venigeh lechila vedayat." Regarding the food and the diet, the Rebbe says. We don't know what the diet was. Pro-- Might have been vegetarianism, I have no idea. The Rebbe says, "En geh kol kach ma she'eilim. It doesn't really

07:22 Speaker 1 matter what you eat. What you eat, what you don't eat, what you choose to cut off from your, it doesn't really matter. V'vad sheye kasher kidbari. What does matter is that it's kosher. It needs to be kosher. Ki yim, so what matters, once we've decided we're gonna only eat kosher food, what really matters? Kin kavanat zachil. What really matters is what is my intent when I'm eating. Lemales taves, oraven b'vad. Am I trying to fulfill-- am I trying to fill my desires, or am I trying to fill my hunger alone? Oy, bishvil lihiyes bari v'meila lasas ma'asim tovim. Am I trying to be healthy so that I can then do good deeds? And he says to take a look at Shulchan Aruch, Harachayim, Siman Reish Lamed Aleph. I have that up here on the screen. Um, do I? Yeah, Reish Lamed Aleph. There we go. I have this on the screen. It's, uh, one sif long, this entire siman, and I confess to not having known that this was in Shulchan Aruch. I would have assumed this is, this is sort of siddish. I'm gonna just, let me highlight the part I want you to see. Here we go. Highlighting the part to look at. There we go. Amru chakham. This is in Shulchan Aruch. It's a din in Shulchan Aruch. Kol ma'asecha yihiye l'shem shamayim. Everything you do has to be for Hashem. Afilu devarim shel reshus, even optional things. Now, we know this from, like, Hayyim Yun, right? Hayyim a few days ago

08:28 Speaker 1 said that Hasidim needed to work on the idea that divrei reshus, things that are mutar to them, are extra, that they don't need to do. Apparently, this is a din in Shulchan Aruch. Ki gein achil u'vishtiya. For example, eating and drinking. Halicha v'yeshiva. Walking and sitting. Vaki'im v'atashmish. Standing up and tashmish. Vasichah v'chaltzarch-- v'chaltzarchi gufcha. Discussions and all needs for your body. Yehi kulam l'avodat b'racha. They all need to be just for serving Hashem. Oilu devarim goy ma'avida asai, or for something that's going to cause you to be able to do avoda better. She'afilu hayad sameach v'ra'if, even if you're thirsty or hungry, im achol v'shas ulan asei einu meshubach. Eating and drinking to benefit is not praiseworthy. Surprising to find this, I think. Surprising to find this in Shulchan Aruch as a din. Eli yiskaven sheyech ol ishtekbi l'chayusai. A person's command should be that they need to eat and drink exactly what they need to live. L'avod at b'reih, in order to serve God. V'chen afilu li yoshv b'sevid yisharim, said this is, I actually didn't mean to highlight this, but as long as we're here. Even somebody who sits in the secrets of the upright, l'avod makom tzadikim, who stands in the place of tzadikim, leilach ma'atsas tmimim, and follows the advice of the pure ones, of the simple ones, im azlan at me l'hishlam tafsim tzadik, even if somebody becomes a tzadik just so that they can have hana and fulfill his desire to be such a big tzadik, ein meshubach

09:35 Speaker 1 alim ki ein asu l'shem shamayim. It has to be l'shem shamayim. So the Rebbe says take a look over there, and you'll see that the point of eating and drinking, what the most important thing to remember about eating and drinking is the din regarding eating and drinking, which is that a person who chows down, uh, excitedly on their salad is in a much worse place than somebody who has the proper kavanah while eating a piece of meat. So the diet doesn't matter so much as much as what you're thinking while you're doing the eating. The Rebbe goes on to say, the rest of the letter isn't necessarily on our topic, but we finish letters here generally. Chayim normalim shel kole echad v'echad b'nei Yisrael, a normal life for every single Jew. Heim rak b'im al pi torat mitzvahs, Shulchan Aruch can only be via or al yidei or with the Shulchan Aruch. A Jew can only be a Jew properly if you're keeping Shulchan Aruch. Uv'im g-- Or a normal, a normal, normal steady state is Shulchan Aruch. Im gerim b'zeh im eshanim, somebody who detracts from that, subtracts from that, or changes it, ha'zeh b'duk masdag shekofetz m'aya. It's like a fish that has jumped out of the ocean. V'nahar l' Livashon has landed m'ayan v'naharis, jumped out from the ocean or a river, and now is, the fish is on dry land. She'afilu meshech radoyim sh'chai. There will be a few minutes where that fish stays alive. Ha'zeh pirchuf r'pirchus, and it's, uh,

10:39 Speaker 1 trembling, it's moving around, and you might think it's alive because it's moving. V'lo chayim normalim, but that's not a normal life. It's not a healthy life. There are people who jump out of the water, and their lives seem fine, but that life is a life of pirchus. The, the, the, those are death throes, not normal movements, and you might mistake one for the other if the untrained eye might not know the difference. Az kel al tziyen, the Rebbe says. So in conclusion, what we have here is that al pi halacha, it doesn't seem there's any problem with vegetarian diets. Al pi hashkafa, it seems like there's a pretty big problem that the Rebbe discusses, and that would seem to apply to all diets, that, uh, when I restrict myself from a certain kind of food, that's an area of birur that I can't accomplish. Obviously, health diets are not related to this. The Rebbe has many letters where he says people should stop eating meat for health reasons or listen to their doctor's unique diet advice. When we're talking about fad diets or diets for any other reason, it seems that if my focus isn't making sure that my body stays healthy, it's never going to be a good thing because I'm cutting myself off from a potential source of birur. At the same time, the Rebbe emphasizes in our letter that, uh, that the diet itself, the food we eat itself isn't nearly as important as what we're thinking while we're eating it, our

11:35 Speaker 1 intent. And there he points us right to the Shulchan Aruch and goes on to say that a normal life of a Jew is only lived through Shulchan Aruch. So he takes these, these are not, this is not Mosud of the Rebbe. This over here is a din. It's in Shulchan Aruch like a din, and that means that we need to make sure when we eat and drink that we do it with the right intent and that, uh, the only normal life of a Jew is a life lived that way. Uh, I don't know what exactly he's talking about in the second half of the letter where he tells people to keep Shulchan Aruch, but given what he's talking about in the first half of the letter, it's not wild to say that the letter's about exactly one topic, which is people, it says in Shulchan Aruch people need to eat and drink for the right reasons, and when people don't, uh, they're like a fish that's jumped out of the ocean, and they're flopping around just like any other part of the Shulchan Aruch that's not being kept properly. So I did this, uh, right before lunch break, which is horrible, so I, I hope none of you enjoy your lunch. And, uh, the floor is open. Relatively short share, but I think we covered a lot.

12:24 Speaker 2 I feel like I always have to have a comment, but whatever. Um, here's, like, my only comment is, interestingly enough, in the first part of the letter, you would expect that the Rebbe would say-- There's two things interesting about this letter. Number one is that he says the purpose of, that the purpose of eating should be l'yesh bari v'meila lasas ma'asim tovim v'chol. He doesn't say l'yesh bari v'chayim torah mitzvahs. He doesn't mention torah mitzvahs. He mentions ma'asim tovim, which is interesting 'cause that is then applicable to every type of human being, not necessarily to a Yid, even though he references Shulchan Aruch, that number one. Number two, what's curious to me is why the Rebbe is saying chayim normalim, right? The Rebbe could have said, adeich chayim shel kol echad v'echad b'nei Yisrael, right? The life of a Yid is following Torah mitzvahs, and if you change it, you're not living the life of a Yid. Where does the normalim come from? This, like, normal life. And then he repeats it again and says, "Then you're living a life, but it's not a normal life." Why can't you just say you're not living the life as a Yid? The normal part is just i-interesting lashon that, that, that I'm thinking maybe there's something deeper here to this person who wrote the letter, that maybe he's ha-- maybe he's having some issues with being normal.