Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 21:56:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: Russell Hendel <  rhendel@mcs.drexel.edu>
Subject: Re: Vegetarianism

QUESTION:
Does Judaism tolerate being vegatarian 100% of the time?

ANSWER:
 I in turn must answer that I believe that
there is no **orthodox** source that claims that in the times of the
Messiah everyone will be vegetarian 100% of the time. In fact the sources
say that the temple will be built and animal sacrifices will be eaten.  In
fact I can go a step further.

Every one knows that we are ritually impure today (because we attend
funerals). This ritual impurity will be removed using the ashes of the
slaughtered red heifer (which is not eaten). It explicitly says (eg Rambam,
Red Heifer 3:4) "there were 9 Red Heifers in Jewish History... the 10th
will be done by his Majesty King Messiah" (This proves that killing animals
(very occasionally) is part of Jewish Law.

There is no orthodox source that says that sacrifices will be vegetarian
in the times of the Messiah. In the absence of such a
source we must concede that at least 3-4 times a year there will be an
obligation to eat meat. Since such an obligation exists
we must reassess our understanding of why Judaism demands
such non vegetarian activities.

Russell Jay Hendel; Phd ASA; RHendel@Towson.edu
Moderator Rashi is Simple; Rashi Yomi
Http://www.shamash.org/rashi/