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Originally, human beings were meant to be vegetarian. However, people’s sinfulness caused the whole world to be destroyed by the flood (2:3 above). The only survivors were Noah and the people and animals in the ark with him. When they left the ark, God tasked them with rebuilding the world from the ground up while adhering to the seven Noahide Laws, the basis of human morality (2:4 above). Only after interpersonal morality was properly restored could people go on to improve their moral relationship to animals.
To emphasize humanity's mission and responsibilities to improve the world and elevate it, it was necessary to delineate clear boundaries between human beings and animals. Therefore, people were permitted to eat meat after the flood, but absolutely forbidden to murder people, as they are created in the image of God (Genesis 9:3-6).
Even though eating meat is permissible, the Torah teaches us that it is proper to control our desires and avoid eating large quantities of meat. The same message is conveyed by the many prohibitions that apply to eating meat, as we will see later. On the other hand, according to Kabbalists, there is a value to eating meat in our current state. As a result of Adam’s sin, the holiness in the world was diminished. Evil became part of everything in the world – inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people. When Jews eat meat while following kosher laws and intending to strengthen their service of God, the evil within the animal is removed and rejected. At the same time, the good within it is elevated and absorbed into our bodies, giving us the strength to do good. By eating meat, we can do our part to return the world to its original state. This is especially true when we eat meat at Shabbat and holiday meals, as well as at other mitzva meals such as those accompanying a wedding or circumcision.
Rav Kook writes that given our current moral level, people should not be encouraged to stop eating meat, because being careful to avoid causing pain to animals is likely to come at the expense of being careful to avoid causing pain to people. The distinction between humans and animals is unambiguous. People are created in the image of God and have very well-developed intellects and emotions. When a person is wronged, he feels deeply hurt in a way an animal does not. In contrast, when people treat one another with decency and love, a symbiotic relationship is developed which can redeem the world. We have a moral imperative to “Love your fellow as yourself” (sometimes paraphrased as “What you hate, do not do to your fellow”). Therefore, at least for the time being, the Torah guides us to give up on the ideal of avoiding harm to animals. We are permitted to slaughter them in order to eat them.
Nevertheless, in the future, the entire world will be elevated, including animals. Their value will change entirely. In the words of the famous prophecy, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid; the calf, the beast of prey, and the fatling together, with a little boy to herd them” (Isaiah 11:6). At that time, not only will it be forbidden to kill animals to eat them, but people will no longer have the desire to do so.
