For your rabbi
Eight objections, answered from the sources.
These are the questions a learned reader asks first. Each is stated as he would put it, answered in a few lines, and linked to the text and to the step that answers it in full.
Objection 1
“The Rema permits causing an animal pain ‘for healing or for other purposes.’ Food is a purpose.”
The Rema's example is plucking live geese, and in the same gloss he reports that people refrain, because it is cruelty. Rav Moshe reads the permission as holding only where there is a true need. Taste is not a need.
כָּל דָּבָר הַצָּרִיךְ לִרְפוּאָה אוֹ לִשְׁאָר דְּבָרִים לֵית בֵּיהּ מִשּׁוּם אִיסּוּר צַעַר בַּעֲלֵי חַיִּים... וְלָכֵן מוּתָּר לִמְרוֹט נוֹצוֹת מֵאֲוָזוֹת חַיּוֹת וְלֵיכָּא לְמֵיחַשׁ מִשּׁוּם צַעַר בַּעֲלֵי חַיִּים... הָעוֹלָם נִמְנָעִים דַּהֲוֵי אַכְזָרִיּוּתStep 5: only a true need permits pain →Objection 2
“Rav Moshe allows fattening animals so their meat tastes better.”
He does, and the site says so. He forbade white veal, where the pain served no true need. This site goes further than Rav Moshe: the Torah's own word for wanting meat is craving, and a craving is not a need.
וְהִנֵּה לְאֵלּוּ שֶׁעוֹשִׂין זֶה אִיכָּא וַדַּאי אִסּוּר דְּצַעַר בַּעֲלֵי חַיִּים, דְּאַף שֶׁהֻתַּר לְצֹרֶךְ הָאָדָם הוּא כְּשֶׁאִיכָּא צֹרֶךְ... אֲבָל לֹא לְצַעֲרָם בְּעָלְמָא, שֶׁזֶּה אָסוּר אַף אִם יִהְיֶה לְאֶחָד הַרְוָחָה בָּזֶה... וּבַעֲלֵי נֶפֶשׁ אֵין לָהֶם לֶאֱכֹל כְּלָל מֵעֲגָלִים כָּאֵלּוּIgrot Moshe, EH 4:92Devarim 12:20
Step 5: how far ‘need’ reaches →Objection 3
“Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky was asked about factory farms, and he permitted the meat.”
He did. He wrote that the practices may well be forbidden cruelty, and that the meat and poultry remain permitted to eat. He ruled on eating the meat. Whether buying their products strengthens the people who do them, he did not take up.
R. Shmuel Kamenetsky, Hakirah 24
Step 5: the one leading rabbi who was asked →Objection 4
“The farm has other buyers, and the Rema permits a sale where the sinner has another supplier.”
Others would buy from the robber too, and the Rambam still forbids buying from him, because the purchase strengthens the next robbery. The Rema himself ends: anyone who takes his soul seriously should be strict with himself.
אֲבָל אִם יְכוֹלִים לִקְנוֹת בְּמָקוֹם אַחֵר מוּתָּר לִמְכּוֹר לָהֶם כׇּל דָּבָר... וְיֵשׁ מַחְמִירִין וְנָהֲגוּ לְהָקֵל כִּסְבָרָא הָרִאשׁוֹנָה וְכׇל בַּעַל נֶפֶשׁ יַחְמִיר לְעַצְמוֹRema, YD 151:1Rambam, Gezeilah 5:1
Step 3: does buying really count? →Objection 5
“The farmer is not Jewish, so the ban on helping someone do wrong does not reach him.”
The Talmud's first examples of that ban include handing a limb from a living animal to a non-Jew: it reaches helping a non-Jew break a law that binds him. This site does not claim that the ban on causing animals pain binds a non-Jewish farmer. Step three rests on the buyer's own part: the farm causes the pain to fill orders, and the order is his.
מִנַּיִן שֶׁלֹּא יוֹשִׁיט אָדָם כּוֹס שֶׁל יַיִן לְנָזִיר, וְאֵבֶר מִן הַחַי לִבְנֵי נֹחַ? תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר: ״וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל״Avodah Zarah 6b:1Rambam, Gezeilah 5:1
Step 3: complicity →Objection 6
“Great rabbis eat meat. If this were forbidden, they would not.”
A rabbi's plate is not a ruling. Jewish law lets a rabbi keep quiet in public, but face to face the Rema obliges him to correct you. Ask him yourself.
וְהוּא הַדִּין בְּכָל דָּבָר אִסּוּר אָמְרִינַן מוּטָב שֶׁיִּהְיוּ שׁוֹגְגִין וְלֹא יִהְיוּ מְזִידִין, וְדַוְקָא שֶׁאֵינוֹ מְפֹרָשׁ בַּתּוֹרָה אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁהוּא דְּאוֹרַיְתָא... אֲבָל בְּיָחִיד חַיָּב לְהוֹכִיחוֹ עַד שֶׁיַּכֶּנּוּ אוֹ יְקַלְּלֶנּוּStep 5: your rabbi's silence is not a ruling →Objection 7
“The Torah commands animal offerings. It cannot forbid what it commands.”
The Torah commands offerings and permits slaughter, and this site disputes neither. The ban is on the pain in an animal's life, not its death. Even the altar would not take a newborn calf before he had seven days with his mother; the dairy takes him within one.
שׁוֹר אוֹ־כֶשֶׂב אוֹ־עֵז כִּי יִוָּלֵד וְהָיָה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תַּחַת אִמּוֹVayikra 22:27Noda BiYehuda II, YD 10
Step 1: what about killing them for food? →Objection 8
“There is a mitzvah to eat meat on festivals: ‘no joy except with meat.’”
Read whole, the saying puts meat in Temple times and wine today. The Magen Avraham rules that even on Shabbat a man who does not want meat may leave it, and that the obligation belonged to the Temple.
בִּזְמַן שֶׁבֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ קַיָּים אֵין שִׂמְחָה אֶלָּא בְּבָשָׂר... וְעַכְשָׁיו שֶׁאֵין בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ קַיָּים אֵין שִׂמְחָה אֶלָּא בְּיַיִןPesachim 109aMagen Avraham 696:15
Step 2: isn't eating meat a mitzvah? →
Then ask him the question.
Not whether the meat is kosher, but whether you may keep supporting what is done. The question to copy, and two pages to print for him. Every text, in order: the source sheet.