During the forty years of Israel’s journey through the wilderness, the only meat the Israelites consumed was meat that had been sanctified and offered at the altar. Every animal slaughtered was part of a sacrificial rite, its portions divided among God, the priests, and the family who brought the offering. Eating meat was therefore an intrinsically holy act, inseparable from worship and bound to the Mishkan’s sacred rhythms.
The Book of Deuteronomy introduces a dramatic shift. Once the Israelites enter the Promised Land and spread out across its breadth, many will live far from the single, centralized sanctuary. It will no longer be feasible for every act of slaughter to be a pilgrimage. In response, the Torah permits the consumption of meat outside the sacrificial system “whenever you desire” (Deuteronomy 12:20) allowing people to slaughter animals themselves and eat all of the meat, including portions once reserved for God or the priest. Sacrificial offerings remain possible, but everyday eating of meat is now relocated to the realm of the secular, outside the Temple precincts.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, sees in this shift a subtle but profound moral signal. The Torah’s new permission is not an endorsement of meat-eating as an ideal; rather, it is a concession to human weakness. God, who “has mercy on all His creatures” (Psalms 145:9), desires that human beings cultivate compassion and avoid causing suffering whenever possible. He notes that Adam and Eve were originally permitted to eat only “every seed-bearing plant and the fruit of every seed-bearing tree” (Genesis 1:29). Humanity’s harmonious role in creation, therefore, is not one of domination but of stewardship. God wishes us to be caretakers, not exploiters, of our glorious natural world.
(After Nechama Liebowitz in her commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy)
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 
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