There is a mitzva to eat meat on Shabbat and Yom Tov, for the Torah commands us to delight in Shabbat and to rejoice on Yom Tov, and most people experience delight and joy through eating meat (SA, OḤ 250:2; MB 242:1; Peninei Halakha: Shabbat 7:2; Peninei Halakha: Mo’adim 1:9). When the Temple stood, there was also a mitzva to eat from the meat of the offerings.
At first glance, this raises a challenge. How did eating meat, which was forbidden according to the original ideal, become a mitzva? The simple answer is that the moral reality of the world has changed. In the world as it now stands, eating meat is not inherently immoral. Since there is a mitzva to rejoice on Shabbat and Yom Tov, and eating meat brings joy, eating meat on those occasions becomes a mitzva.
The kabbalists explain that in our present state, eating meat has spiritual value. Because of sin, the entire world fell from its level: the inanimate, plant, animal, and human realms all declined, and evil became mixed into each of them. When Jews eat animal flesh in accordance with the laws of kashrut, intending to strengthen themselves in the service of God, the evil in the meat is separated from the good and leaves the body as waste, while the good is elevated, absorbed into the body, and gives them strength to do good deeds. The process of restoration unfolds gradually: plants draw nourishment from the inanimate realm, thereby raising the good within it to the level of plant life. When an animal feeds on plants, it raises the good within them to the level of animal life. When human beings eat from the animal realm, behave morally, and cleave to God, the animal flesh is elevated to the human level. Through the food chain, the entire world is gradually restored to its original level (Arizal, Sha’ar Ha-mitzvot, Parashat Ekev).
This repair is achieved especially when meat is eaten at Shabbat and Yom Tov meals and at other mitzva meals, such as a wedding meal or a berit mila. In those settings, the meat becomes an expression of the joy of a mitzva and helps fulfill it. At ordinary meals, by contrast, the kabbalists teach that this elevation does not always take place. If a person does not go on to live properly, then the meat he ate has not contributed to any repair or ascent. For this reason, some ḥasidim refrain from eating meat at meals that are not connected to a mitzva, concerned that they may not succeed in elevating it as they should. [1]
[1]. In light of this, we can understand the Sages’ statement that, from a moral perspective, a wicked am ha-aretz should not eat meat (Pesaḥim 49b). Since he lacks Torah and good character traits, and hates Torah scholars and people of spiritual stature, he does not elevate the animals through his eating. What right, then, does he have to kill them for no purpose? On Shabbat, however, even amei ha-aretz who eat meat are fulfilling a mitzva, and through that mitzva they elevate and repair the meat (Ḥagahot Ve-ḥidushim on Sha’ar Ha-mitzvot, Parashat Ekev; R. Tzadok, Et Ha-okhel 7–8).
There are individuals whose refined moral sensitivity deeply stirred their hearts, and they therefore undertook not to eat meat at all. Although there is a mitzva to eat meat at mitzva meals, some kabbalists defended their practice and saw it as a path of special piety (Sedei Ḥemed, ma’arekhet Akhila, s.v. akhilat basar). Rav Kook called such people “extreme idealists.” R. David Cohen, known as the Nazir, one of the leading figures of Yeshivat Merkaz Ha-Rav, followed this practice as well. Still, the general guidance for anyone who seeks to become holy and serve God is to focus primarily on repairing moral relations among people, and to eat meat at mitzva meals, thereby helping to repair the world in accordance with the kabbalists’ teaching.
