The Meat Trap

​​Imagine still clinging to a pacifier—pathetic, right? Yet, humanity clings to one: meat. After the flood, Noah failed his test by slaughtering animals for food. As a result, his weakness transformed meat into his "Meat-Pacifier."

Viewing the Creator's permission for Noah to eat meat as a concession is an affront to Divine Justice. Not only was there no concession, but Noah was held accountable for the weak decision-making that caused nature to suffer: Permission is not a concession to immorality; it is the power to choose, given to Noah to reveal his true character. While Noah was permitted to eat meat, he was not required to do so.

The Creator established the world on the principle of mutual benefit. When this balance is disrupted, Divine Justice steps in to administer karma, restoring the world's natural balance. Once Noah took advantage of his power and killed animals for meat, he disrupted the natural order, leading to a decline in animal populations and reproductive health. In fact, Noah's decision triggered the law of "Cause & Effect," awakening predatory instincts in those animals capable of taking advantage of their power to kill for meat. As a result, Divine Justice stepped in, and Noah faced the karmic consequences of his actions, experiencing a parallel punitive struggle in his own ability to multiply and flourish. Therefore, disrupting this natural order means destroying ourselves.

​​The story of Noah teaches that can does not mean should, and that humanity must consider morality before killing animals to indulge in meat, even if the Creator said we can. We also learn that taking advantage of our power over the weak invites karma.

Because nature is the mother of all living beings, we humans and animals share the exact same mom, making us earthly kin. By eating them, we are essentially consuming the children of the very mother that birthed and sustains our own physical bodies. To this end, by divine decree, the Creator established our role as guardians for them, not predators. Instead of embracing this responsibility, humanity fell into a deep cycle of justification for being predators.

Before the Exodus, the Creator instructed every Jewish family to select a lamb or a goat and supervise it for four days before sacrificing it and placing its blood upon their doorpost. Keeping the animal close for four days naturally fosters a bond, transforming the livestock into a pet and making the eventual sacrifice more difficult. Through this, the Creator delivers a profound message: if we form an emotional attachment to an animal in just four days, then surely the mother of all beings, who gave birth to animals too by divine design, shares a far greater bond.

After the Exodus, the Creator sealed the commandment with a BROAD mandate—"Thou Shalt Not Kill"**—to protect animals too, proving their lives matter. ​Even so, despite forty years of Divine Justice's efforts to break Noah’s offspring of their dependence on the "Meat-Pacifier" to restore balance, the Israelites clung to it. They rendered that effort worthless through WEAK justifications, insisting that: there is no difference between a living, breathing creature and a plant; a meat diet is better than a vegetarian diet; honoring Shabbat with meat is important; or that by eating and reciting a blessing, they were "elevating" the animal.

​The punishment of Noah proved that killing animals for food is an immoral act and against Divine Justice. Now, let us face the truth: all these justifications are merely pretexts for clinging to the "Meat-Pacifier."

1) Animals Are Not Vegetables: Animals' role as potential sacrifices for our sins indicates they are valuable substitutes for human life, not mere sustenance. They share our blood and life force; vegetables can never pay that price. Adam's naming animals demonstrates a close bond between humans and animals, much like how we name our own children; he never named vegetables.

2) The Lie of Nutritional Necessity: Science consistently confirms that plant-based and vegetarian*** diets are healthier and more sustainable. These wholesome, nutritious foods require no killing and remain abundantly accessible to all. In fact, the Creator emptied His celestial refrigerator, providing a wide variety of food choices for His guests on Earth. These provisions are more than enough to sustain human strength in any environment. During the forty-year journey, the Israelites successfully waged war without eating meat, demonstrating that we do not need the energy of flesh to sustain us in our physical or spiritual battles.

​3) The Illusion of Spiritual Elevation: We often hear the claim that slaughtering and eating an animal "elevates" the animal. Do we apply this logic to the lamb killed by a lion for food? According to the law of "Cause & Effect," a lion preying on a lamb is the reflection of our own choice to kill for food. We cannot elevate that tragedy. If we refuse to see this reality, in what language must the Creator communicate with us regarding this law? We cannot deny the fact that immorality can never be elevated. We cannot fuel spiritual growth with a corrupted act and thank the Creator for it. Broken morality is a broken vessel; it cannot hold holy energy. Consuming a creature under the guise of "elevating" it only degrades our souls. We become what we eat, absorbing lower, animalistic traits, betraying our spiritual purity and poisoning our own nature.

​4) Arizal's Justification: Because the law of "Cause & Effect" dictates that our choice to kill animals causes nature to mirror and suffer, Arizal's theory of "elevating holy sparks" through kosher slaughter is fundamentally destructive. Furthermore, focusing strictly on kosher animals out of all physical matter—including non-kosher animals—reveals this theory as a convenient justification to eat meat. What happens to the billions of kosher animals not consumed by frum Jews? Are they left spiritually stranded? A genuine metaphysical solution would apply universally to all physical matter, not just a preferred subset of nature he wished to consume. Even so, no theory can alter the natural order or override the law of "Cause & Effect." 𝗦𝗼, 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?

Historically, if his theory were true, the Creator would not have punished Noah for changing the natural order, nor would He have killed the Erev Rav for craving flesh while discouraging the Israelites during their forty years of training. Most importantly, inventing spiritual tasks to excuse an uncommanded act mirrors the fatal mistake of Aaron's sons, who brought unauthorized fire before the Creator and paid with their lives.

5) The Delusion of "Honoring Shabbat" with Meat: We honor Shabbat when we don't dine on animal flesh. During the forty-year training, the Creator did not permit the Israelites to eat meat on this holy day either, demonstrating that doing so is destructive. We cannot call Shabbat a day of rest when we disturb the peace of nature. We are called to be holy, a state that requires spiritual strength, not the desire for slaughter. This sacred day is meant to be a taste of the "World to Come," where there is no killing—the taste of meat is not the taste of that world.

6) The Fallacy of the Kosher List: Kosher laws were never an endorsement of meat consumption but rather a concession for those struggling to control their cravings. When the Israelites lost self-control and complained about meat, the Creator provided it, demonstrating: Meat Consumption is Reserved for Moments of Intense Craving.

Ultimately, the Creator never ordained such acts in the Torah or the Oral Torah. These are fabricated justifications by Erev Rav followers to kill animals for food. The divine restriction of meat consumption after the Exodus shows it is not constructive, and ignoring this is an insult to the Creator's wisdom, recalling the "Graves of Cravings" where many perished from lusting after flesh.

Justifications are distractions that lead us to cling to the "Meat-Pacifier." They aim to pull us away from our "strength," which serves as the ladder to the spiritual world, as illustrated by Jacob’s dream. Without mastering this internal power rather than relying solely on ritual prayer, we cannot reach the spiritual level of angels.

​Trust that the Creator is kind, holds nothing against animals, and never intended them to be food for humans or for wild beasts, as it is an injustice to the mutual benefit of the world and to His moral values. Forcing these beings—who desire life and resist slaughter—to become our dinner is a direct betrayal of the Creator. Indeed, reciting blessings over forbidden food that causes nature to suffer is not appreciation; it is manipulation.​

​​​True elevation is not found at the dinner table; it is found when we master our own behavior. According to the law of "Cause & Effect," when we elevate ourselves, animals mirror our shifts and rise alongside us. When we cultivate strength and restrain our own lust for flesh, animals mirror that resilience and cease their own lust for flesh. Rest assured that in the same way animals became carnivores, they can once again become herbivores.

​Consuming fruits and vegetables is a profoundly constructive act. When we eat of the harvest, we participate in a sacred loop of sustenance: what we do not consume returns to the earth, feeding the very trees as food and fertilizer. This is a divine, unbroken cycle that yields mutual benefit for all living beings and the soil. Conversely, no such harmony exists in the slaughter of animals. Eating meat breaks the cycle entirely, offering humans nothing more than fleeting sensory pleasure while bringing destruction to the animal kingdom and ourselves. It is a dead end—there is no mutual benefit, and there is no cycle.

​The natural order of nature before the fall was for humans and animals to live forever. In other words, the ultimate destination for humans and animals is Earth. Therefore, we cannot truly desire life while taking animals' lives, changing the default setting of creation. By destroying animal life, our actions directly contradict our ultimate desire to return to that eternal default state, meaning we are actively working against our own will.

​​The Creator does not desire a WEAK nation ADDICTED to meat. He did not spend forty years training the Israelites to refrain from meat as a dietary staple, only for those efforts to be dismissed as meaningless. Our continued justifications for indulging in meat keep us in the "Meat Trap" and have failed to prevent Divine Judgment in the past. Most probably, the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during the Holocaust—the cages, the ovens, and the clinical experiments—mirrored the industrial brutality we inflict upon animals. Still, we have failed to learn the karmic lesson because we cannot imagine life without meat. Saying "Never Again" should signify an escape from the "Meat Trap" to change the way we treat animals, rather than an arrogant attempt to stop karma.

​​— Bahram Cohanfard

​Direct links: TheMeatTrap.com​ | TheMeatTrap.co.il

​*The law of "Cause & Effect" dictates that because nature acts as the female aspect of creation, her nature is to follow the tone set by human beings. Since animals are a major part of nature, they follow as well; in essence, animals mirror human behavior. Because nature follows, the Creator warned Adam and Chava not to eat the forbidden fruit, because such weakness would cause nature to follow suit and become weak too. Discover NATURE: Cause & Effect​

​​​**While the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" includes animals, killing them for offerings or higher constructive purposes ordained by the Creator is permissible. In fact, under specific conditions, consuming offered meat is a necessary act for spiritual elevation.

​***Although animal cruelty is unacceptable, consuming animal products is permissible if the owners legally own the livestock. If cruelty is the concern, people can raise animals in their own backyards. Furthermore, chickens do not need a mate to lay eggs, meaning those eggs contain no male cells and therefore cannot hatch.

​​​​​​Note: Please bear in mind that if you are a religious figure, you are the primary teacher and role model for your community. Leadership carries a heavy weight of responsibility. When those in power mislead the community, they bear the burden of the sins committed by those who follow them.