For your rabbi
Eight objections, answered from the sources.
These are the objections a rabbi or a learned friend will raise first. Each is put the way he would say it, answered in a few lines, and linked to the source and to the step of the argument 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 the feathers of live geese. In the same gloss he reports that people do not do it, because it is cruelty. Rav Moshe writes that the permission holds only where there is a true need. Taste is not a need. Hurting an animal for the taste of her meat is the cruelty the Rema names.
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 this site says so. He forbade white veal, because there the calf's pain served no true need. This site goes further than Rav Moshe. The Torah calls the wish to eat meat a craving. So this site holds that taste alone does not justify an animal's pain.
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: what counts as a need →Objection 3
“Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky was asked about factory farms, and he permitted the meat.”
He did. He wrote that the farms' practices may well be forbidden cruelty, and that the meat and poultry remain permitted to eat. He ruled only on eating the meat. He did not address whether buying it strengthens the farms that cause the pain.
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.”
A robber also has other buyers. The Rambam still forbids buying from him, because each sale helps him rob again. And the Rema ends this same ruling by saying that 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.”
One of the Talmud's first examples of that ban is handing a non-Jew a limb cut from a living animal. So the ban does cover helping a non-Jew break a law that binds him. But this site does not claim that the ban on causing animals pain binds a non-Jewish farmer. Step three is about what the buyer does: the farm hurts the animals to fill orders, and the buyer places the order.
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: are you responsible for what the farm does? →Objection 6
“Great rabbis eat meat. If this were forbidden, they would not.”
What a rabbi eats is not a ruling on what you may eat. Jewish law lets a rabbi keep quiet in public. But the Rema rules that with one person, face to face, he must tell him that he is doing wrong. So ask your rabbi yourself, one to one.
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 prohibition is on causing an animal pain while he is alive, not on killing him. The Torah would not accept a newborn calf as an offering until he had spent seven days with his mother. The dairy takes him from her within one day.
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.’”
The full saying is: while the Temple stood, there was no joy without meat; now that it does not stand, there is no joy without wine. The Magen Avraham rules that even on Shabbat a man who does not want meat need not eat it, and that the obligation to eat meat applied only while the Temple stood.
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 your rabbi this question.
Do not ask whether the meat is kosher. Causing an animal needless pain is wrong, and the Torah forbids it. Ask whether you may keep supporting the farms that cause that pain. Here is the question to copy, and two pages to print for him. Every text the argument cites, in order, is on the source sheet.