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Hazon Food Conference: The Goat

by Leah Koenig · December 8th, 2007
Animal Care, Blessings, Food Conference, Hazon, Meat, Vegetarian

In all honestly, I’m not completely sure I’ve fully digested the goat schecting enough to talk coherently about it, but here’s a first attempt.

About 70 people gathered at 7:00am, bleary-eyed and shivering (this time, because of the cold), to catch one of the shuttles down to the sadeh (Adamah’s field) a mile away from Isabella Freedman.  Once there, everyone huddled into small groups, wiggling their frozen toes and talking about the goat.

The shochet –dressed in shirtsleeves and a furry hat - prepared his knife.  Meanwhile, the mashgiach explained the process and answered participants’ questions, stopping to check that the knife was sharp enough by running it lightly along his fingernail. 

The first goat was led out.  My stomach tightened as I watched him nibble the frosty grass, calm and unaware.  After a few moments, the goat was gently flipped upside down and held in place.  The shochet bent down. 

“Listen to the bracha and say amen,” the Mashgiach said. 

Then time slowed down and sped up simultaneously – actually, for a second there it barely existed.  Nothing else  mattered except that moment.  It was gruesome and terrifying – the tears streaming down my face were a testament to that – but it was also holy. 

I began to wonder at what point during the process did the beautiful goat transform into “meat?”  Was it immediately following the cut?  Was it when the goat was hung up on the rafters of the Adamah shed?  Was it when it was skinned and butchered, or served on Friday night? I still don’t know.  What I do know is that at no point during the process did I question whether this animal was being treated with respect.  Everyone present and involved clearly had nothing but respect, love, and gratitude for this animal - I know that sounds hokey, but it was true.  And this respect carried through until Friday night when the platter of “fresh, pasture-raised, local roasted goat was carved and served.

So, did I eat the goat?  Yes - along with several other vegetarians who attended the schecting, I tried a bite of the goat, which had been rubbed with cumin, stuffed with garlic, and roasted.  It was only the second time I’d purposefully eaten meat in the last 8 years (the first was a month ago when I had the opportunity to eat a rooster schected in a similar way by my friends at Adamah).  I’m still a vegetarian - very much so.  But I feel like I’ve seen a glimpse of what the future of Jewish meat eating could look like - a way that calls God into the process.

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16 Responses to “Hazon Food Conference: The Goat”

  1. Michael Croland Says:
    December 9th, 2007 at 10:03 am

    Given Rabbi Mandel’s point that Jews “eat as much meat as we do” (i.e., that the market for kosher meat is quite large), how is it possible for this “model” of shechita to be “what the future of Jewish meat eating could look like” (i.e., on the large scale)? Even if there were a lot more CSAs/similar programs, I sometimes fear that the meat industry has gone to a point of no return with large-scale, industrialized, assembly-line production. (While we agree that the overall demand for meat needs to be reduced, I feel that’s a separate — albeit very related — question.)

    Also, you wrote, “The first goat was led out.” How many goats were slaughtered Friday morning on the sadeh, how many were slaughtered for the conference in total, and how did other people seem to react?

    Thanks for keeping us posted! (FYI: I’m just curious for the sake of keeping the discussion going here. I have no plans at this time to post to heebnvegan about this anymore.)

  2. Rachel Says:
    December 9th, 2007 at 11:47 am

    I know I keep saying this, but thank you for opening this window onto this experience. Even just reading about it is a blessing.

  3. Leah Koenig Says:
    December 9th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

    Hey Michael - three goats in total were schected. I know there was a range of reactions from participants - some people were really shaken up, and others thought it was emotionally powerful, others were surprised at how natural it felt…a really big range.

    Your first question is a really good one and I don’t know the answer - I do know that CSAs are also a “drop in the bucket” compared to the large scale industrial food system…but they do make a difference. I think ethical meat coops havethe same potential.

    Thanks Rachel :)

  4. Simcha Daniel Says:
    December 9th, 2007 at 10:27 pm

    So what’s the answer? Lismokh or Lo Lismokh?

    I would submit that the public schechting of the goats as part of the food conference is awfully close to the reinstatement of sacrifice. While I fully support Hazon and wish I had been there, I wonder why I was less disturbed by it than by news items about the Temple mount faithful practicing for the big day, may it come speedily and in our days - not!

  5. Jnet Says:
    December 9th, 2007 at 10:36 pm

    I am trying to understand how the people involved had nothing “but respect, love, and gratitude for this animal,” when they slaughtered it. Would you still have respect, love, and gratitude for a fellow human being you chose to kill?

    I was not there, but I thank you for the vivid image you created in your writing, and I hope that through that schecting, people recognized the oneness between them and the goat, and that suffering and fear are no different between me and that goat.

    in memory of those goats,
    Jnet

  6. Ben Murane Says:
    December 10th, 2007 at 12:42 pm

    Jnet, yes, I would say that disconnecting a close relative from life support or putting down a beloved pet also takes “respect, love and gratitude for this animal.” This is not so foreign a concept, nor is it barbarian.

    As a conscientious carnivore, witnessing this was amazing. The shochet and moshgiach definitely believed that this was a most humane way to respect animal’s contributions to human life. I am humbled by their awareness of their food and the efforts they make to eat godly.

    I was not grossed or inspired by the death of the goats, but am completely inspired by the kavanah of the slaughterers, which may sound contradictory to those opposed to animal killing, but is absolutely true in my case.

  7. Jackie Topol Says:
    December 11th, 2007 at 1:48 am

    Ben-

    I’m not sure how you could equate letting go of a sick relative or pet with the shechting of this very healthy animal that would live happily ever after.

    The point is that you can try to make shechting look like respectful work, but in the end it is taking away life, and there’s just no way that I can look at that as holy.

  8. Naomi Says:
    December 11th, 2007 at 10:56 am

    “I’m not completely sure I’ve fully digested the goat”

    How long does goat meat take to digest? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

    I get what Hazon was trying to do with this but I think the mark was missed by a long shot. As Mr. Croland points out, this sort of up-close-and-personal relationship with your food simply isn’t possible in America, including the Jewish American community, because people eat too much meat. Now perhaps if we all went primarily vegetarian and reserved the meat eating for special occasions… but how likely is that to happen? Not likely. Which is why I don’t see what Hazon’s point was. The experience you gave people is a completely unattainable one, not something they can take home and incorporate into their everyday lives. Once the shock of seeing an animal slaughtered has worn off, then what?

  9. Gill Says:
    December 11th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

    I think that it is absolutely repulsive that you slaughtered a goat at your conference. Goats are sentient beings and the most affectionate of all the domesticated farm animals. I know this from my past experience working on an organic farm.

    Also, in this day and age of global heating, it is wasteful to be raising animals for food as it take up way too many of our resources, resources which can be allocated much more efficiently for a plant-based diet. More and more prominent people of our faith are embracing and advocating vegetarianism. A prime example of this is Rabbi Arthur Green, who has called vegetarianism a “kashrut for this day and age” in his writings on Jewish theology.

    I sincerely think that you have a lot of teshuva to do at Hazon for including this inhumane and barbaric practice at your food conference. Our tradition’s highest value is the sacredness of life and we are enjoined to “choose life.”

  10. Gill Says:
    December 11th, 2007 at 4:36 pm

    I want to add that there is no element of the divine in this process that Leah herself called “gruesome and terrifying.” There is no place for God to be included in a future of Jewish meat eating, absolutely none whatsoever. Leah is no longer a vegetarian, nor are the other so-called vegetarians who attended and participated in this horrible process that is arcane and has no place in contemporary Jewish life and ritual.

  11. Leah Koenig Says:
    December 11th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    “Leah is no longer a vegetarian, nor are the other so-called vegetarians who attended and participated in this horible process…”

    Gill - say what you will, but I am absolutely still a vegetarian. Aside from the 3 bites (total) of goat and rooster I consumed in the last 8 years, my diet has been, and will continue to be for the forseeable future, free of any meat, fish, or fowl.

    No, I am not the kind of vegetarian who codemns all other meat eaters. Nor am I the kind of vegetarian who argues that the meat industry is “barbaric” - but then rejects any step towards humane meat production. I think this is a rather juvenile position to take.

    I am the kind of vegetarian (and Jew for that matter) who embraces that people have different points of view - who tries to educate people about their food choices, but ultimately respects the decisions they make as their own.

    I recognize that it’s silly to even be arguing my vegetarianism with you since you have no say over my status as an eater…but I wanted to make myself clear.

    On another note - I think the “should Hazon have done it or not?” conversation has changed significantly since last Friday at the Food Conference. Although I generally supported the idea of a schecting going into the conference, I had my reservations that it could be done with proper respect. But having been there with those 70 other people, it is beyond a doubt in my mind that it was not only done with respect, but with reverence - and that its impact will ripple through participants’ decisions around food for a long time to come. I don’t think anyone who witnessed the schecting - even those of us who don’t eat meat - could deny that.

    You’ve got it backwards, Gill. The schecting WAS an act of teshuva.

  12. Jnet Says:
    December 11th, 2007 at 6:26 pm

    I want to say amen to Gill for speaking the truth, and I also want to respond to Ben’s and Leah’s statements about having nothing but respect, love, and gratitude for this animal. Ben, you said, “that disconnecting a close relative from life support or putting down a beloved pet also takes “respect, love and gratitude”

    I AGREE, and Jackie put it very well in her statement, BUT, Ben, choosing to kill that goat is not like taking someone off life support or putting down a pet, it is basically shooting your loved one right in the head, BOOM!

  13. Gill Says:
    December 12th, 2007 at 10:30 pm

    The meat industry is barbaric, both in its treatment of the animals it so brutally slaughters and murders, and the workers who work under very stressful and inhumane conditions. Conditions should be improved and the process should be more humane, but that is an oxymoron. There is no humanity in the process of slaughtering animals, no way to alleviate the pain, suffering, and agony the animals experience.

    I do not go out of my way to condemn those who eat meat. I would prefer that everyone become a vegetarian, but that is indeed up to each individual’s conscience and free will.

    I think that there is something twisted and mistaken in someone’s thinking, in this case, Leah, that there was teshuva in the brutal murder of three innocent goats. It seems to me that the mother of one of the slaughtered goats had some sort of instinctual sense that something was going to be done to one of her offspring. If there was a true reverence for the goats, they would still be alive, they would not have been murdered. What was done was a chillul ha-shem, a desecration of the divine. It is incomprehensible that the slaughter of three innocent goats could in any way, shape, or form be construed as an act of teshuva.

  14. jnet Says:
    December 13th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    Gill,

    Amen. You took the words right out of my mouth: )

  15. Zelig Golden Says:
    December 21st, 2007 at 4:53 pm

    I also attended the goat schecting at the Hazon food conference. I found it to be an incredibly powerful moment for the Jewish Food Movement.

    In response to Naomi’s comments, you are completely correct - this country, and Jews in particular eat way too much meat. By opening this conversation in an intentional way and by wintessing the slaughter of anmials that we then at at the Shabbos table, we at the conference took a whole new look at how we relate to the meat that we eat.

    Some folks found the process extremely serene and holy. Others found it completely repulsive and heartbreaking. Some vegetarians tried the meat out of respect and curiosity. Some meat eaters refused to touch this particular meat.

    I don’t understand how this experience was completely “unattainable” - in fact, many of us who had the experience were deeply moved. And I strongly disagree with your comment that this “relationship with your food simply isn’t possible in America” - This relationship with our food is essential in America. To understand that the choices we make have real impacts on animals, on the environment, and on forces that we don’t fully understand.

    If people had this kind of experience, whether one time or through daily connection to their food source, we as a society would make more informed choices. Most likey, meat eating in this country would decrease, respect for animals would increase, and American and Jewish relationship with food would be much healthier.

    Thank you Hazon for making the hard choice to put the reality of meat consumption in front of us.

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