Reply To: know any frum vegetarians or vegans?

Coffee Addict: That’s correct. Health arguments for vegetarians also often lead to veganism (many doctors recommend it, including Neal Barnard). As long as the person takes B-12 supplements and eats a reasonably balanced diet, people can be happy and healty as vegans. But that option is unattractive to most people, so giving up only meat is understandable. Since people tend love these foods so much, it seems more realistic for most people to just lower consumption rather than abstain completely (eating meat just once a week, as recommended by Chazal in Chullin 84a, and dairy and eggs on another, for example).

The main hashkafic danger I can see with vegetarianism or veganism is that the person becomes so sensitive to animal suffering that it is hard to have any connection to the korbanos, or animal-derived mitzvos such as tefillin. I suppose they could believe, as Rav Kook did, that only the non-animal korbanos will be restored, but that doesn’t change the fact that we regularly pray for the korbanos to be restored and list all the animals and such. (Even so, I assume once moshiach comes the animals won’t be in factory farms before they’re sacrificed!)

Another danger is that veganism in particular can be like a religion to some people, including a belief system, different clothing, a community of like-minded people, etc., and this might inspire some people to go OTD.