12 May IS A KOSHER CHEESEBURGER KOSHER?

I. Kosher Isn’t
Always Kosher
Lately, I’ve seen
kosher pizzerias
offering vegetarian
pepperoni pizza.
Additionally, more
and more kosher restaurants are serving
kosher cheeseburgers, either with vegetarian
burgers or non-dairy cheese. These faux-treif
dishes raise a question of maris ayin, giving
the wrong impression. My preference is to
always call them by a name that makes it clear
they are kosher: vegetarian pepperoni, kosher
cheeseburger, burger with vegan cheese, etc.
Setting aside any halachic questions, there
are also hashkafic questions: should we
pursue fake non-kosher dishes or just satisfy
ourselves with the obviously kosher dishes?
Meaning, even if it is permissible to eat kosher
treif, is it appropriate for someone striving to
grow Jewishly?
Perhaps the most relevant text is a passage in
Sifra (9:12):
“From where do we know that a person should
not say: I do not desire to wear sha’atnez; I
do not desire to eat pig meat; I do not desire
to have forbidden relations. Rather, he should
say: I do desire it, but what can I do? My
Father in heaven has decreed against it! We
learn: ‘And I have set you apart from the
peoples to be unto Me’ (Lev. 20:26).”

According to this passage, quoted in Rashi
(Lev. 20:26), we are supposed to want to eat
non-kosher food, even pig, and overcome our
desire because it is forbidden. If we don’t
want to eat it, we are not fulfilling G-d’s will
by avoiding it. We are fulfilling our own will.
By wanting to eat it and still avoiding it, we
are submitting ourselves to G-d’s will.
There are three ways to understand and apply
this passage.
II. Revulsion
Recently, a video circulated of Rav Gershon
Ribner (cont., US) saying that a kosher
cheeseburger is inappropriate. He quotes
the above passage and explains that before
considering the prohibition, we should want
to eat non-kosher. But once we learn that it is
forbidden, we train ourselves to be disgusted
by non-kosher food. Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl
(cont., Israel) seems to imply this. He says: “A
person should say that absent a divine decree,
there would in fact be an internal push to these
[otherwise forbidden] acts” (Sichos Le-Sefer
Shemos, no. 18, p. 253). The implication is
that after and because of the divine decree,
there is no internal desire. But that might be
reading too much into an essay written by a
student.
Rav David Hofstadter (cont., Canada)
points out that the Sages consider pigs to be
inherently disgusting (Darash David, Vayikra,
p. 473-475). The Gemara (Kiddushin 49b)

says that ten portions of plagues descended to
the world and pigs received nine of the ten.
Rather, the concept of desire and refraining is
how we explain these prohibitions to gentiles,
who would not accept that we consider these
acts, including the treif food, to be disgusting.
I have heard many times that Rav Moshe
Feinstein (20th cen., US) said that we should
not adopt the Sifra’s approach in our time
for practical reasons. If we desire to sin but
suppress our desire due to divine command,
we risk succumbing to the sin. In this land
of plenty, it is better to develop a disgust for
sin as a protection against the temptations
that surround us. Now that there are kosher
alternatives, perhaps this might not apply as
much as in the past.
According to these views, we should not
want to eat non-kosher food. We should be
disgusted by it and, therefore, even by fake
non-kosher food. Of course, this is just about
the appropriate attitude. If you still want to eat
the food that is halachically acceptable, you
may.
III. Desire
Rambam (12th cen., Egypt) quotes the above
passage, albeit with the version of “meat and
milk (basar be-chalav)” rather than “pig meat
(besar chazir).” He contrasts this concept of
submitting your desire to divine command
with the idea of conforming your desire
to the divine will. Rambam distinguishes
between reason-based commandments and
authority-based commandments. For the
former, such as refraining from murder
and theft, we are not supposed to want to
do such terrible things. For commandments
whose rationale we struggle to understand,
we are supposed to desire the forbidden
act (e.g. eat non-kosher food) and suppress
our desire due to the divine command
(Shemonah Perakim, ch. 6).
Rav Yosef Albo (15th cen., Spain) goes
further and says that if someone refrains
from eating pig meat because he did not
have access to it or was disgusted by it,
he deserves no reward. He only fulfills
the mitzvah if he desires it and overcomes
that desire because of the divine command
(Sefer Ha-Ikkarim 3:27). (See also Seforno,
Deut. 12:25.)
This understanding seems to contradict the
previous approach. The above scholars can
claim to follow Rashi rather than Rambam,
or argue that even Rambam agrees that we
should initially desire to do the forbidden
authority-based prohibitions but retrain
ourselves to not only suppress but eradicate
that desire. I do not think they can reconcile
their approach with Rav Yosef Albo’s
teaching.
The Gemara (Chullin 109b) quotes Yalta,
Rav Nachman’s wife, as saying that
everything that G-d forbade to us, He
permitted something similar. For example,
we may not eat an animal’s blood but we
are allowed to eat a thoroughly broiled
liver. Pig meat is forbidden to us but the
brain of a shibuta fish tastes the same and
is permitted. The passage continues with

many examples and concludes with her saying
she wants to eat meat and milk. Rav Nachman
had his cook roast for her a cow’s udder,
which even after being thoroughly cleaned
apparently still has some milk taste.
We see from this passage that kosher treif is

permissible and Yalta even had mock meat-
and-milk. Perhaps you can counter that this is

a divine measure to cope with people’s desire.
It is best to not desire non-kosher food but,
for those who cannot live up to that standard,
G-d arranged for some foods that satisfy the
desire without violating the commandments.
However, some commentators take a positive
view of this passage.
Rav Chaim Yosef David Azulai (Chida; 18th
cen., Israel) connects Yalta’s saying with
the above Sifra. G-d permitted these treif
equivalents to show that we do, in fact, desire
non-kosher foods. By eating these equivalents
and not the forbidden foods, we demonstrate
our fealty to the divine commandments
(Pesach Einayim, Chullin 109b). Rav Yosef
Shaul Nathanson (19th cen., Ukraine) explains
similarly (Divrei Shaul, Deut. 23:21). It
follows that it is actually good to eat faux-treif
because it shows that we refrain from actual
treif only because G-d forbade it to us.
IV. Middle Ground
Rav Chaim David Halevi (20th cen., Israel)
takes a middle position. He quotes Rambam
about desiring non-kosher food and submitting
that desire to the divine command. However,
he adds that over thousands of years, the
Jewish people have developed a deeply-felt
revulsion to non-kosher food (Mekor Chaim
259, vol. 5, p. 193). He quotes the law that if
a deathly ill Jew needs food on Shabbos, we
slaughter an animal and cook it for him rather
than giving him non-kosher food (Shulchan
Aruch, Orach Chaim 328:14). One reason
offered is that the patient might be repulsed by
the non-kosher food and refuse to eat anything
(Beis Yosef, ad loc.).
Therefore, while in theory we should desire
non-kosher foods, the authentic Jewish spirit
rejects due to millennia of training.
A further concern which I have not seen
mentioned is the unhealthy relationship many
in our community have with food. Food is a
necessity, maybe even an occasional treat to
bring us a little joy. It should not be an end
in itself. However, parts of our community
pursue pleasure and chase the latest culinary
thrills. If a kosher cheeseburger is a curiosity
or an occasional treat, that is one question
which we discussed above. If it is another
stop on a journey of food pleasures, it raises
the hashkafic problem of a naval bi-rshus
ha-Torah, someone who indulges within the
technical bounds of halachah while violating
its spirit (see Ramban, Lev. 19:1).