Hebrew word of the week: Vegetarians / TsimHonim

Fast-growing trends in America and Europe, such as becoming tsimHonim “vegetarians” or Tiv’ıonim “vegans” (“naturalists”), are adopted very quickly in Israel, and some seem to have a basis in Judaism.* Many Israelis (about 10 percent of  Jews and 17 percent of Arab-Israelis, with more women than men)** are vegetarians, vegans or veggans — vegans who eat eggs (called bets’onim םינועציב in Hebrew); or “flexitarians” (eat meat occasionally), or pescatarians (fish but not meat), the latter called by some HatsimHonim (םינוחמיצח) “halvegetarians.”

The orthodox, or purist vegans (tahranim), avoid eating even honey and often eggs, unless they’ve been laid by “free, happy” hens. A common poster in Israel: basar zeh retsaH “(eating) meat is murder.”

*In Genesis 1:29; 2:16 (Adam and Eve seem to be vegetarians); laws of kashrut limit the consumption of meat; the rabbinic concept of tsa’ar ba’ale Hayyim “awareness of the suffering of animals”; wild animals will become peaceful (stop eating meat) in the future (Isaiah 11:6-8; Leviticus 26:6).

**The number is far less in other countries, except India, where 29 percent of the population is vegetarian.

Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA.