Are Vegan Tefillin and Vegan Mezuzah Scrolls Kosher? (Spoiler: YES!)
No doubt, there is some controversy here. While some would deem vegan tefillin and mezuzah scroll permissible and “kosher,” many Rabbis would not deem it so.
While Torah does not address the materials for either tefillin or mezuzah scroll, two Rabbinic laws state the necessity for both to be made from animal hide.
But the question “Is vegan tefillin and vegan mezuzah scroll ‘kosher?” begs for two bigger, better questions with more useful answers:
In what context were these rabbinic laws written?
Is any animal leather tefillin, made from factory-farmed hide, truly ‘kosher?’
During the Rabbinical era that established these laws, animal hide-derived leather and parchment were the highest quality, longest-lasting material of its kind. Leather and parchment communicated importance, intention, and respect.
More importantly, the fact that leather and parchment came from a living, breathing creature elevated its holiness. Specifically, a creature that lived alongside Jewish people, sustaining whole families with the massive strength to plow fields and the sustenance of meat and milk necessary for survival.
Unlike today, cattle hide was not a mass-manufactured commodity moving through different processing plants, warehouses and businesses before becoming a standardized product and reaching an end-consumer. It communicated soul. It was a creation of God. It had life and sustained the lives of people.
And while factory farming did not yet exist, this Rabbinic era did have its own forms of inhumane treatment of animals that were thoroughly addressed by Torah, rabbinic law and commentary.
To save meat from going rancid, it wasn’t an uncommon practice at the time to cut off the leg of an animal to eat but keep the animal alive to save the rest of its meat for days or weeks later.
Violence and brutality was a common tactic to train livestock to behave and children’s games, gambling, and divination practices were made out of torture and prolonged slaughter.
The prohibition of boiling a calf in its mother’s milk, the biblical source of our prohibition of mixing milk and meat, came from the culture of making delicacies out of butchering practices that displayed dominion over the animal with power and humiliation (i.e. the poetry of using the milk that was meant to give life to the calf to kill it and make it taste better for an elite class.)
The Jews of Antiquity Were Defined By Their Compassion For Animals
Commandments to show compassion and respect for all animals are abundant in Torah. Every book of the Torah contains teachings that animals have souls and are equal in holiness and value as humans in the eyes of the creator. These commandments and teachings are not vague and need creative interpretation. They are straightforward and clear.
The Ten Commandments specify that animals, as well as people, are to be allowed to rest on Shabbat (Exodus 20:10).
The important term for a living soul, nefesh chaya, is used for animals as well as people (Genesis 1:21, 1:24).
God makes equal covenants with both animals and people after the flood and offers the same blessing of “be fruitful and multiply” separately to animals.
An ox is not to be muzzled when threshing in a field of corn (Deuteronomy 25:4).
A farmer should not plow with an ox and an ass together (so that the weaker animal would not suffer pain in trying to keep up with the stronger one) (Deuteronomy 22:10).
Moses is chosen by God because he compassionately carries a tired, thirsty sheep rather than making it walk back to his flock.
Deuteronomy 22:6-7 commands us to spare a mother bird the pain of seeing her eggs taken by shooing her away before doing so.
The Talmud and many rabbinic commentaries of the time were no different. With intimate and frequent interaction with animals being a part of daily life for all classes of people, our sages addressed animal treatment thoroughly and with broad consensus: animals deserve fairness, respect and compassion.
Our sages, who declared that tefillin and mezuzot klaf shall be made from the hide of animals, did so within the assumption that Jews love and honor the animals both in life and in death.
Today, virtually all modern tefillin and mezuzah klaf are made from the hide of cattle raised on non-kosher factory farms.
As part of standard factory-farm business practice, these animals,
Are deprived of connection with their mother at birth
Live in brutal, inhumane conditions,
Are subjected to constant violence and suffering, and
Die painful, traumatic, humiliating deaths.
All of these practices are specifically prohibited by Torah, Rabbinic law and commentary by our sages and Rabbis from antiquity into the modern era.
In a world where all Jews live and work alongside animals with respect and compassion, there would be no Jewish conflict with honoring an animal in death by elevating its hide to tefillin or mezuzah.
Unlike in antiquity, most of us don’t live on kosher farms alongside our animals and aren’t involved in the making of our tefillin or mezuzah.
And thus most of us are wearing tefillin and adorning our homes with mezuzah that causes a level of suffering and sin beyond anything .
Outside of the rare instance of access to truly kosher, cruelty-free leather tefillin or mezuzah, it’s time for Jews to do what we’ve always done to protect our Torah values amidst changing times: adapt.
In antiquity, Jewish communities were guided by Torah to be shining examples of animal compassion. It’s time we revive that tradition and lead once again.
It’s time to make our most sacred objects, that represent our dedication to Torah, actually align with our mitzvot. It’s time for cruelty-free tefillin and cruelty-free mezuzot.
Shaddai Elementals is a collective of Jewish tefillin makers and scribes committed to the mitzvot of preventing animal suffering wherever possible. If you’d like to join the cause, join our email newsletter and let us help you bring your tefillin and mezuzot into alignment with Torah.