Is A Kosher Cheeseburger Kosher?

by R. Gil Student

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 halakhic 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 God’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 God’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 halakhically 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 God 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, God 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. God 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 God 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 Arukh, 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 halakhah while violating its spirit (see Ramban, Lev. 19:1).