Living within One's Means

The Torah explicitly permits one to eat meat, in fact seeing it as an integral pleasure of life. A dichotomy is made between those offerings which need to be brought in a sacred place, the one that "God has chosen," and those which can be eaten within one's own domicile. The firstborn, and sacrificial offerings dedicated to the temple must be eaten in Hashem's domain, but those which you would like for your own pleasure, commands God, can be eaten outside of that sacred domain.

In fact, wealth, and growing affluence – and its effect on meat consumption – is considered an expression of God's munificence, and largesse. In Devarim (12:20), the Torah states, "When Hashem expands your boundaries as He has promised, and you will say, 'We will eat meat,' because you will yearn to eat meat, you shall surely fulfill your yearning to eat meat." Rashi states that in this instance Hashem has taught us proper behavior; the Torah has already stated that we are to eat meat within our own domicile, and as such, Rashi comments: "The Torah here is teaching us proper comportment; a person should only yearn to eat meat when Hashem has given him plenty and wealth." Perhaps in keeping with "Maslow's Hierarchy," there are certain basic needs and only once those are met, should a person strive for things that are more pleasurable that show a step up in life. Skipping steps can be dangerous, perilous, causing people to peremptorily and injudiciously wager bets, and gamble for things not in keeping with their current position in life. Like in the Yom Kippur service where the sacrificial bloods are sprinkled in successive ascending order, "One and one, One and Two, One and Three etc." we are, teaches Rashi, to add new greater levels of growth, personal and otherwise, in an incremental and gradual way, without skipping steps, showing full trust in Hashem's direction, providence, and guidance.