Wasn Genesis 1:29 (the first dietary law) overridden by later Biblical commandments and teachings?
As indicated previously, while God’s original intention was that people be vegetarians, God later gave permission for meat to be eaten as a reluctant concession to people’s weakness. As also indicated, many Biblical commentators look at vegetarianism as the ideal diet, and modern science has verified that our body structure and digestive system are most consistent with this type of diet. In a teshuvah (response to a question related to Jewish law), R. Moshe Halevi Steinberg expressed his belief that the fact that meat was initially forbidden and later permitted indicates that each person is thereby given a free hand to either be a vegetarian as was the first human, or to eat meat, as Noah did. The question is then on what basis should that choice be made. Should it be on the basis of convenience, habit, and conformity, or on considerations of basic Jewish values and teachings. Rabbi Alfred Cohen wrote that, “the Torah does not establish the eating of meat as a desirable activity, only
