QUESTION

A woman would like to stop being a vegetarian after many years.

A. Does she need to do hatarat nedarim (annulment of vows), since being vegetarian may be considered a ma’alah (spiritual or religiously positive practice)?

B. If so, can she do the hatarat nedarim before three women?

ANSWER

Yes, I think she should do hatarat nedarim.

Being vegetarian is certainly a hanhagah tovah (positive religious practice). The Shulchan Arukh rules that when a person accepts a permitted practice as prohibited, or adopts a positive practice and repeats it three times, it can take on the status of a neder and require hatarah before being discontinued (Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De’ah 214:1).

What makes it a hanhagah tovah? First, there is a strong argument to be made that, ideally, from a Torah perspective, we should not be eating meat at all, and that the permission to eat meat is a concession to human weakness. Chazal frame meat as basar ta’avah (meat of desire), and indicate that a person should not eat meat too regularly or too casually, but only with investment and preparation. The Gemara states:

מָה תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר ״אֲשֶׁר יָצוּד״? לִמְּדָה תּוֹרָה דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ, שֶׁלֹּא יֹאכַל אָדָם בָּשָׂר אֶלָּא בַּהַזְמָנָה הַזֹּאת.

What does the verse teach by saying “that he hunts”? The Torah teaches proper conduct, that a person should not eat meat except with this degree of preparation (Chullin 84a).

Even if one does not accept this as a general principle, there is another reason to see vegetarianism as a serious hanhagah tovah. The reality today is that much of modern factory farming involves tza’ar ba’alei chayim (causing suffering to animals) on a massive scale. To be clear, this does not mean that buying or eating meat is prohibited. The prohibition of tza’ar ba’alei chayim applies primarily to the person directly causing the suffering, and our general psak (halakhic ruling) is that tza’ar ba’alei chayim is permitted when it serves real human needs and desires (Rema, Even Ha’Ezer 5:14).

Nevertheless, a person who chooses to distance herself from that system is adopting a meaningful religious practice. Even though eating meat remains permitted, vegetarianism can still be treated as a hanhagah tovah, and discontinuing it should therefore be preceded by hatarat nedarim.

As for whether women can serve as the three people before whom the hatarat nedarim is performed, the halakhah is that hatarat nedarim can be done at night and by relatives (Yoreh De’ah 228:3). I once had my son and myself serve on a beit din for hatarat nedarim before Rosh Hashanah. These leniencies indicate that the beit din for hatarat nedarim does not operate under all of the requirements that govern a regular beit din.

That naturally raises the question of how far those leniencies extend, and whether this means that women may also serve as members of the beit din. On this issue, there is a debate among the poskim. Rabbi Akiva Eiger (on Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De’ah 228:1) argues that there is a distinction between male relatives and women. Male relatives are, in principle, people who can serve as judges; they are disqualified in ordinary cases only because they are related to one of the parties (or for other valid disqualifications). Women, by contrast, cannot serve as judges at all on a regular beit din, regardless of their relationship to the parties involved. Therefore, Rabbi Akiva Eiger rules that the leniency allowing relatives to serve for hatarat nedarim cannot be extended to women.

The Aruch Hashulchan (Yoreh De’ah 228:10), on the other hand, entertains the possibility that women could serve on the beit din for hatarat nedarim. He suggests that since the halakhah is derived from shechutei chutz (the prohibition of slaughtering offerings outside the Temple precincts), where women are included, one might argue that women should be included here as well. He also notes that in some areas where relatives are accepted, women may be accepted too.

On the other hand, he suggests that maybe women should not serve on the beit din because of a concern of serarah (formal authority or communal office). Even if hatarat nedarim is more flexible than a regular beit din, it still places the members of the beit din in a position of authority, as it were. He ultimately concludes against allowing women to serve in this role, given that we do not find anywhere that a woman may annul vows.

Given that background, I would advise that for the generic hatarat nedarim done before Rosh Hashanah, which is broad and not directed at a specific vow, I would not object to relying on women.

However, if someone were seeking hatarat nedarim for an explicit, verbalized vow, especially when dealing with possible issurei de’oraita (Torah-level prohibitions), this is a serious machloket haposkim (dispute among the halakhic authorities), and I would strongly advise against doing it before women.

In this case, though, we are dealing with hatarat nedarim for a minhag, not with an explicit Torah-level vow. This has nothing to do with the fact that the practice in question is vegetarianism. For this type of hatarat nedarim, if someone wanted to rely on the positions that allow it to be done before women, there would be a solid basis for doing so.

In conclusion:

• She should do hatarat nedarim before stopping vegetarianism.
  
• Ideally, it should be done before three men; however, for this type of hatarat nedarim, if she wishes, there is a solid basis to do it before three women.