There's something I must admit. After over twenty-five years of vegetarianism, I can no longer call myself a vegetarian. Very recently, I voluntarily resumed eating beef and poultry.



Twenty-eight years ago, pregnant for the third time, I lost my appetite for meat (though due to fears of malnutrition, I forced myself to continue eating it). The concept of vegetarianism was very foreign to me, so I began reading about it. Two years later, on medical advice, I became a strict vegan vegetarian, later on adding eggs and dairy.



As an Orthodox Jew, trying to live according to Halacha (Jewish Law), I also examined the acceptability of my voluntary food restrictions. According to Jewish Law, one may be a vegetarian if it's for medical or taste preference reasons. However, it is forbidden to make an ideology about it. There is no moral superiority in vegetarianism. There is nothing wrong with "shechting" (the slaughter of an animal according to Jewish Law) an animal to eat.



When the Holy Temple will be, G-d willing, rebuilt, the animal sacrifices will resume. That's something that horrifies some people, and I never have been able to understand why. People accept killing bulls for burgers and lambs for chops, so why does the concept of ritual sacrifices bother them so? Possibly, because few people have any idea what their burgers and chops entail.



Those animal sacrifices were the "mother of all community barbecues."



That's right. I, too, had no idea until I moved to Shiloh.



Towards the end of our first year in Shiloh, topsoil for gardens was brought to our neighborhood from the area of Tel Shiloh. Imagine our surprise when we discovered pieces of ancient, like from Biblical times, pottery. For three hundred and sixty nine years (lots longer than the United States has existed, as my neighbor, the well-known tour guide Era Rapaport, likes to point out), Shiloh was the capital, the very first capital, of the Jewish nation. During that time, which pre-dated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the Holy Tabernacle was in Shiloh and the Jewish People made pilgrimages and sacrificed here.



Disposable dishes as we know them today certainly didn't exist those thousands of years ago. Those who brought sacrifices were given the cooked meat to eat, but there were a few restrictions: one, they couldn't eat on the grounds of the Tabernacle; two, the had to sit where they could see the Tabernacle; and three, the dishes could never be used again. They had to be destroyed, and the remains of those broken, clay dishes can still be found on the slope of the hill facing the Tel.



No matter how you count the age of the world, there's one thing for sure. Only one nation, one people, has ever made Shiloh its home, and that's us, the Jews.



And for all of those - whether "well meaning" or anti-Semitic/anti-Zionist - who tell me to "just go home," I have very good news for you. I've done it. I'm home!