The paradox of the holiday

I’m writing this post during Passover, a holiday which commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. As the years pass by, I’m more inclined to contemplate on the relevance and meaning of the holidays I celebrate, and to be inspired by them. Passover is a time to appreciate freedom but also to mull over the evils of injustice and enslavement. More importantly, it can be an opportunity to reflect on our own actions. I believe that some soul searching and self reflection can lead to changing the way we act in our daily life, for the better.

The main tradition of the Passover holiday is the Seder. It’s a feast that includes reading the Haggadah, a historical text which retells the story of the Israelites suffering as slaves and their exodus from Egypt, and also outlines the rituals of the Seder meal. Remembering our past as liberated slaves is one of the most important aspects of the Seder. The Haggadah says that every one of us must see himself as though he had been a slave in Egypt and regard himself as if he had left Egypt. The symbolism for slavery during the Seder can take different forms. In my family we followed my mother’s Jewish-Persian tradition: during the song ‘Dayenu’, we hit each other (lightly!) with scallions, to symbolize the slaves being whipped by their taskmasters in Egypt.

The Seder meal combines symbolic and traditional foods. Those include animal flesh and eggs, which are the products of animal slavery, and that’s where I’m struck by the paradox of the holiday. How can we lament the wrongs of our past slavery, while enjoying the fruits of enslavement, and ignoring the misery we’re causing to others?

For example, egg is one of Passover’s symbolic foods. Eggs are also used in one of the main traditional dishes, matzah balls, and in many Passover desserts. Eggs seem like such an innocuous food. We can close our eyes, put a piece of an egg or a matzah ball in our mouth and let our taste buds enjoy it. Or, we can go beyond the simple, momentary pleasure, and think about how the eggs arrived at our Seder table.

What do eggs have to do with enslavement? Let’s start with the simple fact that just like humans, no animal wants to be forcibly subjugated and give away its flesh or eggs to other animals. They do not need us to eat their eggs to survive (nor do we need them for our survival). More importantly, eggs come with a very high price for the chickens, their lives. Eggs of course come from hens who were chicks; but what happens to the male chicks? Since there is no market demand for them as the breed is not used for meat, newborn male chicks are disposed off like trash: ground up alive in industrial grinders, gassed, or suffocated slowly in plastic bags. In fact, the global egg industry brutally kills 6,000,000,000 chicks every year. Let this number sink in, 6 billion! Eggs labeled as “organic”, “free-range”, and “humane”, and chicks sold to backyard chicken keepers, all originate from the same barbaric killing hatcheries.

The female chickens do not fare any better. Laying hens have virtually no legal protection. They spend their lives crammed in wire cages too small to even spread a wing, including those who lay “organic” or “humane” eggs. They have no freedom to engage in natural behaviors, such as foraging and dust-bathing. “Free-range” merely requires that the hen has an access to screened-in porch with cement, and she may never be outside. The intense confinement causes behavioral problems such as rubbing her breast against the metal wire until it is bald and bleeding, and pecking and cannibalizing her cage mates. The hen’s beak is cut off when she’s five to ten days old, through sensitive tissue. Debeaking is performed by hot-blade method, using a heated (650-750°C) guillotine-type blade that cuts the beak tissue. The hens lay too many eggs, 500 eggs annually, compared to hens in the wild who lay only 20 per year. The birds are killed when their egg-laying time ends, typically at the young age of two years when they’re gassed with CO2, then dumped. It’s the most heartbreaking life of any animal on this planet. If you think you haven’t eaten eggs that came from such an industry, you’re probably wrong, 95% of the eggs in the US come from birds who live and die under such horrific conditions.

Knowing all that, when I see eggs, or any food that contains them, I see the mutilated bloody chicks, or the languishing hens, and I feel sadness not only for them but also for humans’ blindness to their agony. How can a fleeting moment of palate satisfaction be preferred over the life and well being of sentient beings who feel pain much like us?

It’s not surprising that just prior to this recent Passover, Israeli animal rights activists chose to demonstrate against the egg industry, as a symbol of fighting the enslavement and exploitation of animals.

Passover is only one example. I’m writing about it because it’s my holiday and I know more about it than any other religions’ holidays. However, the same paradox exists in every religion that celebrates its holidays with foods made from the flesh, eggs or milk of non-human animals.

Take for example Easter, a Christian holiday. Christianity is a religion that values righteousness, empathy, unconditional love and compassion. However, eating eggs, dyeing them, egg hunts and other egg related games are some of this holiday’s customs. Again, the same paradox, how does using eggs (which involves the brutal killing of baby animals) for pleasure, align with the values of Christianity and the spirit of Easter?

I think the real spiritual and ethical aspects of any holiday are within us, and we need to follow those rather than old customs that focus on our taste buds and amusement. We need to ensure that not only our pleasure but also our mind and heart are involved in celebrating the holidays.

Next time you see food that is made from eggs, or when you plan to dye eggs, envision the images of the dying chicks and the crammed, debeaked female chickens. By doing so, regain your inner conscience and strength to avoid eating or using eggs. Think about the spirit of the holiday and your ethics, instead of focusing on ancient old traditions, without any self reflection.

As a vegan I can tell you, it’s not difficult to give up eggs. There are various egg alternatives for baking and cooking. An amazing egg replacer is Aquafaba which The New York Times called a vegan’s ‘secret weapon’! You can find many vegan recipes for matzah balls on the internet, and there is no shortage in Passover dessert recipes. For egg coloring you can use EggNots and/or wooden eggs.

By not taking part in using eggs or eating them, you are not only preventing the atrocious suffering and death of sentient creatures, you also inform and educate everyone around you, so they too learn about the sinister origin of eggs. The reward is tremendous, you’ll save the lives of countless innocent animals, and live a more fully conscious and empathetic life, the best thing one can do on a holiday and always.

To learn more about the egg industry check out the following:

The industry in the U.S.

Are There Really Cruelty-Free Eggs?

Cage-Free? Not Free Enough

Laying Hen Farming Facts

The Morally Informed Consumer: Examining Animal Welfare Claims on Egg Labels

“Why the hell am I paying more for this?” Major egg operation houses “USDA Organic” hens at three per square foot

The industry in Israel (in Hebrew)

ביצים: תרנגולות ואפרוחים

Picture: Keith Weller, USDA ARS