One Man’s Meat

What caused two chareidi businessmen, who certainly know a thing or two about oneg Shabbos and the pleasure of a fleishig meal, to become so enamored with the worldwide vegan movement? What caused them to eschew meat throughout the year, and even to abstain from dairy products, eggs, and leather shoes? If two frum Yidden could have such powerful faith in the vegan lifestyle as to launch a vegan start-up business with global reach, we felt compelled to find out more.

There are about 350 million vegan adherents throughout the world, not including the tens of millions of Indians who abstain from eating animal products due to their religious beliefs. “It is a very active and very involved community, with a degree of awareness and loyalty that encompasses their entire way of life,” VeganNation cofounder Yossi Raybi explains. Vegans have three basic motivations for their dietary choices: moral or humane considerations, health reasons, and ecological motivations. And when generous profits are involved, that also boosts motivation.

Shneor Shapira is a student of chassidus and a businessman, a scion of prominent chassidic luminaries — his father is Rav Aharon Shapira, rav of the Pardes Katz neighborhood in Bnei Brak and author of a series of seforim on halachah and machshavah, and his father-in-law is Rav Shimon Sofer, rav of the Erlau community in Tzefas and the son of the previous Erlauer Rebbe. He was also a senior vice president at ACC Group, an international investment group whose focus includes biotechnology and innovative medical technologies, and the right-hand man of Lubavitcher magnate Chaim Yankel Leibowitz.

Yossi Raybi, descended from an illustrious chain of Yemenite rabbanim, is a real estate developer in Jerusalem, having been involved in various construction initiatives in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood and in the seashore city of Yaffo. He’s also developed, managed, and consulted for food-service businesses in Israel and abroad.

Yossi and Shneor have been friends for over 20 years, but for Shneor, any relationship is cemented with the study of chassidus. “Yossi and I became chavrusas learning Tanya together in the Yerushalmi shul in Givat Shaul,” says Shapira. He explains the underpinnings of veganism according to chassidic thought. “We know that in the beginning of Creation, Hashem prohibited Adam Harishon from consuming meat. Only after the mabul, Noach was permitted to eat meat, subject to the requirements of shechitah and other laws. Even after the Torah was given and Jews were permitted to eat halachically slaughtered meat, the Torah introduces the precepts with the words, ‘When your spirit desires to eat meat, and you say: Let me eat meat.’ In other words, it is permitted only out of recognition of the human weakness for the consumption of meat.

“At the end of Maseches Kiddushin,” Shapira adds, “Chazal tell us that when a Jew conducts himself properly in service of Hashem, the animals of the world are meant to serve him.  But can the average person really claim that he serves his Creator in such a way that he is worthy of being served by other living creatures? Now, it’s true that the Kabbalistic texts state that when a Jew recites a proper brachah, he effects a tikkun for the spirit of the animal whose flesh he consumes. But who can really claim that his actions are so elevated, so pure and spiritual, that he has the right to cause a living creature to suffer and that he will be able to create the tikkun when he eats its meat? Personally, I don’t feel I’m on that level.”

So when Shapira and his business associate Yossi Raybi were offered the opportunity to manage this global vegan initiative, it was, in Shapira’s words, “a chance not only to make a living, but to promote our ideology.”

How did vegan ideology turn into international profits? About three years ago, a young man named Isaac Thomas, who had learned in yeshivah together with Yossi Raybi, moved to the US where he started out in home repairs, and with a good deal of tenacity and a hefty dose of siyata d’Shmaya, he climbed the ladder of success, directing a network of nursing homes in Miami.

“About three years ago, he decided to become vegan, and that’s when he remembered his old friend Yossi,” says Shapira of his and his friend’s first foray into the vegan landscape. “His business instincts told him that aside from being an ideology, veganism was also poised to become the biggest thing in the international business world. The vegan community is active and growing steadily, with centers throughout the world and constant communication. He invited us to join him. He told us about the worldwide trend of veganism and suggested we should open a chain of vegan fast-food stores. In America, he said, there was major demand for it, and that demand would surely grow worldwide.”

At first, Raybi admits, they didn’t exactly connect to the idea. “But,” says Raybi, “my old friend Isaac Thomas convinced us and we began doing our own research. At that point, we didn’t consider adopting veganism for ourselves. We looked at it merely as a business initiative.

“It all started when Isaac took a bike tour of Austria, and while he was riding through one of the towns, he looked for a grocery store where he could purchase some suitable vegan food — and then the idea for the business began to germinate.”

Wouldn’t it be great, Thomas mused, if a chain of vegan restaurants or refreshment stands could be opened in remote locations? It would be a unifier for creating a brotherhood of vegans throughout the world.

“We were sitting in my succah mulling over the idea,” Shapira relates. “Today, there are many trends involving collaborative communities around the world. For instance, any car owner can hire himself out as a driver, and any homeowner can turn his residence into a bed and breakfast. In the same way, any vegan can open his kitchen to hungry guests. We realized that as many restaurants as we open, we’re not meeting the need and challenges of vegans around the world — our goal is to make it possible to have accessible and affordable vegan food anywhere in the world. That’s when we came up with idea of VeganNation — an operation that unites vegans from around the world, creating a full vegan ecosystem where vegans can find food, commerce, and content in one place.”

The men then brought in another longtime friend, a young man named Nati Giat, who came with an extensive background in high-tech start-ups. Because VeganNation’s very own cryptocurrency, the VeganCoin, is key in this venture.

Kosher Money

While the group was dreaming of their success in the vegan market, an idea arose that could earn them a fortune. “The world is moving in the direction of virtual cash, which is called cryptocurrency,” Raybi explains. “We decided that by introducing a vegan-approved cryptocurrency, we would be able to fund further activities and to maximize our profits, because today there’s a trend among vegans to boycott the dollar. They are angry about American policies that have allegedly caused climate damage, and supporting the American dollar means supporting a world power that slaughters animals, manufactures weapons, and endangers the world’s existence.”

Someone can be the biggest vegan activist, but when they have a dollar bill in their pocket, that dollar could have been used at a butcher shop or shoe store last week. This new cryptocurrency — the VeganCoin — is based on the premise that all affiliated businesses are vegan and have not been tainted by higher life forms.

According to Shapira, many vegans today prefer to use Swiss currency, as they consider Switzerland to be the nation with the greatest sense of indignation when it comes to compromised animal rights. But the Israeli entrepreneurs decided to develop the ultimate vegan currency — guaranteed to have no connection to any sort of animal-related profits.

“The currency will be legal tender in vegan stores throughout the world,” Raybi related. “Our currency is based on the Ethereum, the second largest virtual currency. Unlike the Bitcoin, the Ethereum makes it possible to base other currencies on it. Our currency is managed by a smart contract on the blockchain platform, a transparent, secure system. It’s possible to verify everything that happens on the blockchain system at any given moment. Every transaction is documented in real time and recorded.”

And we’re dealing with a huge consumer population — 350 million people,” Raybi continues. “A virtual currency driven by such a strong, ideological, and active community can have an enormous value. It’s definitely going to soar.”

According to its founders, VeganNation has three areas of focus: vegan food sharing, the marketing of vegan products ranging from food to clothing and cosmetics — items that were not produced through exploitation of animals and were not tested on animals — and the establishment of a unified community for vegans.

The company owners say people from all over the world want to invest in their venture. They raised six million dollars in the first few months, and the company’s financial forecasters expect to accumulate $60 million by the end of the crowd sale.

VeganNation provides information and facilitates dialogue between millions of vegans throughout the world. “As Jews, we can certainly understand this,” Shapira says. “When two Jews from different cultures or places meet, they feel a certain brotherhood between them. That’s how the vegan world works too. I was once on a flight from Israel and I asked for a kosher vegan meal. “Suddenly, someone turned around in a nearby seat and asked, ‘Are you also a vegan?’ We shook hands and began talking. We found that we had a lot in common.”

The encounter had another happy ending. “By the end of the flight, we were talking about him taking small steps for reconnecting to his Jewish roots.”

Vegan Blessings

Knowing that they’re sitting on a vegan goldmine might make some people skeptical of Raybi’s and Shapira’s motives, but they aver that they’re ideologically motivated, and not just looking at the dollar, er, VeganCoin signs.

“One of the most famous celebrity vegans once said that if slaughterhouses were built with transparent walls, everyone would become a vegetarian,” Raybi says. “Anyone who’s had any contact with the process of slaughtering animals is bound to feel close to this philosophy. No one succeeds in any business if he doesn’t feel some connection to the basic concept behind the business.”

“Personally,” Shapira said, “I initially had plenty of doubts myself. In the Torah’s worldview, meat was given to man in order to raise it to a level of sanctity. That’s one reason I used to think vegans had it wrong. But then I came to recognize two things. First, when non-Jews, or even Jews who do not follow the Torah, refrain from eating meat, it can be seen as a welcome thing. In Maseches Pesachim, the Gemara says that a person who learns Torah is permitted to eat meat and poultry, and a person who does not engage in Torah study is forbidden to eat those things. So there’s something very positive about the global trend of veganism. It may even represent a step toward the Geulah. Just think — even if a Jew is not religious, if he is vegan he’ll never consume forbidden foods. I consider it a zechus to prevent our brothers from eating meat and milk, cheilev, blood, neveilos, and treifos.”

What about tefillin, which are made of leather? “It’s clear that no ideologies or global trends can override even a single letter of the Torah. That said, when vegans ask us about this, we explain that according to halachah, tefillin and other ritual products can be made from the leather of animals that were raised lovingly and died a natural death.

What makes this company different, says Raybi, is the attitude of uncompromising stringency — similar to the best hashgachah. “Coconut oil, for instance, must be made from coconuts that were not picked by monkeys. In most of the world, monkeys are used to remove coconuts from the trees. Vegans, however, insist on that work being done by human beings.”

But why is it wrong to use a monkey to do the job, but it is not problematic to hire a human being?

“The difference is simple,” Raybi says, surprised that we couldn’t follow the logic. “The person is paid for his work; the monkey isn’t. That’s exploitation.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 721)