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Why did God make all plants, but only some animals, kosher? Sources, please.

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Not all plants are edible. There are some that are poison, or taste terrible, etc. – Gershon Gold Oct 10 '11 at 17:25
@GershonGold, correct, but all are kosher. – msh210♦ Oct 10 '11 at 17:39
@msh210 What do you mean by "kosher"? I do not think poison is "kosher". Also, can you cite a source that (a) God made (b) all plants and (c) not all animals kosher? The Torah implies otherwise. – WAF Oct 10 '11 at 23:50
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@WAF: poison is forbidden, but under the heading of ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם, not of kashrus. (Granted, the former is considered more stringent: חמירא סכנתא מאיסורא, cases involving danger are treated more strictly than ritual prohibitions. Nonetheless, they're two different categories.) As for your quotation from Bereishis - that is addressed to bnei Noach; for us Jews that is qualified by the lists in Vayikra 11 and Devarim 14. – Alex Oct 11 '11 at 2:12
@WAF, Alex addressed your points well, except "(a)", where you seem to be asking for a source for the fact that God made plants. (Are you thinking of hybrids?) But, anyway, I didn't mean in my question that God made (created) the plants, only that he made (deemed) them kosher. I hope this answers your concern, though I fear I may have misunderstood it, in which case please clarify. – msh210♦ Oct 11 '11 at 2:54
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The famous saying "you are what you eat" may explain this. Plants do not tend to have any unruly behavior. However there are many animals that kill other animals and behave - in lack for a better term - animalistic. Hashem does not want us to eat from these animals, in order that it should not make us behave in the way they behave.

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For that matter, too, fishes' kashrus (unlike that of birds and land animals) doesn't depend on their behavior: carnivorous fish, such as tuna, are perfectly kosher. That, too, might be related to the fact that water creatures are so dissimilar to human beings that there is less likelihood of our absorbing their traits along with their flesh. – Alex Oct 10 '11 at 22:48
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Does God want us to act like plants? – WAF Oct 10 '11 at 23:55
@WAF: sure, in some ways - כי האדם עץ השדה. But more seriously, Gershon's point is that eating plants isn't going to make us act like them, whereas eating animals (which are more biologically similar to us) may do so. – Alex Oct 11 '11 at 2:14
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A relevant klei yakar supporting vegetarians: hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14020&st=&pgnum=340 – YDK Oct 11 '11 at 4:21

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