After the flood, HaShem gives special permission for Noach to eat meat (9:3). As Rashi underlines, Adam HaRishon was forbidden to eat meat, as were all other men forbidden to eat meat. What changed? One answer given is that the climate and nutritional makeup of the earth changed after the flood (remember, the flood was hot water, by the way). Thus, whereas man could previously survive on eating plants, they no longer proved nutritionally wholesome and energy-providing to keep man going – so eating meat was given the go-ahead. The Chizkuni takes another approach. He answers that since the animals now owed their lives to Noach for keeping them alive (and thus ensuring their survival) in the ark, he was allowed to eat them for food.
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