Reply To: Different levels of religious observance (frumkeit)

The Gra says that Jewish observance is like a ladder. If you try to jump a level you will fall. Rav Kook says that if a person tries to keep some chumra that is inappropriate for his spiritual level he will fall somewhere else to keep a general balance. Thus there was an אשת יפת תואר and slavery until humanity progressed to the point where these dispensations were no longer needed. Similarly, vegetarianism is not appropriate for our time but will be in the Messianic Age (see on this Rav Yosef Albo in “Sefer haIkarim” on the generation of the Flood).