558 results for tag: Teachers / Educators
Review of My Book, “Who Stole My Religion?” by the Midwest Book Review
Wisconsin Bookwatch: October 2016
/James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI 53575
The Judaic Studies Shelf
Who Stole My Religion?
Richard H. Schwartz
Urim Publications
c/o Lambda Publishers
527 Empire Boulevard, Brooklyn, New York 11225
www.UrimPublications.com
9789655242348, $28.95, HC, 302pp, www.amazon.com
"Who Stole My Religion?: Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet" by Richard H. Schwartz (President of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians and President Emeritus of Jewish Vegetarians of North America) was specifically ...
Latest Review of “Who Stole My Religion?”
THE ARK, publication of “The Catholic Concern for Animas” AUTUMN/WINTER 2016
BOOK REVIEW
WHO STOLE MY RELIGION? by Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
Although this book has been written to ‘revitalize Judaism and apply Jewish values to help heal our imperiled planet,' the references used from the Old Testament, apply as much to Christians as they do to Jews. Therefore, I felt it useful to review this book for The Ark.
Schwartz takes a good look at the world today including it politics, economic systems and foreign policies, as well as the environment and our treatment of animals. Actually, only two out of sixteen chapters deal with animal ...
Earth Etudes for Elul: A Collection of Meaningful Ways to Enrich Our Lives
by Susan Levine
~ It’s not too late to read the thought-provoking Earth Etudes for the month of Elul. Now is a good time to think about our lives and what matters: our family, our friends, this Earth we call our home and all the other people and animals who share it with us. How can we take care of our health and work towards a peaceful and sustainable future for our children?
A special thank you to Rabbi Katy Z. Allen for organizing this project and to our contributing writers with their meaningful essays, poems and thoughts. You can read them here whenever you’d like as a reminder of why we are here.
Etude Elul 1 by Andy Oram: Save ...
Major Interview of Richard Schwartz in a Spanish Publication (Translation Follows Link)
.H.: http://www.anda.jor.br/05/10/2016/devemos-procurar-transcender-nossas-diferencas-e-nos-unirmos-pelos-animais
Richard Schwartz was interviewed by Arquivo Pessoal of ANDA (News Agency of Animal Rights). The translation of the interview follows:
ANDA: Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D., is the author of: Judaism and Vegetarianism; Judaism and Global Survival; Who Stole My Religion?; Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal our Imperiled Planet; Mathematics and Global Survival, and over 200 articles and 25 podcasts at JewishVeg.com/schwartz. He is President Emeritus of Jewish Veg, formerly Jewish Vegetarians of North America ...
Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah and Vegetarianism
The Sukkot holiday, including Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, is known as the "Season of Rejoicing," because people's worries about the success of the harvest are over. Since one must be in good health in order to fully rejoice, the many health benefits of vegetarian diets and the knowledge that such diets are less harmful than animal-based diets to the environment, hungry people, and animals are factors that can enhance rejoicing. There are many other connections that can be made between vegetarianism (and veganism) and these joyous Jewish festivals:
1. Sukkot commemorates the 40 years when the ancient Israelites lived in the wilderness in frail ...
Yom Kippur and Vegetarianism
Yom Kippur, the culmination of the Aseret Y’mei Teshuva (the Ten Days of Penitence) that begins on Rosh Hashanah, is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. On this day, Jews refrain completely from consuming food and water and spend many hours in synagogues, examining their deeds, vowing to repent of past transgressions, and seeking God’s blessings for a coming year of good health and positive outcomes. Yet, after Yom Kippur, most Jews return to animal-based diets that are arguably inconsistent with the values of Yom Kippur and Judaism in general. Please consider:
1. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to the "Living God," the "King Who delights in ...
Shanah Tovah 5777
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
As you enter this new year
may distance bring clarity
and may the many shades of the forest
be clear to you
as separate and individual colors
each unique in its own right
may the sky be ever visible to you
between the leaves
may you understand
that the leaves
the sky
and the tendrils
are all interconnected
and when you cry out for help
may your prayer
be answered.
Shanah tovah,
may you have a good year.
...
Our Earth Etudes for Elul: Thank you to our contributors!
By Susan Levine
A special thank you to Rabbi Katy Z. Allen for organizing this project and to our contributing writers with their meaningful essays, poems and thoughts. Elul is the month that leads up to Rosh Hashanah, but these Earth Etudes are insightful windows into the meaning of life and the interconnection between our lives, our Earth and our spiritual existence at any time.
~ Etude Elul 1 by Andy Oram: Save the Earth to Save Our children. Read more...
~ Etude Elul 2 by Rabbi Robin Damsky: Oh Deer What Can the Matter Be? Read more…
~ Etude Elul 3 by Moshe Givental: G-d’s Might, Detroit, and coming back to Life. R...
Earth Etude for Elul 29: Hope Sprouting
by Rabbi Judith Kummer
~ When the world is whirling
and despair for the future begins to crowd in
I turn to growing things,
seeking hope.
The sweet potato plant cutting I made last week,
Bereft of leaves but stuck into a vase to root anyway--
Just in case--
has now sprouted tiny purple and spring-green leaves,
against all odds.
How did it know to grow, know it could grow? What
generative force propelled it forward
into a future I sometimes cannot imagine?
In the garden
Swaths of bright blooms
Separate out into a single glorious flower,
Beauty
against all ...
Earth Etude for Elul 28: Our Repentance, Prayer, and Deeds of Righteous Action Will Stop Climate Change
by Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith
~ This year, as the sun sets on Yom Kippur, our prayers will reach a pinnacle of intensity as we recite the UnetanehTokef prayer: “On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. How many shall leave this world, and how many shall be born; who shall live and who shall die, who in the fullness of years and who before; who shall perish by fire and who by water, who by sword and who by a wild beast; who by famine and who by thirst… But repentance, prayer, and deeds of righteous action, can remove the severity of the decree.”
The Unetaneh Tokef was written ages ago, perhaps as early as the ...
May it bee a sweet new year
"May you bee inscribed and sealed in the book of life for a good and sweet new year. May all your offspring survive to see adulthood and may you successfully pollinate our crops so that we will have sufficient to eat."
It's not that I'm actually suggesting this prayer is added to our Rosh HaShanah prayer books - heaven know the services last long enough already - but the words did spring to mind now that we are surrounded by pictures of fluffy cute bumblebees in the run up to the Jewish New Year. These yellow and black critters have become as much symbols of the coming festival as are Shofars and pomegranates, due to the slightly tenuous link ...
Earth Etude for Elul 27: Teshuvah in the Garden
by Maxine Lyons
~ My perennial love relationship with the earth is expressed most explicitly in tending my flower gardens. For me it is spiritual work, a way to respect the earth while feeling more mindful of how growth and change is an ongoing process and mirrors the major themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The spiritual work of Teshuvah on the Yamim Norayim for me often centers on facing challenges, reviewing the aspects of my life that need changing and seeking new ways that I can re-commit myself to positive actions to bring about those changes. The natural world starts me on this path. For example, the row of pine trees that form a ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26: You Were Wrong
by Ben Weilerstein
~ I
You were wrong about environmentalism, man, no that’s not what I think no, I’m not really an environmentalist because if I say I am you’ll say in your head I’m saying things you don’t think need to be said, out loud, at all so, no, I’m not an environmentalist and I don’t feel a rush of flight, of my heels lifting up off the ground when I recycle a plastic bottle not like I do when I recite over and over again until it doesn’t leave my head for years, “stop! the! pipeline!”
or something like that, y’know my voice woven into hundreds and thousands of others because dammit this isn’t about ...
Earth Etude for Elul 25: Bees, Fireflies, and Stars
by Ruah Swennerfelt
~ The bee was busy, humming around me and traveling from flower to flower, while I was sitting and weeding. I stopped my work to take a closer look and was amazed to see that, as the bee dove deep and touched a certain spot in the flower, the flower reached its stamen up to the bee’s butt and deposited some pollen. This interaction occurred again and again. I saw so clearly how the bee and the flower miraculously co-evolved for them each to survive. I stopped my weeding task and sat still, contemplating this complex planet of ours and the wonders of how all of life is interconnected.
I’m aware of how easy it is to be ...
Blurbs for “Who Stole My Religion? Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet”
• What People Are Saying about "Who Stole My Religion? Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet"
The many endorsements below show that it is not just the author, but also many other people – of various perspectives – who think their religion has been “stolen,” but who still believe that religious values have relevance to current issues. It is our hope that the voices of the people who submitted the statements below, as well as many more voices, will be raised to help revitalize Judaism and other religions and to apply religious values effectively in response to the many threats to ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24: What Is Remembering?
by Steph Zabel
~ What is remembering?
As I’ve ponder this question over the past several days, the following thoughts have come to me…
Remembering is a return to wholeness and truth: a wholeness of self, of spirit, of place in the world. When we remember who we are, why we are here, and how we relate to the world around us, these remembrances — these truths — infuse our lives with richness and radiate outwards to all the lives around us.
I think that remembering must also paradoxically involve forgetting… For instance:
When we remember that all human beings, of all backgrounds and beliefs, deserve love, dignity and compassion, ...
Earth Etude for Elul 23: Tandem
by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman
Biking home on Orchard Street
With the wind behind me, and Jamaica Pond
Wrinkled and clear beyond the houses,
A peregrine falcon winged down
A feathered grace, gliding on my right.
For a breath, two, we flew side by side.
My grief, of late, has become more precise.
There are worlds
Beyond worlds, the eons will stretch
Over bedrock and magma, blue and green.
There is life and Life and God unending
No matter what we do, where we are.
So I cry for us, for here, for what we know and ...
Why Perform a Rite That Kills Chickens as a Way to Seek God’s Compassion?
During the ten-day period starting on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day, Jews seek God's compassion and ask for forgiveness for transgressions during the previous year so that they will have a happy, healthy, peaceful year. Yet, many Jews perform the rite of kapparot (in Ashkenazic Hebrew kappores or in Yiddish, shluggen kappores) in the days before Yom Kippur, a ritual that involves the killing of chickens.
Kapparot is a custom in which the sins of a person are symbolically transferred to a fowl. First, selections from Isaiah 11:9, Psalms 107:10, 14, and 17-21, and Job 33:23-24 are recited; then a rooster (for a male) ...
Earth Etude for Elul 22: Earth Rituals
by Molly Bajgot
~ This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don't have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn't have the specific ritual you are craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising, fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous plumber/poet. ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
...
Earth Etude for Elul 21: The Food We Eat
by Leora Mallach
~ The severe drought affecting the northeast this growing season is causing farmers to apply for federal disaster relief (they must prove at least 30% crop loss to qualify). According to USDA data, Massachusetts topsoils were 25% drier in July 2016 than the 10 year mean, and there are mandatory water restrictions in many towns.
The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), established at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1995, tells us:
Drought is an insidious hazard of nature. It is often referred to as a "creeping phenomenon" and its impacts vary from region to region. In the most general sense, drought ...