My three Tisha B’Av-related articles

1. Relating Tisha B’Av To Today’s Environmental Crises

2. A Tisha B’Av Message: Will We Fail To Heed the Warnings Again?

3. Tisha B’Av and Veganism and Vegetarianism

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1. Relating Tisha B’Av to Today’s Environmental Crises                   

     Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av), which we commemorate this year on August 12 -13, reminds us that over 2,600 years ago Jews failed to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah, with the result that the first Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, one of many negative events that occurred to Jews on that day, including the destruction of the second Temple as well.

     Today there is no Jeremiah or other prophet to warn us, but there are thousands of climate exerts warning us that now it is not just Jerusalem, but the entire world that is threatened by climate change and its effects, air and water pollution, species extinctions, soil erosion, destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats, and many other environmental dangers. 

     As long ago as 1992, over 1,700 of the world’s leading scientists, including 104 Nobel Laureates, signed a “World Scientists Warning to Humanity,” stating that “human beings and the natural world are on a collision course,” and that “a great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.” More recently, in October 2019, the. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization composed of leading scientists from many nations, stressed that “unprecedented changes” must occur by 2030 in order to avert a climate catastrophe. Some climate scientists are warning that self-reinforcing positive feedback loops (vicious cycles) may soon produce an irreversible tipping point when climate change will spin out of control with disastrous consequences, if major changes do not soon occur. Therefore, it is essential that Jews become actively involved in efforts to reduce climate change and other environmental threats.

      On Tisha B’Av, Jews fast to express their sadness over the destruction of the two Temples and to awaken us to how hungry people feel. So severe are the effects of starvation that the Book of Lamentations (4:10), which is read on Tisha B’Av, states that, “More fortunate were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine, for they pine away stricken, lacking the fruits of the field.” Yet, today about 70% of the grain grown in the United States is fed to animals destined for slaughter, as an estimated nine million people worldwide die annually because of hunger and its effects and over ten percent of the world’s people experience chronic hunger.

     Jewish sages connected the word “eichah” (“Alas! what has befallen us?”), which begins Lamentations with a word that has the same letters “ayekah” (“Where are you?”), the question addressed by God to Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps failure to properly hear and respond to “ayekah” in terms of stating “Hineini” – here I am, ready to carry out God’s commandments so that the world will be better – causes us to eventually have to hear “eichah.”

     The reading of the book of Lamentations on Tisha B’Av is meant to awaken the Jewish people to the need to return to God’s ways by showing the horrors that resulted when God’s teachings were ignored. The readings should sensitize us so that we will hear the cries of lament and change our ways. Rabbi Yochanan stated, “Jerusalem was destroyed because the residents limited their decisions to the letter of the law of the Torah, and did not perform actions that would have gone beyond the letter of the law” (lifnim meshurat hadin) (Baba Metzia 30b). In this time of factory farming, climate change and other environmental threats, widespread hunger, and widespread chronic degenerative diseases, Jews should go beyond the strict letter of the law in efforts to prevent further climate change, health problems, and environmental degradation.

     As president emeritus of Jewish Veg and author of Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism and three editions of Judaism and Vegetarianism, ”I want to stress that a meaningful way to do this is to shift toward a plant-based diet. This would reduce risks for several life-threatening diseases, and would reduce the massive mistreatment of animals, climate change and other environmental threats, the wasteful use of land, energy, water, and other scarce resources, and hunger. It would also be a diet consistent with basic Jewish teachings on preserving. Human health,  treating animals with. compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and reducing hunger. 

    In view of the many threats to humanity today, I hope that Jews will enhance their commemoration of the solemn but spiritually meaningful holiday of Tisha B’Av by heeding its messages and striving even harder to live up to Judaism’s highest moral values and teachings. One important way to do this is by applying Jewish values in efforts to shift our precious but imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. We must make tikkun olam (the repair and healing of the planet) a major focus in Jewish life today, and consider personal and societal changes that will improve the environment. By doing this, we would be performing a great kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s Name).

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2.  A Tisha B’Av Message: Will We Fail To Heed the Warnings Again?

Tisha B’Av, which we commemorate starting on the evening of August 12 in 2024, reminds us that over 2,600 years ago Jews failed to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah about the importance of changing their ways. This resulted in destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem, one of many tragedies that occurred on that day, including the destruction of the Second Temple also.

Today, there are no prophets like Jeremiah to issue warnings, but there are. increasingly dire warnings from climate experts that it is not just Jerusalem but the entire world that is threatened today by climate change. A strong consensus is represented by 97 percent of climate experts, all the world’s science academies that have addressed the issue, and almost every one of thousands of peer-reviews articles on the issue in respected science journals. They all agree that climate change is primarily caused by human activities and poses great threats to humanity. All the almost 200 nations at both the December 2015 Paris and the November 2021 Glasgow climate change conferences agreed that immediate steps must be taken to combat climate change, and most pledged to make such changes.  Recent warnings have been so dire that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called the situation a “Code Red for Humanity, and said that “delay means death.”

And, unlike in the time of Jeremiah, the world is getting many wake-up calls that reinforce the warnings.  

Every decade since the 1970s has been hotter than the previous decade and all of the 24 hottest years since temperature records were kept in 1880 have been since 1998. 2023 was the world’s hottest year, and 2024 will likely be even hotter. Starting in June 2023, 13 consecutive months broke records as the hottest months since temperature records were kept.

Polar icecaps and glaciers worldwide have been melting rapidly, faster than scientific projections. This has caused an increased elevation in oceans worldwide with the potential for major flooding. There is already “sunny day flooding” due to higher tides in some coastal cities. Permafrost is also starting to melt, releasing several greenhouse gases.

There has been a significant increase in the frequency and severity of droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods. Because of the severity of the droughts, wildfires have become increasingly frequent and severe. California has been subjected to so many severe climate events recently that its former governor, Jerry Brown, stated that, “Humanity is on a collision course with nature.”

There are several important reasons why future climate conditions are likely to become far worse:

• Due to self-reinforcing positive feedback loops (vicious cycles), many climate experts believe that we are close to an irreversible tipping point when climate change will spiral out of control, with disastrous consequences, unless major positive changes soon occur. 
• While many climate scientists think that 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 is a threshold value for climate stability, it has reached 420 ppm and has been increasing by 2 – 3 ppm per year.
• While all the severe climate events mentioned above are due to a temperature increase of about 1.5 degrees Celsius (above 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the world is now on track for an average increase of three or more degrees Celsius, which would result in significant threats to human civilization.
• The Pentagon and other military groups think that climate change will increase the potential for instability, terrorism, and war by reducing access to food and clean water and causing tens of millions of desperate refugees to flee from droughts, wildfires, floods, storms, and other effects of climate change.

Given the above considerations, it is essential that we don’t repeat the mistake made by our ancestors who failed to heed Jeremiah’s warnings but that we make averting a climate catastrophe a central focus for civilization today in order to leave a healthy, habitable, environmentally sustainable world for future generations. 

However, while climate change is an existential threat to Israel, the United States, and, indeed, the entire world, most people have not paid sufficient attention to it. Unfortunately, “denial is not just a river in Egypt,” and most people today are, in effect, “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as we head toward a giant iceberg.”

When I hear of friends’ children or grandchildren getting married or having children, I wonder how the lives of the new couples and children will be affected by our rapidly warming world, with its increasingly severe storms and rising oceans. This is especially relevant to me as since I made Aliyah in 2016, my wife and I have been blessed with five grandchildren getting married and the births of eight great-grandchildren.

To reduce climate threats, every aspect of life should be considered. We should shift to renewable forms of energy, improve our transportation systems, produce more efficient cars and other means of transportation, and do everything else possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As president emeritus of Jewish Veg and author, most recently,  of Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism,  I want to stress that the most important component of efforts to avert a climate catastrophe is a major shift to animal-free diets. This would not only sharply reduce emissions from cows of methane, a greenhouse gas over 80 times as potent as CO2 per unit weight in heating the atmosphere. Most importantly, it would also enable the reforestation of the vast areas now used for grazing and growing feed crops for animals. The additional trees would sequester much atmospheric CO2, reducing it from its current very dangerous level to a safer level, potentially leaving a habitable, healthy, environmentally sustainable world for future generations..

A utopian dream? Not if people recognize that the climate situation is a “Code red for humanity” and that there are now many plant-based substitutes with the appearance, texture, and taste so close to the animal products that even long-time meat-eaters can’t tell the difference.    

It is essential that this time we listen to the warnings and succeed in reducing climate threats. There is no Planet B or effective Plan B.

3. Tisha B’Av and Veganism and Vegetarianism 

      There are many connections between veganism and vegetarianism (henceforth veg*ism) and the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av:

1. Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the month of Av) commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. Today, it is the entire world that is threatened by destruction due to climate change, and modern intensive livestock agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. According to a 2006 UN Food and Agriculture report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” animal-based agriculture emits more greenhouse gases than all the cars, planes, ships, and other means of transportation worldwide combined! 

2. In Megilat Eichah (Lamentations), which is read on Tisha B’Av, the prophet Jeremiah warned the Jewish people of the need to change their unjust ways in order to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem. Today, climate scientists warn that due to self-reinforcing positive feedback loops (vicious cycles), the world is approaching an irreversible tipping point when climate change spins out of control, with disastrous consequences, unless significant changes are soon made. Veg*ans join in this warning and add that switches toward veg*ism are an essential part of the major changes that are required. They would reduce the emissions of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas from cows and enable the reforestation of the 43 percent of the world’s ice-free land now used for grazing and growing feed crops for farmed animals. The additional trees would sequester much atmospheric CO2, reducing it from its present very dangerous level to a much safer one.

3. On Tisha B’Av, Jews fast to express their sadness over the destruction of the two Temples. Fasting also awakens us to how hungry people feel. So severe are the effects of starvation that the Book of Lamentations (4:10) states,” More fortunate were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine, for they pine away stricken, lacking the fruits of the field.” Yet, today, about 70% of the grain grown in the United States is fed to animals destined for slaughter, as an estimated nine million people worldwide die annually because of hunger and its effects, and over ten percent of the world’s people are chronically malnourished..

4. During the period from Rosh Chodesh Av to Tisha B’Av, known as the “nine days,” Jews do not eat meat or fowl, except on the Sabbath day. After the destruction of the second Temple, some sages argued that Jews should no longer eat meat, as a sign of mourning. However, it was felt that the Jewish people would not be willing to obey such a decree. It was also believed then that meat was necessary for proper nutrition. Hence, a compromise was reached in terms of Jews not eating meat in that period leading up to Tisha B’Av.

5. Jewish sages connected the word “eichah” (alas! what has befallen us?) that begins Lamentations and a word that has the same letters “ayekah” (“Where are you?”), the question addressed to Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit.

     Vegetarians are also respectfully asking, “Where are we?” What are we doing in response to widespread world hunger, the destruction of the environment, the cruel treatment of farm animals, etc.? Perhaps failure to properly hear and respond to “ayekah” in terms of stating “Hineni” – here I am, ready to carry out God’s commandments so that the world will be better – causes us to eventually have to hear “eichah.”

6. The book of Lamentations was meant to wake up the Jewish people to the need to return to God’s ways. Since veg*ism is God’s initial diet (Genesis 1:29), veg*ans are also hoping to respectfully alert Jews to the need to return to that diet.

7. Tisha B’Av is not only a day commemorating negative events. It is also the day when, according to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will be born, and the days of mourning will be turned into joyous festivals. According to Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, first Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel, the Messianic period will be vegan. He based this view on the prophecy of Isaiah, “The wolf will dwell with the lamb . . .the lion will eat straw like the ox . . . and no one shall hurt nor destroy in all of God’s holy mountain” (Isaiah 11: 6-9).

8. After the destruction of the second Temple, the Talmudic sages indicated that Jews need not eat meat in order to rejoice during festivals. (Pesachim 109a). They stated that the drinking of wine would suffice. (Ibid)

9. The Book of Lamentations ends with “Chadesh yameinu k’kedem – renew our days as of old.” We can help this personal renewal occur by returning to the original human diet, the vegan diet of Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden), a diet that can help us feel renewed because of the many health benefits of plant-based diets.

10. The Book of Lamentations has many very graphic descriptions of hunger. One is: “The tongue of the suckling child cleaves to its palate for thirst. Young children beg for bread, but no one extends it to them.” Today, many countries face major shortages of food i and one major reason is that huge amounts of grain are  fed to farmed animals.

     In view of these and other connections, I hope that Jews will enhance their commemoration of the solemn but spiritually meaningful holiday of Tisha B’Av by making it a time to begin striving even harder to live up to Judaism’s highest moral values and teachings. One important way to do this is by moving toward a vegan diet.

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