How Celebrating Passover Can Help Heal Our Planet…
Applying Passover Messages Can Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet Passover and Vegetarianism and Veganism Inconsistencies in Passover Eating Freeing Ourselves at Passover From Diets That Harm Us and the Planet —————- 1. Applying Passover Messages Can Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet There are many Passover-related messages that can be applied to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path: 1. Today’s environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues: • When we consider the threats to...
An Open Letter to Rabbis
Dear Rabbi, News of war and conflict are the order of the day, but something far worse looms over us. I am writing you because you have the potential to help avert a climate catastrophe and leave a sustainable world for future generations. There is a very strong consensus composed of almost all climate experts, all the major science academies, and over a thousand peer-reviewed articles in respected science journals that climate change poses an existential threat to humanity. Animal-based...
Review of Animal Welfare in World Religion
Joyce D’Silva’s book Animal Welfare in World Religion; Teaching and Practice points out an anomaly that is the main reason that the world is rapidly approaching a climate catastrophe and facing other environmental threats. While about 80 percent of the world’s people belong to a religion and these religions have strong teachings about compassion for animals, the vast majority of the people have animal-based diets that involve great cruelty to animals. Animal-based agriculture is the main cause of climate change...
Book Review of “Food For Thought: Planetary Healing Begins on Our Plate”
Food For Thought: Planetary Healing Begins on Our Plate Camilla Perusello, PhD Lantern Publishing and Media 2022. Food For Thought That Can Heal the Planet At a time when animal-based diets are contributing very significantly to a potential climate catastrophe and other environmental threats, risks of future pandemics, the very wasteful use of increasingly scarce land, water, energy, and other resources, and the massive mistreatment of farmed animals, Dr. Camila Perussello’s wonderful book, Food for...
Can We Avert a Climate Catastrophe?
by Richard Schwartz The most critical issue facing the world today is the possibility of a climate catastrophe that threatens all life on our planet. This article discusses the seriousness of the threats; why they are likely to become far more severe in the future; and what needs to be done to provide a chance to avert the looming catastrophe. First, it is important to recognize how strong the scientific consensus about climate change is. Science academies worldwide,...
How kosher plant-based diets help heal our imperiled planet and why it’s so important during Passover.
by Richard Schwartz Take a look at the following 3 articles: 1. Freeing Ourselves at Passover From Diets That Hurt Us and the Planet 2. How Applying Passover Messages Can Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet 3. Passover and Vegetarianism or Veganism ============= 1. Freeing Ourselves at Passover From Diets That Hurt Us and the Planet Jews commendably go to extraordinary lengths before and during Passover to avoid certain foods, in keeping with Torah mitzvot. But at the same time, many...
Ten Ways to Create a More Vegan World
There is increasing evidence that animal-based diets are causing an epidemic of life-threatening diseases, contributing to climate change and other environmental threats to humanity, and having other negative effects. Despite the increasing need for a shift toward veganism to counteract these problems, progress has been relatively slow. It is time to consider new strategies to promote veganism more effectively. The ten ideas suggested below are designed to start dialogues that will lead to positive changes. It is my hope that...
Freeing Ourselves at Passover From Slavery To Diets That Are Harmful To Us and Our Planet
Some Jews commendably go to extraordinary lengths during Passover to avoid certain foods, in keeping with Torah mitzvot. But at the same time, many continue eating other foods that, by Torah standards, are far from ideal. On Passover, Jews are prohibited from eating, owning, or otherwise benefiting from chometz, foods such as breads, cakes, and cereals, that are made from one of the five grains (wheat, barley, rye, spelt, and oats) that ferment from...
An Open Letter To Rabbis
Shalom dear Rabbis, Because of your collective wisdom, dedication to Jewish values, and valuable contacts, you are in a position to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. This would help leave a decent, habitable, environmentally sustainable world for future generations. To paraphrase Mordechai’s plea to Queen Esther when the Jews of Shushan were in danger of annihilation, perhaps you were put into your present position for just such a purpose. As you...
There is no ‘Planet B’ – My book review of “Vegan Voices” in the March 25 Jerusalem Post magazine
The French writer Victor Hugo famously wrote, “Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.” Vegan Voices: Essays by Inspiring Changemakers, through very insightful essays by dedicated vegan activists, provides many reasons why the time has come for a societal shift to veganism. These include: * There has been an explosion in the number of plant-based substitutes for meat and other animal products, some with the appearance, texture, and taste so similar to the animal products that...
Parshat Tzav: Meat Consumption in Temple Days and Today
And that which is left thereof [from the meal-offering] shall Aaron and his sons eat; it shall be eaten without leaven in a holy place; in the tent of meeting they shall eat it. . . . it is most holy as the sin-offering and the guilt-offering. Leviticus 6:9.10 When the Jewish people were in the wilderness before they entered the land of Israel, the consumption of meat was associated with holiness. Every piece of meat consumed came from an...
A Vegan View of the Biblical Animal Sacrifices
“Now we come to the great embarrassment.” Those were the opening words of a sermon delivered years ago by an assistant rabbi at the Young Israel of Staten Island, referring to the biblical animal sacrifices discussed in Parshat Vayikra (Leviticus). In his book, Jewish Law as Rebellion: A Plea for Religious Authenticity and Halachic Courage, Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Dean of the David Cardozo Academy, states: “Does Judaism really need animal sacrifices? Would it not be better off...
