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Ways of Commemorating and Celebrating Rosh Hashanah LaBeheimot
Ways of Commemorating and Celebrating Rosh Hashanah LaBeheimot Since we are trying to restore an ancient holiday and transform it from its original purpose of tithing animals for sacrifices, there is no single established way to commemorate it. Hopefully, different Jewish congregations, schools, community centers, and families will adapt approaches that best suit them, as the restored holiday continues to be developed. I would very much welcome ...
Complete text of my eBook, “Restoring and Transforming the Ancient Jewish New Year for Animals: An Idea Whose Time Has Come”
Restoring and Transforming the Ancient Jewish New Year for Animals: An Idea Whose Time Has Come Richard H. Schwartz, President Emeritus, Jewish Veg Messages of Support from Rabbis and Other Jewish Leaders About Renewing the New Year for Animals and About This Book Restoring and adapting an ancient Jewish holiday to modern practice may seem insurmountable, but many Jews today believe it is possible. As Thomas Paine wrote: “The harder ...
All About Shavuot: 3 articles
by Richard Schwartz, PhD 1. A Shavuot Message: Time to Apply Torah Values To Our Diets 2. Dialogue on Shavuot Night About Veganism 3. Shavuot and Vegetarianism and Veganism ============= A Shavuot Message: Time to Apply Torah Values To Our Diets Shavuot is "z'man matan Torateinu,” the time of the giving of the Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. To honor the Torah, many dedicated religious Jews admirably stay up the entire ...
Passover 2024 and Earth Day
This year, the start of Passover and the annual Earth Day occur on April 22nd. Hence, this is an excellent time to consider environmental messages related to Passover and the events and concepts associated with the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt: 1. Today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues: When considering the threats to our land, water, and air, we can easily enumerate ten ...
Celebrating Passover As If Global Survival Matters
As I write this in early April 2024, the war is raging in Gaza. Hence, our main focus must be on the devastation of Hamas, bringing all the hostages home safely, and reducing antisemitism. However, we should also address climate threats since they are an existential threat to the US, Israel, and entire world. March 2024 was declared the hottest March in recorded history, making it the tenth consecutive month to break a temperature record! The ...
Announcement of 90th Birthday Celebration for Richard Schwartz
The Judaism of Richard A Study Evening Celebrating Prof. Richard Schwartz's 90th birthday Tuesday, April 9th (Aleph B'Nisan), 7:30 pm Israeli time, 12:30 PM US Eastern time 8 Balfour Street, Jerusalem. With speakers Rabbi David Rosen, Professor Yael Shemesh, Rabbi Adam Frank and Prof. Richard Schwartz himself. "Judaism and Vegetarianism," "Judaism and Global Survival," "Vegan Revolution," and "Who Stole My Religion" are just some ...
Review of “Replenish the Earth” by Lewis Regenstein
There is an apparent contradiction between two verses in Psalms: "The earth is the Lord's" (Ps. 24:1) and "The heavens are the heavens of God, but the earth has given by God to human beings" (Ps. 115:16). According to the Talmud, the apparent discrepancy is cleared up in the following way: Before a person says a b'racha (a blessing), before he/she acknowledges God's ownership of the land and its products, then "the earth is the Lord's"; after a person ...
Celebrating Purim As If Global Survival Matters
As I write this in mid-March 2024, the war is raging in Gaza. Hence, our primary focus must be on the devastation of Hamas, bringing all the hostages home safely, and reducing antisemitism. However, we should also address climate threats since they are an existential threat to the US, Israel, and, indeed, the entire world. February was declared the hottest February worldwide in recorded history, making it the ninth consecutive month to ...
Purim Lessons That Can Help Save Our Imperiled Planet
Megillat Esther, which is read twice on Purim, tells how the Jews of ancient Persia were threatened with extinction and how they were miraculously saved. Today, it is the entire world that is threatened by climate change, and we have to find a way to avert an unprecedented catastrophe. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization composed of climate experts from many ...
Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?
A Purimshpiel Reb Henna taught: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Clearly, the chicken. How do we know this? We learn from the Book of Esther that when Mordecai asked Esther to go before King Ahashveros to plead for the Jewish people, she was 'chicken,' fearing for her life. Only when Mordecai 'Egged' her on, telling her that perhaps ...
Purim and Veganism
The joyous festival of Purim shares many connections with veganism. According to the Talmud (Megilla 13a), Queen Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, refrained from eating meat while she lived in the palace of King Achashveriosh. She was thus able to avoid violating the kosher dietary laws while keeping her Jewish identity secret. During Purim it is a mitzvah to give mat’not evyonim (charity&...
How not being vegan makes war more likely
by Richard Schwartz Article in the Jerusalem Post--January 28, 2024 Tu Bishvat, the New Year for Trees, celebrated on January 25 this year, has many environmental connections. It is the most vegan Jewish holiday, since all the traditional foods at Tu Bishvat seders are vegan. The values of Tu Bishvat conflict dramatically with modern animal-based agriculture. Almost all of the 80 billion farmed animals slaughtered annually experience horrible ...
My Eight Articles About Many Aspects of Tu Bishvat
Tu Bishvat is the New Year for Trees. It honors trees, fruits and other aspects of nature. It is a Jewish holiday that is typically vegetarian or vegan as nuts and fruits are eaten as part of the ritual. To learn more take a look at the eight articles that follow: 1. Why Is This Night Different: Thoughts on Tu B’Shvat 2. Tu B’Shvat and Vegetarianism and Veganism 3. Preserving the Sacred Environment: A Religious Imperative – A Tu ...
3 Ways to Celebrate Chanukah
(NOTE: A vegetarian diet is mostly vegetables, fruits, grains, beans (i.e. tofu) and nuts but no meat, poultry or fish. A vegetarian may eat dairy products and eggs. A vegan diet usually eliminates all dairy products and eggs. How a person eats can be changed gradually; for example you can start by trying one vegetarian day a week and when you feel comfortable, you can add more. There are many resources for vegetarian meals--see the end of this ...
Is Eating Meat and Other Animal Products Halachically Justifiable Today?
Based on increasingly dire warnings from climate experts and a significant increase in the frequency and severity of climate events, it is clear that the world faces great danger from climate change. As discussed below, averting a climate catastrophe depends very much on a major societal shift to plant-based diets. That would be helped significantly if rabbis declared that eating meat and other animal products is halachically unjustifiable today. Based ...
Dvar Torah for Parshat Ki Taitzi: Can Compassion to a Bird Help Bring Moshiach?
If you come across a bird's nest on any tree or on the ground, and it contains baby birds or eggs, then, if the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with her young. You must first chase away the mother, and only then may take the young. (Deuteronomy 22:6- 7) What is the reason for this unusual mitzvah? Maimonides argues that we send away the mother bird to teach us compassion. He insists that ...
Applying Religious Teachings To Reduce Abuses of Animals
Review of Animal Theologians Animal Theologians, edited by long time British animal rights activists Andrew and Clair Linzey, has the potential to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. Why? It can help move people, especially religious ones, to plant-based diets at a time when the world is rapidly heading inward a climate catastrophe and a major societal change ...
My Four Articles On Restoring and Transforming the Ancient New Year For Animals
Below are my 4 articles on restoring and transforming the ancient. Jewish New Year for Animals. They were written several years ago, so I plan to write a new article updating the situation. Their titles are: An Audacious Initiative to Restore the Ancient New Year for Animals Top Ten Reasons for Restoring and Transforming the Ancient New Year for Animals Restoring and Transforming an Ancient Jewish Holiday Related to Animals An Overlooked ...
Review of “Judaism and Global Survival – 20th Anniversary Edition”
Tikun Olam. What a wonderful Hebrew phrase! Once again, my very dear friend Richard Schwartz has imbued the saying with more potent meaning than I think I have ever seen. This 20th anniversary edition of Judaism and Global Survival elevates that concept—the “Healing of the World”—to its most relevant position in the history not only of our people but of humanity in general. As we move from the Holocene to the Anthropocene era we ...
There Is No Planet B
Because of the increasingly dire warnings of climate experts that climate change may soon reach an irreversible tipping point, the significant increase in the frequency and severity of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, floods, and other climate-related events, and the failure so far of governments and other institutions to make adequate changes to address the threats, many concerned people are trying to awaken others to the dangers with the ...
