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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 ...
Dear Rabbi – How YOU Can Help Save the World
Shalom dear rabbi, I have been fortunate to be involved with many rabbis in my 89 years, and I have always found you all to be the most dedicated people, committed to getting as many Jews as possible to live committed Jewishlives, filled with mitzvot and tikkun olam. Because of this I very respectfully address this message to you. Your response could have an enormous and. Powerful effect on the future of Judaism and ...
A Tisha B’Av Message: How Do the Warnings Today Differ From Those of Jeremiah?
A Tisha B’Av Message: How Do the Warnings Today Differ From Those of Jeremiah? Over 2,600 years ago, Jews failed to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah about the importance of changing their ways, with the result that the first Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, one of many tragedies that occurred on that day, including the destruction of the second Temple as well. There are comparisons between the warnings ...
Can Meat Be Humanely Produced?
A Review of Hope Bohanec’s Book, “The Humane Hoax” Hope Botanec’s wonderful book, “The Humane Hoax: Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat , Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs,” which exposes the many lies and misrepresentation of these industries, is essential reading today for many reasons. Most importantly, it is urgent that there be a societal shift toward vegan diets because there is very little, if any, chance to avert a climate ...
A Tisha B’Av message: Will We Fail To Heed the Warnings Again?
Tisha B’Av, which we commemorate starting in the evening of July 26 in 2023, 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’t prophets like Jeremiah to ...
Inconsistencies Between Jewish Values and Jewish Diets
There are significant inconsistencies between basic Jewish values and the diets of the vast majority of Jews. Please consider: 1. While Judaism mandates that people should be very careful about preserving our health and our lives, numerous medical studies in respected peer-reviewed journals have linked animal-based diets directly to heart disease, stroke, many forms of cancer, and other life-threatening diseases. Animal...
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 ...
Religion, Ethics, Animals, and Choosing Vegan
Dr. Lisa Kemmerer has made it her mission to help people to recognize that core religious teachings in every faith require that we rethink our diet and how we treat animals more generally. Toward this end, she has authored "Animals and World Religions." She is also the author of "Eating Earth, Environmental Ethics and Dietary Choices," and "Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice" and over 100 related ...
What is Our ‘Natural’ Diet?
Clearly human beings are not carnivores, but are we omnivores or herbivores? Actually we are both. We are omnivores in practice, with most people eating from both the plant and animal kingdoms. However, physiologically and emotionally we are herbivores as explained below. The difference between our eating habits and our natural conditions and inclinations are why so many people are suffering and dying from heart disease, cancer, and other ...
Prevention: the Jewish Approach to Health
Since maintaining a healthy and sound body is among the ways of God . . . , one must avoid that which harms the body and accustom oneself to that which is helpful and helps the body become stronger. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Deot 4:1) Contemporary western medicine has generally focused on the treatment of diseases, rather than on ...
Protein and Calcium Myths
People increasingly wish to adopt healthier diets. However, many are prevented from necessary changes because of myths about certain nutrients. For example, it is the common wisdom that one should eat ample amounts of meat in order to get adequate protein and consume large amounts of dairy products in order to get adequate calcium to avoid osteoporosis. But, please consider the following: Countries with the highest consum...
Two Health Studies That Could Revolutionize Health Practrices
There are two major health studies that have the potential to radically affect medical practice. They dramatically show how dietary and other lifestyle changes can prevent and in some cases reverse diseases. The first study, the Lifestyle Heart Trial, was conducted by Dean Ornish, M. D. of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Salusito, California, and his medical colleagues. Its aim was to study if changes in diet, ...
Should Jews Be Vegans, or at least Vegetarians?
by Richard Schwartz, PhD The consumption of meat and other animal products and the ways in which they are produced today seriously conflict with Judaism in at least six important areas: While Judaism mandates that people should be very careful about preserving their health and their lives, numerous scientific studies have linked animal-based diets directly to heart disease, strokes, many forms of cancer, and other life-threatening ...
The Huge Health Benefits of Vegan Diets
There is much evidence that vegan diets have many health benefits and can reduce and in some cases reverse several life-threatening diseases. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, formerly known as the American Dietetic Association, a valuable, respected source for health and nutrition information, states that, “well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, … are associated with a lower ...
My Efforts to Make Earth Day this year into an “Environmental Shabbat”
Since Earth Day (April 22) is on Shabbat this year, I am working with others to make it an "Environmental Shabbat," with rabbis all over the world encouraged to give a sermon or a class on that Shabbat about Jewish environmental teachings and how they can be applied today to reduce environmental threats, and/or to have another environmental event at their synagogue. Among the many rabbis supporting this initiative are Nathan Lopes ...
