447 results for author: Richard Schwartz
Lessons From Trees: a Tu Bishvat Message
Some of my most important lessons in life I learned from Jewish verses about trees.
From the following I learned that I should be an environmental activist, working to help preserve the world:
In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, He showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: "See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you." (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)
From the following and the rabbinic commentaries on it I learned that I should avoid ...
For Tu Bishvat: Quotations from Jewish Sources about Trees
Since Tu Bishvat is considered the "birthday for trees," a time when trees are to be judged regarding their fate for the coming year, I hope the following Jewish quotations about trees and fruits will be helpful for celebrations of this increasingly popular holiday.
1. And God said: "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit -- to you it shall be for food." (Genesis 1:29)
2. In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, He showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: "See My works, how fine they are; Now all that ...
WHY IS THIS NIGHT DIFFERENT? THOUGHTS ON TU BISHVAT
One of the highlights of the Passover Seder is the recitation of the four questions that consider how the night of Passover differs from all the other nights of the year. Many questions are also appropriate for Tu Bishvat, which starts on Wednesday evening, January 15 in 2014, because of the many ways that this holiday differs from Passover and all other days of the year.
While four cups of red wine (or grape juice) are drunk at the Passover Seder, the four cups drunk at the Tu Bishvat Seder vary in color from white to pink to ruby to red.
While Passover is a holiday of springtime, Tu Bishvat considers the changing seasons from winter to autumn, ...
Creating a Jewish Vegetarian Consciousness
Based on my over 30 years of promoting vegetarianism and veganism in the Jewish community and beyond, I believe that it is essential that there be a major shift to plant-based diets to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. Jews can and should play a major role in accomplishing this goal.
As indicated in my article below, a major societal shift by Jews (and others) to veg diets is essential to efforts to avert a looming climate catastrophe, major food, water, and energy scarcities, and other potential environmental disasters.
"Environmental Catastrophes or a Sustainable Future? It Depends on Our Food Choices" at
http://jewishve...
Is Fur a Jewish Issue?
Jewish worshipers chant every Sabbath morning, "The soul of every living being shall praise God’s name" (Nishmat kol chai t’varech et shim’chah). Yet, some come to synagogue during winter months wearing coats that required the cruel treatment of some of those living beings whose souls, we declare, praise God.
Should Jews wear fur? Several factors should be considered:
1. What does the Jewish tradition teach about the treatment of animals?
2. How much suffering do animals who are raised or trapped for their fur experience?
3. Does the wearing of fur coats have any redeeming factors that would override Jewish teachings about the proper ...
A Dialogue Between a Jewish Vegetarian Activist and a Rabbi
For a long time, I have been trying to start a respectful dialogue in the Jewish community. Because I have had very little success, I am presenting the fictional dialogue below. I hope that many readers will use it as the basis of similar dialogues with local rabbis, educators, and community leaders. If you do, please let me know how it turns out. Thanks.
Jewish Vegetarian Activist: Shalom rabbi..
Rabbi: Shalom. Good to see you.
JVA: Rabbi, I have been meaning to speak to you for some time about an issue, but I have hesitated because I know how busy you are, but I think this issue is very important.
Rabbi: Well, that sounds interesting. I am never ...
Thanksgivukah: Giving Thanks for Miracles
Dan Brook & Richard H. Schwartz
For the first time since 1888 and then not again for about 78,000 years (!), Chanukah and American Thanksgiving coincide this year on Thursday, November 28. Some are calling it Thanksgivukah. Some are calling it another miracle! It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Hope springs eternal. Indeed, it's always been an integral part of Jewish and American history, spirituality, and politics. Without hope, there wouldn’t be a Chanukah; without hope, there might not even be a Jewish community; without hope, there might not be democracy or America. That’s the power of radical hope!
...
Will Scandal at Israeli Slaughterhouse Change Jews’ Diets?
"We will not tolerate giving kashrus supervision to a factory that ignores animal cruelty issues."
This statement by the recently elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau, along with his promise to look into the kashrus status of facilities where abuses of animals occur, has the potential to greatly change the ways that animals are raised and slaughtered, as well as the eating habits of Jews.
Chief Rabbi Lau expressed his outrage and concerns after seeing a video shown on Israeli television’s channel 10 Kolbotek program on October 29. The video had undercover footage taken by an activist for Israel's leading animal rights group ...
Chanukah and Vegetarianism
Jews can enhance their celebrations of the beautiful and spiritually meaningful holiday of Chanukah by making it a time to begin striving even harder to live up to Judaism's highest moral values and teachings by moving toward a vegetarian diet. Here are eight reasons, one for each night of Chanukah:
1. Chanukah represents the triumph of non-conformity. The Maccabees stuck to their inner beliefs, rather than conforming to external pressure. They were willing to say: This I believe, this I stand for, this I am willing to struggle for. Today, vegetarians represent non-conformity. At a time when most people in the wealthier countries think of animal ...
Vegetarian Week Analysis: How Our Food Choices Can Help Avert a Climate Catastrophe
There is good news and bad news. Unfortunately, the bad news is extremely bad, perhaps the most inconvenient truth one can imagine: the world is rapidly heading toward a climate catastrophe. This is the view of science academies worldwide and of over 97% of climate scientists.
Global temperatures have been rising. The 12 warmest years since temperature records have been kept in 1880 have occurred since 1998. Every decade since the 1970s has been warmer than the previous decade. Glaciers and polar ice sheets are melting far faster than the projections of climate scientists. There has been a major recent increase in the number and severity of severe ...
Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Vegetarianism
There are many connections that can be made between vegetarianism and the joyous Jewish festivals of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret (the Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly), and Simchat Torah:
1. Sukkot commemorates the 40 years when the ancient Israelites lived in the wilderness in frail huts and were sustained by manna. According to Isaac Arama (1420-1494), author of Akedat Yitzchak, and others, the manna was God's attempt to reestablish for the Israelites the vegetarian diet (Genesis 1:29) that prevailed before the flood, in the time of Noah. 2. On Simchat Torah, Jews complete the annual cycle of Torah readings, ...
Yom Kippur and Vegetarianism
There are many connections that can be made between the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and vegetarianism:
1. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to the "Living God", the "King Who delights in life," that they should be remembered for life, and inscribed in the "Book of Life" for the New Year. Yet, typical animal-based diets have been linked to heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer, and other chronic degenerative diseases, that shorten the lives of over a million Americans annually.
2. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to a "compassionate God," who compassionately remembers His creatures for life. Yet, there is ...
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) or ...
Rosh Hashanah and Vegetarianism
Rosh Hashanah is the time when Jews take stock of their lives and consider new beginnings. Perhaps the most significant and meaningful change that Jews should consider this year is a shift away from diets that have been having devastating effects on human health and the health of our increasingly imperiled planet. While many Jews seem to feel that the holiday's celebration can be enhanced by the consumption of chopped liver, gefilte fish, chicken soup, and roast chicken, there are many inconsistencies between the values of Rosh Hashanah and the realities of animal-centered diets:
1. While Jews ask God on Rosh Hashanah for a healthy year, ...
An Overlooked Mitzvah: Tsa’ar Ba’alei Chaim/A New Year for Animals Message
While tsa'ar ba'alei chaim (the mandate not to cause "sorrow to living creatures") is a Torah prohibition, many religious Jews seem to be unaware of it or to not consider it of any great importance. Some examples reinforce this assertion:
• Upon reading an article about my efforts to get Jewish teachings on animals onto the Jewish agenda, a member of my modern Orthodox congregation was incredulous. "What? Jews should be concerned about animals?" she exclaimed.
• Some years ago, I was at a Sukkot gathering at which there were some ducks in an adjacent backyard. Upon seeing them, two youngsters of about ...
Polish Shechita Ban Ignores Key Factors
The recent Polish government ban of shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter) overlooks some important considerations.
First, it ignores the many problems related to stunning, their preferred method of slaughter. These are thoroughly covered in the book, "Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry," by Gail Eisnitz. Through many interviews with slaughterhouse workers and USDA inspectors, she carefully documents in gut wrenching, chilling detail the widespread, unspeakable torture and death at U.S. slaughterhouses where animals are stunned prior to slaughter.
The book discusses cases where ...
Restoring and Transforming the Ancient New Year for Animals
Another Jewish holiday?
Don't we have enough already?
Not according to Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), of which I am president emeritus. We are working with a coalition of Jewish groups and individuals to restore and transform the ancient and largely forgotten Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana L'Ma'aser BeHeima (New Year's Day for Tithing Animals for sacrifices when the Jerusalem Temple stood) into a day devoted to increasing awareness of Judaism's beautiful teachings on compassion to animals.
These teachings include: (1) “God's compassion is over all His works [including animals] (Psalms 145:9); (2) “the righteous person considers ...
How Should Jews React to the Polish Ban on Shechita?
Recently the Polish government banned the practice of shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter). How should Jews react?
Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), of which I am President Emeritus, is against all slaughter, but we object when shechita is signaled out for criticism or is banned. Shechita was designed to minimize pain, but even if it is carried out with a minimum of pain, the many months during which animals are mistreated on factory farms should be considered.
People who think that other methods of slaughter are more humane than shechita should read the book, "Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and ...
Restoring the New Year for Animals
Rosh Chodesh Elul, the beginning of the month before Rosh Hashanah, begins a month when the shofar is blown at weekday morning services (except on Shabbat), and Jews are to examine our deeds and consider how to align our lives more with Jewish values.
When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, Rosh Chodesh Elul was a New Year for Animals, a day devoted to tithing for animal sacrifices. After the second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, there was no longer a need for this holiday and today very few Jews have heard of it.
Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) is working with others to restore this holiday and to transform it into a day devoted to ...
Tisha B’Av and Vegetarianism
There are many connections between vegetarianism 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 the entire world is threatened by climate change, and modern intensive livestock agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
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 are warning that the world may be very close to a climate tipping ...