Uncategorized
Invitation to Zoom event discussing an initiative to renew the ancient New Year for Animals and to transform it into a day devoted to discussing Jewish teachings on compassion to animals and how animals are mistreated today
Shalom,
You are cordially invited to attend a Zoom discussion of the historic, potentially transformative initiative to restore the ancient New Year for Animals and to transform it into a day devoted to increasing awareness of Jewish teachings about compassion to animals and how far current realities are from these teachings. It will also consider how animal-based diets and agriculture seriously violate basic Jewish teachings about preserving human health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, helping hungry ...
Proper Nutrition Can Reduce the Severity of Coronavirus Infections
There are currently daily reports of record-breaking incidents of coronavirus worldwide. As the Coronavirus epidemic escalates, it is important to recognize a generally overlooked possibility of taking steps now to reduce the severity of symptoms, should one have the misfortune of getting the disease.
According to T. Colin Campbell, PhD, director of the China-Cornell-Oxford study, deemed the Grand Prix of epidemiology by the NY Times, shifting to a nutritious, well-balanced, plant-based diet can greatly reduce the effects of COVID-19.
Based on his ...
Get Used to Wearing Masks.
by Rabbi Dr. Eric Lankin
Get Used to Wearing Masks. (courtesy of the United Nations).
I am afraid that we will be wearing masks for a long time to come.
And it won’t be solely because of a viral pandemic. Soon it may be because of the air quality of our planet.
There is a clear scientific consensus on a human-driven warming of the earth, with carbon-based pollution released in the environment as the major contributor. As shown by data from NASA and NOAA, the last few decades have seen a sharp spike in global average temperature, and the increase of carbon-...
Especially this Mother’s Day, remember Mother Earth.
~Mother’s Day will be different this year for many of us because of the impact of the coronavirus, being in quarantine and social distancing; however, we can still be mindful of how our actions can help prevent climate change even if we are having virtual Mother’s Day dinners and celebrations.
Reduce: Reduce your energy needs. Winter is finally over and it’s warmer inside and out. Open your windows and let the fresh air in. If it is really hot, set your thermostat no higher than 78°F (26°C) when you are home and higher when you are away (information from ...
It’s time to go hug a tree!
The month of Nisan has arrived - it's time to go hug a
tree!
The month of Nisan began the evening of April 1, in the midst of the welcoming blossoms of springtime in Israel. This month also comes in the midst of the "Coronavirus crisis," as we are asked to shut ourselves in our homes instead of going outside and enjoying all that beauty of nature. Birkat Ha'Ilanot (Blessing for the Blossoming Trees), the mitzvah that is observed during the days of Nisan, reminds us that even in our own backyards (or our neighbors’ yard) we can find nature that is full of blessing.
...
Thinking about Passover helps focus on taking care of our health and our planet.
My three Passover-related articles stress that veganism is the diet that is most consistent with Passoverm basic Jewish values, and efforts to improve the health of people and our imperiled planet.
Growing Torah for Adults and Children in the Orthodox Community: Two Orthodox Environmental Organizations Merge to Maximize Impact
GrowTorah and Canfei Nesharim, two Torah-based environmental non-profit organizations, have merged into one entity, effective Dec. 10, to strengthen their combined efforts and maximize their impact within the Orthodox Jewish community.
Living the Chanukah Miracle
[article by Dan Brook, PhD & Richard H. Schwartz, PhD]
Hope springs eternal. Indeed, it’s always been an integral part of Jewish history, spirituality, and politics. Without hope, there wouldn’t be a Chanukah; without hope, there might not even be a Jewish community. That’s the power of radical hope!
Jewish survival is a miracle of hope. Increasing light at the darkest time of the year to celebrate Chanukah and Jewish survival is also a miracle. This year, each year, we work and hope for further miracles.
We sincerely hope that Jews will enhance ...
Ten Reasons Jews Should Consider Becoming a Vegetarian or a Vegan
As president of Jewish Veg, formerly Jewish Vegetarians of North America, and author of three editions of Judaism and Vegetarianism and over 250 related articles online, I very respectfully present the following reasons Jews should very seriously consider eliminating, or at least sharply reducing, your consumption of meat and other animal-based foods:
My Responses to an Article in Orthodox Judaism-orientated Mishpacha (Family) Magazine That Refutes Climate Threats
I believe, respectfully, that Rabbi Rosenblum has done a great disservice in writing this article and Mishpacha has done a great disservice in publishing it. I hope my responses will result in their reconsidering their positions and join the struggle to avert a climate catastrophe and help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path.
My Strategy For Getting Climate Change, Veganism, and Related Issues Onto the Jewish Agenda
=== I urge the strongest, most widespread effort that can possibly be made to get climate threats and the need for shifts toward veganism onto the Jewish agenda. Why? Please consider the following facts (they are backed up by supporting material at the end of this article). There is a very strong scientific consensus, based on overwhelming evidence, that the world is rapidly heading toward an irreversible climate tipping point when climate change will spin out of control, with catastrophic results.
Several scientific studies have shown that animal-based ...
L’Shanah Tova and a thank you to our Earth Etudes for Elul Contributors
Elul is the month before Rosh Hashanah, a time when we review our lives and think about how we will live the coming year. Many of these earth etudes actually connect our earth with the spirit of Judaism–Tikkun Olam, repairing the world.
We would like to thank Rabbi Katy Z. Allen for bringing together these awe-inspiring contributors, whose essays, poems and thoughts help us understand the meaning of our lives and how we can repair our world.
And our Earth Etudes can be helpful throughout the year. So you can read them here:
Earth Etude for Elul 1: Rabbi ...
Earth Etude for Elul 29 –Waking up to the Climate Crisis
by Rabbi David Jaffe
~ My guess is that many readers of the Elul Etudes are fully awakened to the climate crisis and read these blogs with the hope of gaining perspective and spiritual resilience to keep facing the crisis without panicking and burning out. This blog post is for a difference audience – those, like me, who intellectually understand the crisis but don’t feel the urgency. Despite reading articles and watching videos about the famines, flooding and other impacts of rising temperatures on people in the Global South and here in parts of the United ...
Earth Etude for Elul 28 — Swimming in Circles in Life
by Rabbi Judy Kummer
~ Every August I participate in a 1-mile breast cancer fundraising swim at a pond on Cape Cod. I have done this swim every year since 2007, training each summer day to swim further and faster.
I especially delight in swimming outdoors. Sometimes my practice
swims are in daytime, sometimes at “golden hour” as the sun is setting,
and sometimes at dusk, when I can watch the moon rising, cycling
inexorably through its phases towards the High Holidays.
What a feast for the senses: I find myself savoring the sunlight ...
Earth Etude for Elul 27 — A Vegetarian Journey
by Susan Levine
~ When I think about Elul, I think about things I have done over my lifetime and the most important thing I’ve tried to do is to become a vegetarian.
But let me start at the beginning: Both my parents grew up in kosher homes and when they got married, they had a kosher home. But it wasn’t kosher enough for my father’s mother who would visit my parents but wouldn’t touch the food. My mom didn’t see the point of being kosher if her mother-in-law still wouldn’t eat in her home. Instead she went full treif. As a child I pretty much ate ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26: What do animals feel and think? Who are they?
by Rabbi David Seidenberg
~ That’s too broad a question by many degrees, but the difference between asking “who are they?” and “what are they?” is the gulf between civilizations, between epochs, between a world in which humans dominate and destroy, and a world in which humans collaborate with other species in the great project of the universe--Life.
Since Descartes, the idea that the other animals (besides human beings) are not subjects has reigned in science. It became forbidden to say that animals have feelings, consciousness, thinking, despite the fact ...
Earth Etude for Elul 25*– To the Silent Stones
by Sarah Chandler
~ Do you count your days in footsteps? In strollers? In sunlight?
Cement and concrete
Below my feet
I take a peek at the patterns
And the places
Where tiny rocks gather
Solid, safe, secure
What was it was like
To move your entire being
From a quarry of friends
To this square of sidewalk?
City stones
Bricks, brownstone, marble
Are your family now
You
The eyes of
Our neighborhood
My commute
My shabbat walk
Sometimes the trees
Insist that their roots
Decorate your patterns
And Your cracks keep my steps whole Each journey down the ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24 –If Not Here, Where
by Maggid David Arfa ~
For Reb Bob in honor of his ordination
Hillel says, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when? If not here, where?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14+
The High Ledges Audubon Sanctuary, Shelburne, MA
Ok, he didn’t say that last part. He didn’t have to. Back in the ancient world it was not so easy to get lost in the global view. Today it is different. The daily news causes international heartache on every page. We witness environmental degradation, rise of authoritarian ...
Earth Etude for Elul 23 — The Prayer for Rain
by Rabbi Louis Polisson
~The Hebrew month of Elul is well-known as the month of preparation for the Jewish holidays Rosh Ha-Shanah (the New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In Jewish literature, it is often called a month of teshuvah (repentance, self-improvement, and returning to the good parts of ourselves). However, one might also view Elul as a time to prepare for the fall harvest festival of Sukkot (which literally means Booths or Huts), when we eat all of our meals in a temporary dwelling, symbolizing our fragile yet joyous and sacred ...
Earth Etude for Elul 22 — Lessons from Alaska
by Rabbi Suri Levow Krieger
Alaska...
Hut in Alaska surrounded by flowers.
I expected to be awed by the Glaciers. I was not disappointed.
I anticipated being enLightened by 22 consecutive hours of sunlight. It was outstanding.
What I did not expect, was day after day of 80 degree weather. And the following week… Anchorage registered 90 degrees as a massive ‘heat dome’ hovered over the city. This topped the previous record set at Anchorage International Airport of 85 degrees on June 14, 1969.
It is good news for the Flora and Fauna! ...