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All the Earth Etudes for Elul–5784
Connecting the Meaning of our Lives to the Spirit of Judaism: Tikkun Olam- Repairing our World
Elul is almost here--by Rabbi Katy Allen: The moon is waning once again, this time telling us that we are approaching the Jewish month of Elul, and this year, the American holiday of Labor Day. It’s tough to let the summer go, but the sun keeps rising and setting, and the days go by, sunset arriving earlier earlier, Shabbat evenings getting longer and Shabbat days shorter, the nights may be cool, and we know in our minds, even if not our hearts, that summer cannot go on ...
Intro to Elul
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Elul is almost here!
The moon is waning once again, this time telling us that we are approaching the Jewish month of Elul, and this year, the American holiday of Labor Day. It’s tough to let the summer go, but the sun keeps rising and setting, and the days go by, sunset arriving earlier earlier, Shabbat evenings getting longer and Shabbat days shorter, the nights may be cool, and we know in our minds, even if not our hearts, that summer cannot go on forever.
We may think about the heat waves that have marked the summer. What do they ...
Outline for a New Year for Animals (Aleph b’Elul) Seder
The Seder will be divided into four parts. Each part will end with the drinking of a cup of grape juice or wine and the eating of a vegan food. If conducted via Zoom, drinking and eating would be optional and up to each participant. Since the entire Seder should be about 90 minutes, each of the four parts should be about 20 minutes, leaving some time for opening and closing statements by the moderator. Thus, the moderator should decide which quotations should be read and discussed.
The Seder will start with a brief introduction by the moderator.
Part 1 consists of ...
My three articles about a Zoom event that aims to restore and transform the ancient New Year for Animals as part of a campaign to increase awareness that shifts to plant-based diets are essential to efforts to avert a climate catastrophe and will be honoring me
Longtime Vegan To Be Honored For 50 Years of Activism
Richard H. Schwartz, PhD, is to be honored for his 50 years of activism promoting vegetarianism and veganism, animal rights, and environmental sustainability by Jewish Veg and Jewish Initiative for Animals, two organizations dedicated to helping make Jewish institutions and individuals more plant-based . He taught at the College of Staten Island from 1970 until 1999. While there he created a unique course, Mathematics and the Environment, in order to motivate liberal arts/non-science students in their study of ...
My three Tisha B’Av-related articles
Relating Tisha B’Av To Today’s Environmental Crises
2. A Tisha B’Av Message: Will We Fail To Heed the Warnings Again?
3. Tisha B’Av and Veganism and Vegetarianism
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1. Relating Tisha B'Av to Today’s Environmental Crises
Tisha B'Av (the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av), which we commemorate this year on August 12 -13, reminds us that over 2,600 years ago Jews failed to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah, with the result that the ...
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 learning about people’s ideas and experiences (at VeggieRich@gmal.com), so that the later editions of this book will ...
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 the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
The following rabbis and activists not only believe it can be done, but ...
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
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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 first night of Shavuot to hear talks about and discuss Torah teachings.
Yet, despite this commendable dedication, I ...
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 modern “plagues." For example, (1) climate change, (2) deforestation, (3) increasing droughts, (4) widening deserts, ...
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 last nine years were the hottest since temperature records were widely recorded. This has resulted in a substantial ...
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 of the books by pioneering Jewish scholar Richard Schwartz. He also has over 300 articles at Jewish-Vegan.org. For ...
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 has said a b'racha, acknowledging God's ownership and that we are stewards to see that God's works are properly used and ...
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 break a temperature record. The last nine years were the hottest since temperature records were widely recorded. This ...
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 countries, warned that “unprecedented changes” were needed by 2030 for the world to have a chance to avert a climate ...
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 she was enabled to be queen for just this EGGcelent purpose, did she muster the courage and 'scrambled' to appear before ...
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 to poor people). In contrast to these acts of sharing and compassion, animal-based diets involve the feeding of ...
Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, 70, Mother of the Jewish-Environmental Movement
18 Adar 1 5784 / 27 Feb. 2024
It is a rainy day in Rabbi Ellen Bernstein’s hometown of Philadelphia, as even the skies are crying. The Jewish-environmental movement has lost one of its earliest founders — the visionary rabbi moved on from this world earlier today (18 Adar I) on the Hebrew calendar and last night on the Gregorian calendar. She was 70.
In 1988, Ellen, at the age of 34, founded Shomrei Adamah, one of the earliest Jewish-environmental organizations. Her work with Shomrei Adamah and her books — most prominently Splendor of Creation, Let the Earth ...
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 lives on factory farms. Producing meat also has very negative environmental effects, and these greatly increase the ...
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 Bishvat Message
4. Lessons From Trees: a Tu Bishvat Message
5. Celebrating Tu Bishvat as if Environmental ...
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 article for the link to Meatless Monday website)**
Think about the connection between Chanukah and a Vegetarian/Vegan ...