Spirituality Subscribe
A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology which focus on spirituality.
Blogs
Watch Richard Schwartz’s interview on how plant-based diets can help save our world…
- October 19, 2020
Richard Schwartz will be interviewed on Monday, October 19 at 8:30 PM Israeli time, 1:30 PM US eastern time, by the Israeli organization "Root and Branch." He will be discussing his unprecedented, potentially transformative campaign, in conjunction with his recently published book, VEGAN REVOLUTION: SAVING the WORLD, REVITALIZING JUDAISM, to promote veganism and to try to shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path... The link to register is: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ld--trzkvE9U3pQB8jT8zFne3W7iQDSK8 Some of what will be discussed: ...
Interview of me about my newest book, VEGAN REVOLUTION: SAVING THE WORLD, REVITALIZING JUDAISM
- October 5, 2020
Shalom, An interview of me about my just published book, VEGAN REVOLUTION: SAVING THE WORLD, REVITALIZING JUDAISM on “Vegan Stories Podcast’ can be heard by visiting veganstoriespodcast.com. . The promotion message by interviewer Jeff Rosenblum is: I am so proud and honored to share Episode 7 of Vegan Stories Podcast (published this morning) with my guest, Richard H. Schwartz, who I interviewed (remotely from Israel) last Tuesday (the day his new book was published). I'll let the title, subtitle and, of course, Episode 7 (see link below) speak ...
My latest book, VEGAN REVOLUTION: SAVING THE WORLD, REVITALIZING JUDAISM, just published
- September 27, 2020
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Shalom, I am delighted that my latest book, VEGAN REVOLUTION: SAVING THE WORLD, REVITALIZING JUDAISM, has just been published!! I have started a comprehensive, unprecedented, potentially transformative campaign, in conjunction with the book’s publication, to get vegetarianism and veganism, animal rights, health, environmental sustainability, and related issues solidly onto the Jewish agenda (and other agendas), and to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. I would VERY much welcome your involvement in this campaign. This would be very helpful in ...
Earth Etude for Elul 2: Reflections on The Challenges of Living with Fear and Hope
- August 21, 2020
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by Maxine Lyons I find new signs of hope and gratitude for the changes that I feel are beginning to surface despite the anxieties and sadness I feel for the families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19, and for the heightened consciousness of racism. We are living through a time when many forces are coming together with the potential to change our daily lives, setting in motion systemic reforms to our institutions that could dismantle systemic racism. I feel fearful that social upheaval or outright rebellion could de-stabilize us as a country or alternatively, could ...
New Year for Animals Zoom Discussion in USA
- August 20, 2020
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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 people, and ...
New Year for Animals Zoom Discussion in Israel
- August 20, 2020
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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 people, and ...
Earth Etude for Elul 1: Elul is here
- August 20, 2020
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen I turned inward with the lockdown. I didn't want to go anywhere. My garden saved me. I worked outside almost every day. In early summer, I started again to lead outdoor services with small groups. But no walks on my own, in nature. After the depths of despair of Tisha B'Av, as the weeks of consolation began, knowing Elul was approaching, I started to turn outward. I spent a week of early mornings in a little-traveled conservation area, before the heat settled in. Reveling in the blooming flowers ...
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
- August 18, 2020
- 1 comment
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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
- August 4, 2020
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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 ...
Thinking about Passover helps focus on taking care of our health and our planet.
- March 30, 2020
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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.
A Vegetarian New Year
- December 31, 2019
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by Susan Levine ~ The New Year, January 1 of the Gregorian calendar, is the same as Rosh Hashanah for me. 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 ...
Living the Chanukah Miracle
- December 16, 2019
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[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
- December 13, 2019
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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:
L’Shanah Tova and a thank you to our Earth Etudes for Elul Contributors
- September 27, 2019
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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
- September 25, 2019
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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
- September 25, 2019
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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
- September 25, 2019
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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?
- September 25, 2019
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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
- September 24, 2019
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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
- September 23, 2019
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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 ...