Foot and mouth disease is treading closely on the "hoofs" of the mad
cow
epidemic that recently swept Europe. Yet curiously, all around the world
one
species that isn't even infected is nonetheless very affected, and acting
very strangely. An ocean away from the plague, we homo sapiens in America
are increasingly returning to the herbivorous "roots" of Eden, as depicted
in
the very first chapters of Genesis.
Adam and Eve were indeed the first vegetarians, Richard Schwartz tells us
in
his updated and revised edition of "Judaism and Vegetarianism" But if this
"Bible of the Jewish vegetarian movement" is any indication -- arguing as
it
does that a vegetarian diet is both a societal imperative as well as an
especially Jewish one -- they won't be the last.
Mr. Schwartz, a professor emeritus of mathematics at the College of Staten
Island, writes that animal-based agriculture and diets require far more
land,
water, energy and other agricultural resources than plant-based diets,
with
the result that meat consumption (and especially production) has
devastating
effects on our air, water and land, and likewise contributes substantially
to
global climate change. Thus, our current diets negatively impact on the
world's food supply, and are also a major factor behind rapidly rising
medical costs.
The author also seeks to demonstrate that vegetarianism is an especially
Jewish imperative, since the realities of the production and consumption
of
animal products violate basic Jewish teachings to preserve our health,
treat
animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve resources, help
hungry people and pursue peace and non-violence.
Since many difficult questions are asked of vegetarians, Mr. Schwartz
provides 62 questions and answers on a wide variety of Jewish and general
issues. These questions include: Don't we have to eat meat on the Sabbath
and
to rejoice on festivals? Isn't it a sin not to take advantage of
pleasurable
things like eating meat? Weren't we given dominion over animals? What
about
sacrificial temple services? Aren't vegetarians deviating from Jewish
tradition in asserting that people and animals are of equal value? Mr.
Schwartz's cogent answers enable vegetarians to respond effectively to the
concerns of non-vegetarians.
In order to give as complete an analysis of Jewish connections to
vegetarianism as possible, Mr. Schwartz includes biographies of famous
Jewish
vegetarians, including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Franz
Kafka
and several present and past chief rabbis; a discussion of Jewish
vegetarian
groups and activities in Israel, the United States and England, where the
International Jewish Vegetarian Society is located; contact information
for
the leading Jewish vegetarian and vegetarian-related groups; ideas for
promoting vegetarianism; suggestions for leading a healthy Jewish
vegetarian
lifestyle and an extensive annotated bibliography.
Indeed, Mr. Schwartz amasses such an abundance of statistics and such a
wide
variety of quotations from the Torah, Talmud and other traditional Jewish
sources to bolster his case, that after reading "Judaism and
Vegetarianism"
this reviewer can only agree with the assessment of Paul Peabody, editor
of
Fellowship magazine that "it would be hard for anyone ethically sensitive
-- Jew or non-Jew -- to read this book and not take up the vegetarian
cause."
At a time when the United States and much of the world is confronted with
an
epidemic of degenerative diseases, mad cow disease, foot and mouth
disease,
soaring health care costs, a multitude of environmental threats,
increasingly
severe effects of global climate change, widespread hunger, as well as
widening scarcities of water and energy, the powerful teachings of the
Jewish
tradition on vegetarianism and other positive societal changes should no
longer be ignored. Hence, this important, challenging book deserves a
wide
readership and much discussion in the Jewish community as well as other
communities concerned with the ethical application of spiritual values to
scientific knowledge.
Mr. Braun, former Presidential Scholar (Religion, Culture and Ethics) at
Augustana University College (Camrose, Alberta), lives with his wife in
Northrop Frye's former home of Moncton, New Brunswick
