{"id":16410,"date":"2020-11-09T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=16410"},"modified":"2020-10-21T11:09:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:09:06","slug":"vegan-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/11\/09\/vegan-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegan Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Reviewed by Charles Stahler<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Schwartz has been promoting Judaism and\nvegetarianism, for almost forty years, since the publication of his book aptly\nnamed Judaism and Vegetarianism<\/em> in\n1982. Richard uses his books as a \u201cbusiness card,\u201d so he can advance the cause\nof vegetarianism in media ranging from The\nNew York Times<\/em> to The Jerusalem Post<\/em>\nto Mad Magazine<\/em>. Unlike many\ninfluencers, Richard and his publisher Martin Rowe\/Lantern Publishing\u2019s goals\nare not fame and getting rich, but promoting ideas they consider important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Not all Jewish\npeople or those in or outside of the vegan movement will agree with the\nstatements in their newest book the Vegan\nRevolution, Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism<\/em>. However, for an\noverview of ideas related to Judaism and veganism, this is a good start, and\nthen you can explore more in depth topics that pique your interest. Since\nChristianity and Islam have their roots in Judaism, though they diverged in\nvery different ways, the book would be helpful to those interested in those\nother religions in giving a starting point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Many people see\nreligion as a way to promote a better world and become a better person.\nReligion is also often used to justify your being above others, whether it be\neconomic or political, and even extending to slavery and killing. Religion for\nboth sides generally means community, traditions, comfort in bad times, a way\nto overcome issues such as addiction, and celebration in good times, ranging\nfrom birth to wedding to death. As humans, most of us, including atheists, generally\nuse our beliefs for all of this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard starts with the idea that G-d\u2019s original diet in the\nGarden of Eden was vegan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even religious people that believe in a strict\ninterpretation of the bible would have to agree with this. Richard then is making\nthe case how this is the diet that G-d really wants us to follow for health,\ncompassion, respecting G-d\u2019s creatures, and environmental reasons. Eating\nanimal products becomes a concession to man and woman\u2019s weakness, not a\ncommand. According to Rabbi Kook, first chief rabbi of pre-state Israel, and\nothers, the Messianic period would be vegetarian, based on Isaiah\u2019s prophecy\nthat \u201ca wolf shall live with a lamb… and a lion, like cattle, shall eat\nstraw… They shall neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mount.\u201d The two\nideal times in Jewish thought are vegan\u2013 The Garden of Eden and the Messianic\nperiod. Richard makes his case about health, the environment, world hunger, and\ntreatment of animals, and how all these are related to the Torah, Jewish thoughts,\nand Jewish teachings throughout the ages. He gives opinions on how Jewish\nholidays are connected to veganism, and a vegan view of Biblical Animal\nsacrifices. A chapter talks about use of leather ritual objects such as\ntefillin (used when praying at times) and mezuzot (on Jewish doorposts). He is\ntrying to strike a compromise, which may not make strict vegans happy, but\nreminds people that veganism isn\u2019t the religion, but veganism is a way to\npractice your religion. For vegan activists out there, understanding religious\nideas, can be an additional method to promote their cause. For religious\npeople, veganism can be another way to live their religious beliefs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The Vegan Revolution<\/em> (ISBN:\n978-1-59056-627-5) is a 230-page book and can be purchased at your favorite\nonline retailer or at lanternpm.org\/books\/vegan-revolution<\/a>.\nReviewed by Charles Stahler<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Charles Stahler Richard Schwartz has been promoting Judaism and vegetarianism, for almost forty years, since the publication of his book aptly named Judaism and Vegetarianism in 1982. Richard uses his books as a \u201cbusiness card,\u201d so he can advance the cause of vegetarianism in media ranging from The New York Times to The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16412,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410\/revisions\/16412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}