The Lake Norman Rabbi

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/40482/food-for-thought-slow-down-before-you-take-that-next-bite/

Below is the text of the article from Jweekly (I did not write the words below, just thought they were meaningful)

Remember the old refrain, “You are what you eat?”

Some in the Jewish community have taken that message to heart, and are pushing to redefine the boundaries of kashrut.

Addressing the Union of Reform Judaism’s biennial this week, its president, Eric Yoffie, pushed the Reform movement’s Green Table/Just Table initiative. The rabbi urged his audience to “think about how the food we eat advances the values we hold as Reform Jews.”

In that regard he proposed that Reform Jews develop more ethical food practices, such as eating less meat, consuming locally grown produce and even eating more slowly.

One need not be an environmental scientist to acknowledge the facts about food production, especially regarding the cattle, poultry and dairy industries: Together those three harm the environment more than the oil and automobile industries combined.

Have you driven down I-5 through the San Joaquin Valley breadbasket lately? On most days, the air is dirtier than L.A.’s.

A few years ago, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported that raising cattle generates more greenhouse gases than driving cars. Factor in the drain on water and land resources in meat production, the resulting mountains of waste and — let’s not forget — that eating too much red meat is harmful to your health, and it’s clear people should reduce their meat consumption.

What makes any of this Jewish? Yoffie says his recommendations are “not about kashrut,” but Jewish activists some time ago launched the eco-kosher movement. Those activists urge sustainable agriculture practices, cruelty-free meat production and healthier eating. Yoffie’s speech suggests these ideas have gained currency.

Some would argue that the rules of kashrut already consider the well being of animals. Moreover, they would say, by invoking holiness in everyday acts such as eating, Judaism already imparts the kind of food consciousness championed by the eco-kosher movement.

We would agree, but do those rules go far enough?

How “kosher” is meat with a hechsher (kosher seal of approval),  if that meat was flown thousands of miles to reach your plate? How “kosher” is it to consume produce picked by migrant workers deprived of basic economic security?

Thoughtful Jews ask these sorts of questions all the time. Does it mean we have to redefine kosher? Not necessarily. But we agree with eco-kosher proponents that to live up to the highest ideals of Judaism, we cannot ignore the impact our food choices have on the wider world.

Comment:

You are what you eat

Not buying kosher meat produced by slave labor under appalling conditions is a way of keeping spiritually if not biblically kosher. The kosher meat business throughout the world is tainted with corruption. Here in the UK, porging has been banned since World War II allegedly because no porging “experts” are available. The real reason, of course, is so that hindquarter meat can be sold very profitably to the non-kosher meat industry. When I lived in California, there was a huge kosher meat scandal involving a kosher meat-packing plant south of L.A. In Israel, there have been discoveries of camel meat being certified kosher. In my view, it is more in the spirit of kashrut to eat organic, non-kosher meat from a reputable source than to eat kosher meat from a tainted source.

The following article appeared on www.jta.org.  There is still so much work to do to further religious pluralism in Israel. What a shame that all cannot have access to the sacred places of our people.

Woman wearing tallit arrested at Western Wall

November 18, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jerusalem police arrested a woman praying at the Western Wall for wearing a tallit.

The woman, who was participating in Rosh Chodesh services, was arrested Wednesday based on an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that the public must dress according to the customs of the site, Israel Radio reported.

Police came to the site after the Women of the Wall group asked to read from a Torah scroll, according to reports. The group usually holds its services at Robinson’s Arch, located near the Wall.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Western Wall rabbi, called the group’s actions Wednesday “an act of provocation that seeks to turn the Western Wall into disputed territory,” according to reports.

The chairwoman of the women’s group, Anat Hoffman, said it was the first time that a woman has been arrested at the Western Wall for donning a tallit. She identified the arrested woman as Nofrat Frenkel, a medical student from Beersheba.