Shmini - You Eat What You Are

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (1924-2014; founder of Jewish Renewal)

I invented the word eco-kosher, to say that something is ecologically kosher. I'll give you an example of eco-kosher. The regular kosher way is about the dishes that mustn't be contaminated, etc. If I pick up a cup to have coffee, styrofoam would be the best thing to have. It hasn't been used before and after I drink from it, I'll throw it away and nobody else will use it. From the usual kosher place that's the direction to go...but in comparison to what will happen to the planet by my drinking in a styrofoam, I'd much rather make the other choice...eco-kosher.

Excerpt from a 2008 Jerusalem Post interview with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg

In 1971 you were the only Orthodox rabbis to declare that non-union lettuce and grapes should be regarded as non-kosher and you urged Jews to boycott them. What is the basis in Judaism for that position?

Greenberg: We were both students of the Rav, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. From him we learned the idea that Halacha is not just a list of ritual dos and don'ts, but a comprehensive worldview that applies to everything that happens around us. The Torah prohibits the exploitation of workers - so why shouldn't that apply to migrant farm workers picking lettuce or grapes? They were being mistreated, so it was natural for us to apply the principle of nonexploitation to their situation, too. It seemed obvious.

Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb (Rabbi of Adat Shalom in Bethesda, Maryland)

Consider the interdependent web of connections in which we live our lives. Take a simple snack, like a chocolate chip cookie made with flour, butter, eggs, cocoa and sugar. The flour is from wheat, raised and harvested by farmers with the help of whole supporting industries. The butter and eggs come from flesh-and-blood animals who likely suffered as part of the process (though not as much as if meat were served). Cocoa, though tasty, is a notoriously devastating crop because rain forests are felled for cocoa plantations. And the human rights abuses of the sugar industry are well known. Then there are the truck drivers, the packagers and producers and advertisers, the manufacturers of hardware, the refiners of oil, the advocates for more sustainable business practices. The list goes on. How can we be more conscious and more respectful of these interconnections in our daily lives?

Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg (Founder of the Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Program)

Eating is the primary way that human beings interact with the rest of nature. we are composed of the same elements and compounds that make up our food. Indeed, when we eat, we transform a part of nature into energy that we can use for conscious purposes. The system of kashrut causes us to pause and consider that while we are part of nature, we are endowed with a unique potential to make choices in the way we respond to life.