Apparently the Torah was in principle opposed to the eating of meat. When Noah and his descendants were permitted to eat meat this was a concession conditional on the prohibition of the blood. This prohibition implied respect for the principle of life (‘for the blood is the life’) and an allusion to the fact that in reality all meat should have been prohibited. This partial prohibition was designed to call to mind the previously total one.
|
He altered the image of the Jew from that of rabbi, merchant, wanderer, to that of scientist, farmer and soldier.
|
It appears that the first intention of the Maker was to have men live on a strictly vegetarian diet. The very earliest periods of Jewish history are marked with humanitarian conduct towards the lower animal kingdom...It is clearly established that the ancient Hebrews knew and perhaps were the first among men to know, that animals feel and suffer pain.
|
People who are not Jewish and are attracted to Judaism should know that it's tough being Jewish. There are commandments in the Jewish faith that non-Jews simply don't have to observe.
|
Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted--a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.
|
What was the necessity for the entire procedure of ritual slaughter? For the sake of self-discipline. It is far more appropriate for man not to eat meat; only if he has a strong desire for meat does the Torah permit it, and even this only after the trouble and inconvenience necessary to satisfy his desire. Perhaps because of the bother and annoyance of the whole procedure, he will be restrained from such a strong and uncontrollable desire for meat.
|
Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it.
|
You are permitted to use the animals and employ them for work, have dominion over them in order to utilize their services for your subsistence, but must not hold their life cheap nor slaughter them for food. Your natural diet is vegetarian.
|
Jews will move increasingly to vegetarianism out of their own deepening knowledge of what their tradition commands...Man's carnivorous nature is not taken for granted or praised in the fundamental teachings of Judaism...A whole galaxy of central rabbinic and spiritual leaders...has been affirming vegetarianism as the ultimate meaning of Jewish moral teaching.
|
The current treatment of animals in the livestock trade definitely renders the consumption of meat as halachically unacceptable as the product of illegitimate means. … As it is halachically prohibited to harm oneself and as healthy, nutritious vegetarian alternatives are easily available, meat consumption has become halachically unjustifiable.
|
Here you are faced with G-d's teaching, which obliges you not only to refrain from inflicting unnecessary pain on any animal, but to help and, when you can, to lessen the pain whenever you see an animal suffering, even through no fault of yours. … As G-d is merciful, so you also be merciful. As he loves and cares for all His creatures and His children and are related to Him, because He is their Father, so you also love all His creatures as your brethren. Let their joys be your joys, and their sorrows yours. Love them and with every power which G-d gives you, work for their welfare and benefit, because they are the children of your G-d, because they are your brothers and sisters.
|
War never shows who is wrong; it can only show who is strong. It is a superstition because people falsely believe that God will be on the side of the right. God has nothing to do with a hellish business like war. It is a superstition on a par with the burning of witches and trial by ordeal.
|
Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness.
|
'...according to the Biblical account (Gen. 9), it is forbidden, according to the law of the torah, to inflict pain upon any living creature. On the contrary, it is our duty to relieve the pain of any creature, even if it is ownerless or belongs to a non-Jew.'
|
There are probably no creatures that require more the protective Divine word against the presumption of man than the animals, which like man have sensations and instincts, but whose body and powers are nevertheless subservient to man. In relation to them man so easily forgets that injured animal muscle twitches just like human muscle, that the maltreated nerves of an animal sicken like human nerves, that the animal being is just as sensitive to cuts, blows, and beating as man. Thus man becomes the torturer of the animal soul.
|
We are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great breakthrough.
|
Everything that God created is potentially holy, and our task as humans is to find that holiness in seemingly unholy situations. When we can do this, we will have learned to nurture our souls.
|
Fun can be the dessert of our lives but never its main course.
|
If I am not for myself, who is for me But if I am for my own self only, what am I, and if not now, when
|
The circumstances of your life have uniquely qualified you to make a contribution. And if you don't make that contribution, nobody else can make it.
|
I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending that haunts our sleep so much as the fear ... that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived.
|
He who refuses to learn deserves extinction.
|
It seems doubtful from all that has been said whether the Torah would sanction 'factory farming,' which treats animals as machines, with apparent insensitivity to their natural needs and instincts. This is a matter for decision by halachic authorities.
|
I would rather think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to come together and make sense.
|
We are wise when we learn from one another. We are strong when we contain our impulses. We are honored when we honor others.
|
Let a good man do good deeds with the same zeal that the evil man does bad ones.
|
One of the most sublime experiences we can ever have is to wake up feeling healthy after we have been sick.
|
We were married by a reformed rabbi in Long Island. A very reformed rabbi. A Nazi.
|
In the killing of animals there is cruelty, rage, and the accustoming of oneself to the bad habit of shedding innocent blood.
|
You don't have to be religious to have a soul; everybody has one. You don't have to be religious to perfect your soul; I have found saintliness in avowed atheists.
|