Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is President and Dean at Valley Beit Midrash. He is an educator, social entrepreneur, activist, and the author of fourteen books on Jewish ethics. Newsweek named Rabbi Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America and the Forward named him one of the 50 most influential Jews.

“Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics is well-organized and thoughtfully presented, offering germane and urgent issues, even for those not fully compliant with Jewish dietary laws. Its remedies are balanced, middle paths between Jewish law, rabbinic dictum, and modern realities, showing that kashrut’s core values permeate Judaism, so that if the commandments are characterized as wheels driving Judaism forward, the dietary laws are their hubs and spokes. Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics is a remarkable book, creating a mnemonic, the simple act of eating, reminding us we have custodianship of the Earth, welfare for our fellow humans, and care for ourselves.”—Fred Reiss, San Diego Jewish World“The book is a feast of valuable insights, a very useful guide on how to make our diets more consistent with kashrut and Jewish values: holier, healthier, more compassionate, more environmentally sustainable, less wasteful of land, energy, water and other resources – and more just, by avoiding foods that involve the mistreatment of workers on farms and in slaughterhouses. … At a time when typical Jewish diets, and those of most people, contribute substantially to an epidemic of life-threatening diseases in the Jewish and other communities, to climate change and other environmental threats to humanity, and to the widespread horrific treatment of farmed animals, this book provides much 'food for thought' and practical ideas that can help produce a healthier, more compassionate, just, peaceful and environmentally sustainable world.”—Richard H. Schwartz,The Jerusalem Post

• Introduction Rabbi Dr. Shmuly YanklowitzSection 1: Kashrut Dynamics1. On the Ethics and Politics of Kosher Food Supervision Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz2. Are You Really Eating Kosher? On Camouflage, Hypocrisy, and Hiding Behind the Kashrut Laws Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo3. Milk and Meat: The Dangerous Mixture Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes CardozoSection 2: Bridging Kashrut with Ethical & Spiritual Concerns1. The Moral Underpinnings of KashrutRabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz2. Eating Our Way from Holiness to Justice: Kashrut as a Bridge Between Competing Value SystemsRabbi Dr. David Kasher3. Increasing Holiness in Life: Towards an Expanded KashrutRabbi Dr. Irving (Yitz) GreenbergSection 3: Spirituality of Eating1. Eating as a Sacrament: The Eating Table and the CoffinRabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber2. Food for Thought: Hasidic Wisdom on Spiritual Eating Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse3. Holy Eating in Jewish Thought and PracticeRabbi Hyim Shafner4. Too Much of Everything is Just Enough: Eating as a Spiritual Practice in a Culture of Abundance Rabbi David JaffeSection 4: Health & Consumption1. Towards a Jewish Nutrition Ethic: The Theology, Law, and Ethics of Healthy EatingRabbi Daniel R. Goodman2. Why Are We So Hungry? Our Betrayal of Eating, Being Satisfied and Blessing and The Way Back! Rabbi Daniel Landes3. Your Grains, Your Grape Juice, and Your Oil: Coming to Terms with Unhealthy Foods Venerated by Jewish TraditionRabbi Asher LopatinSection 5: Worker Rights, Equality, & Hunger1. The Divine Image: Theological Reflections on Jewish Labor LawRabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse2. Judaism and The Crisis of the Rural Village in the Global SouthRabbi Micha Odenheimer3. Let Them Have a Little BreadRabbi Marc GitlerSection 6: Animal Welfare1.  תשובה בענייני צער בעלי חייםRabbi David Bigman2. Animal Suffering and the Rhetoric of Values and HalakhahRabbi Dov Linzer3. Animal Welfare: The Commandments Were Only Given for the Purpose of Refining PeopleRabbi Dr. David Rosen4. The Case for Limiting Meat Consumption to Shabbat, Holidays, and CelebrationsRabbi Aaron PotekSection 7: Environmentalism, Conservation, and GMOs1. Ethical Eating and the Impact on our EnvironmentRabbi Dr. Mel Gottlieb2. Humanity and the Tree of the Field: Conservation as a CommandmentRosh Kehillah Dina Najman3. Divine Wisdom or Altering Creation? A Torah Perspective on GMOsRabbi Gabe GreenbergConclusionRabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz