Setting The Stage
According to the Jewish calendar, we just entered the year 5774 which tells us how long it has been since Adam and Eve appeared in the Garden of Eden. Beginning the new year it is tradition that Jews around the world continue their Torah study by starting at the beginning with Genesis. Of course, most people know that Genesis starts with the words "In the beginning". What most people may not be aware of is that on the sixth day of creation as the final word we were told by the Creator what our food was to be.
In Genesis 1:29 of the Torah (the first five books of Moses) it is written, "Then God said, " I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be your food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all of the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has breath of life in it - I give every green plants for food. And it was so". This was taken directly from the Holy Bible - New International Version published by Zondervan.
The Chumash is a definitive translation with various views and commentary of two thousand years of Rabbinic scholarship regarding the Torah (The Five Books of Moses and other related teachings both oral and written) The following appears in the Chumash - Gutnick edition of the Five Books of Moses page 13, "Let him (man) rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the skies, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth" (P. 11). In other words the creator gave man dominion over the earth and all that was on it. It further reads "I have given you every plant that reproduces by seed that is upon the surface of the entire earth, and every tree that has seed bearing fruit! They shall be food for you. For all of the wild animals of the earth, for all the birds of the skies, and for everything that moves upon the earth that is alive! The food for humans and animals shall be plant vegetation only - and that is what happened.". "God saw everything he had made - and look- it was very good".
So we see that it was written in Genesis 1:29 very clearly that our food was to be plant based. Let's drill down a little further to find the deeper meanings of these writings by reading Toras Menachem, (commentary by the Rabbiniccal scholars). It is written in the Chumash "The knowledge that man is the pinnacle of creation (described in 26-28) could lead him to become arrogant and disrespectful of the world's contents. So, after describing the greatness of man, the Torah continued and equated cattle and animals to man regarding the food they were allowed to eat. These verses are an attempt to humble man with the knowledge that despite the fact that he is the pinnacle of creation formed in the image of God, he is nevertheless a creation that needs to eat in order to survive, like any animal"..
Plus, "Despite the fact that God told man to rule over the fish of the sea, birds of the skies, and all of the wild animals that move upon the earth", (v 28) he nevertheless limited the authorities of man in that "he did not allow Adam and his wife to kill a creature and to eat its flesh". This was in order to ensure that man's awareness of his own genuine greatness should not lead to arrogance or pompousness.It was obviously important to keep man humble, otherwise he might get carried away with his power.
If God created man and presented him with a dietary plan isn't it logical that the food provided would contain all of the nutrients man needed to live a healthy life ? This is why Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, M.D. calls a live, raw, organic, plant based diet the "highest evolutionary diet on the planet".
In regards to the diet of man and the animals Rashi, the brilliant rabbinnical scholar that lived in the 11th century writes, " The Torah equates cattle and the animals to man regarding the food that they were permitted to eat and that they were only allowed to eat vegetation, and not meat". The Torah states explicitly that " I have hereby given you every plant...and every tree that has seed bearing fruit". They shall be food for you" (v. 29-30). From the fact that God makes no mention of meat, Rashi concludes "it is obvious that man was required to be a vegetarian (vegan)".
With this most compelling commentary on the position of the Torah on man's relationship to the earth and the animals upon it I ask the following: Where have we gone so wrong? How can we treat the earth the way we do? How is it that we destroy all of the topsoil, pollute the air and the water, and truly poison all beings on this glorious earth that we live on? And how have we gotten so far away from our relationship with animals ? How can factory farming exist, and slaughterhouses abound? How can we be killing billions of sentient beings for food when we have all the food we need on the earth as provided by Hashem? Isn't veganism the most compassionate of all options, and isn't it man's intended option? What ipath is the human race following?
Most importantly what are we going to do about this collectively, and individually ?
