The Green Rabbinical Student

Together we will change the world

swimfast — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:43:35 +0000

The following article appeared in the October 2009 issue of the Aitz Chaim bulletin:

I was sitting in my Sukkah last week, enjoying the sun shining through the schach in the roof and my book, when the sky began to darken. My midwestern instinct immediately informed me that it was about to rain. I took everything inside just as the first few drops began to fall. Rather than be upset that my beautiful day was ruined, I paused to think about how great it is that we have so much freshwater in the Northeast, while many parts of the world are becoming ever dehydrated.

I would not have experienced the same problem had I been living in Jerusalem or Los Angeles, as it only rains in the winter. In fact, Sukkot is timed to be just before the rain begins to fall in Israel, and it isn’t until we have taken down our sukkot at the end of the festival that we begin to recite the request for rain in our daily Amida prayer. The use of rain as a reward or of drought as a punishment is a major theme running throughout Judaism. Do good and you will have abundant rainfall, but go astray and your land will dry up and no crops will grow. (Deut. 11:13-21)

Sukkot is often a time that environmentalists use to forward their agenda of saving our planet by reducing the human affect. During the Yamim Nora’im (the days of awe) I was camping in Glacier park. A sign at the entrance to the Grenell Glacier hike declared that human actions are causing the glacier to erode at rates far faster than predicted and showed the photographs of the glacier over the last century and how much the glacier declined in the last two decades. As I descended from the mountain I realized how profound the impact the sign had made. I had just witnessed a glacier that is millions of years old that, with every passing second, is spewing forth water that has not been in it’s current state of matter since the ice age. Chances are that my grandchildren will not be afforded the same opportunity. And that’s why I speak up and advocate for the need to dramatically reduce our impact on our environment and our health.

We are currently dealing with many hot topics these days – some are political, while others are very personal. Fortunately, there are people who are passionate about all of these issues enough to stand up and decide to not only take a stand but also try to encourage others to join them. Judaism has a long history of standing up for the issues in which we believe. Whatever makes you passionate, I hope that you find something that you are passionate about in this new yeah, learn about the issue, and share with others why it is so important to you. Ani V’atah, n’shaneh et haolam – Together we will change the world.

Soapless Soap

swimfast — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:42:05 +0000

This is a reaction to a friend’s question about why in Israel the soap says “Soapless Soap”

In the US, it’s rare that you’ll see a product actually with soap on the label, because, i’m sorry to say, it isn’t. Soap is really just oil that has been saponified to separate the materials that creates soap. Glycerin + lye = soap. Maybe some fats to keep things looking shiny and smooth. There is only one product I know about, Dr. Bronners soaps, which are actually soap. Everything else is: Shampoo, body wash, scented this, amazing that…but not soap. I hate to tell you, but guess where most of your “soap” comes from?

See that Sodium Laurel (and Laureth) Sulfate? That’s processed petroleum. Yup – you are putting black gold on your skin and hair. All those other things you can’t pronounce? Smell, lather (so you think you are getting clean), color, texture, preservatives and well, water is still water. Maybe it makes your skin soft, but that’s only because they add ingredients to counter act the effect of the other stuff.

Unfortunately, the preservatives they use are almost always called Parabens, which are thought to increase your risk of breast cancer, and make our water not so nice. While these studies are not fully conclusive, Parabens are used extensively in the beauty product world and I’m not going to take my chances. If I can’t pronounce it, I’m not putting it on my body. Who knows what these things are doing to our largest defense mechanism, our beloved epidermis.

Here’s why I use Dr. Bronners:
I can prononce everything on the label
100% organic and fair trade
So fair trade, that he uses Palestinian olives and an Israeli olive presser. I’m getting clean and helping the peace process.
It smells nice (I use pepperment).
1 bottle = shampoo, soap, dish soap, and cleaning soap.
It’s 100% biodegradable.

Conscious Meat Eating

swimfast — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:36:11 +0000

“It could be, in fact, that a conscientious meat eater may have a more environmentally friendly diet than your average vegetarian.”

I love meat. It sometimes shocks people when I say that after a diatribe about how awful it is for the environment to eat meat. The problem, in our current society, that like anything else we do we eat meat in excess. There is no doubt that the way we produce the majority of the meat in our society is unsustainable and unhealthy. But that doesn’t mean that in order for one to feel good about being an environmentalist one must give up meat altogether.

Check out this article from the NY times which lists all of the ways that meat eaters can actually feel good about the food that they consume. Unfortunately, this system will not produce enough meet for us to all eat a double bacon cheeseburger once a day, to start off every day with steak and eggs, or to eat street meet after every bar visited on a Halloween night. We must reduce our consumption, and demand that our food supply is healthy, sustainable, and, if we are lucky, might actually taste better too.

via Op-Ed Contributor – The Carnivore’s Dilemma – NYTimes.com.

Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws – NYTimes.com

swimfast — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:10:33 +0000

Is this the type of environment that we want to be living in? One where we are unable to know the process in which a company produces ground beef such that we can be made extremely ill from it’s consumption? A Jew might disregard this article thinking that this sort of thing doesn’t affect Kosher meat, but it surely does. It’s time for the American people to rally and demand that major changes be made to our argiculture industry so that we not only have access to safe, healthy meat, but that we have the transparency to know how our food get’s from the seed to the table and who is involved along the way.

Bon Appetite.

“The meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets. While the Department of Agriculture has inspectors posted in plants and has access to production records, it also guards those secrets. Federal records released by the department through the Freedom of Information Act blacked out details of Cargill’s grinding operation that could be learned only through copies of the documents obtained from other sources. Those documents illustrate the restrained approach to enforcement by a department whose missions include ensuring meat safety and promoting agriculture markets.”

Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws – NYTimes.com

A Purposeful Fast: A Yom Kippur Sermon on Food | The Jew and the Carrot

swimfast — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:01:49 +0000

This is a great Yom Kippur drash about the state of our food industry and re-envisioning Kashrut, with which I completely agree. It’s time to take Kashrut to a new level.

A Purposeful Fast: A Yom Kippur Sermon on Food | The Jew and the Carrot

Why I Bike Amongst the Cars

swimfast — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:57:36 +0000

Why I Bike Amongst the Cars, originally uploaded by swimfast.

Rainy Sunset

swimfast — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:11:03 +0000

IMG_0052.JPG, originally uploaded by swimfast.

Best Buds

swimfast — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:49:07 +0000

DSC_3764.NEF, originally uploaded by swimfast.

Puffff

swimfast — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 05:19:28 +0000

puff, originally uploaded by swimfast.

nature’s alarm clock

swimfast — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 05:18:53 +0000

natures alarm clock, originally uploaded by swimfast.

Living in the city, one may romantacize the idea of waking up at dawn to the sound of a rooster crowing. In practice, they begin around 4pm (one hour before the actual sun rise) and continue all day in an attempt to remind us that they are the dominant beings on the farm.

The competition for this position is fierce; competing with the “guard” geese and the male goats. They are, however, one of the most beautiful animals found on a farm, as the picture above illustrates.