Is Keeping Kosher Good for the Environment?: Scientific American

This is sort of a weird article, and it is worthwhile to read to the end and the comments that follow. As several who've commented report, a strong case has been made by many rabbis (over two millenia) that the purpose of Kashrut is partially to reduce the consumption of meat. God only allows humans to eat animals at all in order that we are less likely to vent our innate violent impulses on human beings. If one keeps kosher in the traditional way, one's consumption of meat is greatly limited, since most of us will eat one or two vegetarian or dairy meals a day. A large number of us eat meat only 2-3 times a week, which greatly helps our energy footprint.

On the other hand, purchasing exclusively kosher products often involves a large number of non-local food items, since most of the United States must import their kosher meat and prepared foods from out-of-state (or even Israel). This, however, is an issue faced by all Americans and is not exclusive to the Jewish, kashrut-observant community. In order to balance the fuel usage of importing food, I join many others by eating as much locally produced items as possible--particularly fruits, vegetables, and dairy. When was the last time you checked where your milk came from? Or checked whether your apples were from Washington State, California, or Maine?

Is Keeping Kosher Good for the Environment?: Scientific American

I particularly like the coda on the article, quoting Lise Stern, author of How to Keep Kosher: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Jewish Dietary Laws:

Even though keeping kosher is not inherently more or less ecofriendly than a conventional diet, Stern notes that the small but growing kosher organic meat offerings, along with the overall boom in organic foods, make it easier to suffuse keeping kosher with her green values. And, of course, there are benefits that can't be counted by the numbers. "For me, keeping kosher is a spiritual commitment," Stern says. "It imbues the mundane with the sublime."

At the Festival of Sukkot, Cooking Is Identity for Syrian Jews - New York Times

This article (from the New York Times two years ago) describes how New York's Sephardic population celebrates Sukkot. The "Related" box on the left of the screen (when you go to the article at the NY Times website) features recipes for dishes mentioned in the article.

At the Festival of Sukkot, Cooking Is Identity for Syrian Jews - New York Times

Cooking Defines Sephardic Jews at Sukkot

By JULIA MOSKIN

LIKE its trees, Brooklyn’s sukkahs sprout in unlikely places.

All over the borough, observant Jewish families spent the first week of October building sukkahs, outdoor rooms with open roofs, in preparation for the holiday of Sukkot, which began last Friday and ends this Friday. Perched on asphalt roofs and in concrete gardens, they will eat under the stars for a week to commemorate the Jews’ biblical wanderings in the desert.

For one food-loving community within Brooklyn’s sizable Jewish population, Sukkot has additional significance.

“We always cook a lot, but for Sukkot, we do even more,” said Aida Hasson, who grew up in Beirut and is part of Brooklyn’s tight-knit community of Middle Eastern Jews.

This network of a few hundred families shares roots in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt, and also an extraordinary culinary tradition. They use the term Syrian Jews, to distinguish themselves within the larger world of the Sephardim, the Jews of the Mediterranean.

“We call ourselves Syrian, Sephardic, Middle Eastern, whatever,” said Giselle Habert, who was born in Cairo. “The important thing is that we all know each other, and we all cook the same things.”

This community’s favorites are labor-intensive dishes that are still passed down from mother to daughter: sambusak, crisp little half-moons stuffed with allspice-scented meat or tangy white cheese; mujadara, lentils and rice cooked together and thickly piled with gold-brown strands of onion; mahshi, vegetables like tiny eggplant and finger-size zucchini stuffed with spiced meat and rice; and kahk, sesame-sprinkled rounds of crumbly pastry.

“Ours is the real, original cooking of the Jews,” said Vicki Maijor, whose grandmother was born in Aleppo, Syria. In the Bible, she pointed out, when Esau sells his birthright, “it is for lentil soup, isn’t it?”

Now spread over the world, “the community,” as its members call it, is defined mostly through family and religion, but also by its distinctive food, so different from the brisket and bagels of the Ashkenazic tradition most Americans are familiar with.

FOR MORE OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK HERE.

About the image above:

Evan Sung for The New York Times

A dessert table includes, from top, sesame rounds called kahk; preserved apples and spaghetti squash; and cactus pear and pomegranate seeds, fall fruits that are traditional for Sukkot.

Getting Started on Herzl

Today we also started our unit on Theodor Herzl and the beginnings of modern Political Zionism. For a brief biography of Theodor Herzl, see this Jewish Virtual Library article.

Imperial History of the Middle East

Last week and today, in class, we spoke about the series of empires that have controlled the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) in the past three millennia. I just found this super-cool interactive map that shows in much more detail the sequence of empires that claimed the Land of Israel as their own due to either its strategic importance or its religious significance.

Imperial History of the Middle East



A quick written history of these empires can be found here: Brief History of Israel and the Jewish People. Scroll down, and take a look of the list of foreign empires that ruled the land.

I also just found a nice summary of how Israel arrived at its current borders on the Middle East Facts website.

Big Questions and Answers from Your Kids

This past Sunday, both hours' classes took slight digressions from our main topic (the Jerusalem Temples, the past importance of sacrifices, and how prayer replaces sacrifices today) and hit many of the BIG Jewish spiritual questions: why do mitzvot, why God is quieter today than in the past, why God spoke through prophets in the past, why has God given human beings so much power in the world when we often abuse it so horribly. The kids asked the highest caliber of questions and gave just as good answers. I was very impressed that one of the girls actually knew the rabbinic answer to the question of what God does today, since human beings seem to be in charge of the day-to-day business. As Hannah reminded me, God makes marriages. (This is, depending on which class member you ask, either a brilliant answer from the sages of the past or one that just avoids the question.)

I love speaking to kids about God, as do Ari and Melissa. However, kids often benefit particularly from talking with their parents and other family members about God, the Universe, and the meaning of it all. I've put together a few (possibly too few) items for you to help prepare you for this task.

On the Web, you can do a search for "talking to kids about God Jewish" and find many helpful sites and repeated postings of a helpful article from Rabbi David Wolpe, a Conservative rabbi in LA: My Jewish Learning: How to Talk to Your Kids about God. I also recommend the following interview with Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, one of the most important Jewish children's authors: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/features.php?id=15228. Sasso is best known for her book God's Paintbrush.

My favorite books on Jewish theology for middle-schoolers are:

• Kushner, Lawrence. The Book Of Miracles: A Young Person's Guide To Jewish Spiritual Awareness: For Parents To Read To Their Children, For Children To Read To Their Parents. UAHC Press, 1987. Jewish Lights Pub; 1997.
• Gellman, Marc. How Do You Spell God? Answers to the Big Questions from Around the World. Reading level: Ages 9-12. William Morrow & Company; 1995.
• Feinstein, Edward. Tough Questions Jews Ask: A Young Adult's Guide to Building a Jewish Life. Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003.