What is really advocated is a return to Jewish
values of showing compassion, sharing, helping the
needy, preserving the environment, conserving resources,
and seeking peace. Also, rabbinic enactments consistent
with Jewish values and teachings to meet changing
conditions have historically been part of Judaism.
Global threats today - pollution, hunger, resource
scarcity, violence - are so great that a new thinking
or rethinking about values and new methods is necessary.
Albert Einstein's statement, "The unleashed
power of the atom has changed everything except
our ways of thinking; hence we drift toward unparalleled
catastrophe," has a parallel to the effects
of our diets today.
Jewish vegetarians are not advocating changes
in the Torah, but want the Torah be used to master
present world conditions, as it has in the past.
Global survival today requires the application of
Torah values to our diets, as well as other aspects
of our lives.