Richard Schwartz, an Orthodox Jew and professor emeritus
of mathematics at New York's College of Staten Island,
is the dean of Jewish vegetarians. In Judaism and
Global Survival, he has written a remarkable short
treatise arguing that Jewish values can provide a
key to confronting the ecological crises facing earth.
In his opening three chapters, Schwartz uses biblical
and midrashic sources to persuade us that normative
Judaism requires the individual to protest against
social injustice, and to be concerned with human rights
and obligations.
Schwartz maintains that since we were created in
the image of God, humans have an obligation to creativity
and the completion of the Creator's work. This idea
follows a modern Orthodox theology associated with
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and his disciples -- Shlomo
Riskin, Shubert Spero, David Hartman, Aharon Rakeffet,
and Yaakov Fogelman. The Jewish way in the face of
evil, according to Schwartz, is not the passive resignation
espoused by Eastern theology. Judaism requires active
compassion, confronting evil and transforming it to
good.
Schwartz's greatest concerns are environmental --
over-population, global warming, ozone layer depletion,
excessive fossil fuel use, pollution, hunger, and
malnutrition.
He is troubled by the gaps between wealthy and poorer
nations. His solutions are based on the Jewish principle
of bal tashchit -- the prohibition against wantonly
destroying and wasting the things of God's world.
He wants humanity to live in more modest and simple
ways and show respect for God's creatures and creation.
Schwartz's mainstream vegetarianism plays an important
role in this book, and one has the feeling that the
evil which most obsesses him is the cruelty and waste
involved in raising animals for human consumption.
Here the rabbinical voice that he most persuasively
invokes is that of Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak Ha-Cohen
Kook. Schwartz makes a strong case that reducing meat
consumption is good for the environment. But his argument
that vegetarianism would raise our spiritual level
is more problematic.
This book is filled with a wide range of telling
insights and observations, and does not steer away
from problems and contradictions within its own case.
For instance, he raises the question of whether (in
what he calls an over-populated world) Jews (in a
world of great assimilation) have both a special interest
and obligation to try to increase their numbers. Here
he suggests the possibility that Jews might be given
that privilege on the grounds that they, as a group,
have contributed disproportionately to the overall
well-being and advancement of humanity.
This is not, however, the answer he prefers. Nor
does he believe that the opposite argument for zero
population growth should be adopted by the Jews. His
recommendation is to have a Jewish community that
aims for zero population impact -- one which could
thus increase its number while reducing per-capita
consumption.
Schwartz may not provide foolproof answers, but Judaism
and Global Survival is recommended for those interested
in understanding how Jewish values can guide humanity
toward a better future.
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