1. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to the "Living God",
the "King Who delights in life", that they should
be remembered for life, and inscribed in the "Book
of Life" for the new year. Yet, typical animal-based
diets have been linked to heart disease, stroke, several
types of cancer, and other chronic degenerative diseases,
that shorten the lives of 1.4 million Americans annually.
2. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to a "compassionate
God", who compassionately remembers His creatures
for life. Yet, there is little compassion related
to modern intensive livestock agriculture (factory
farming), which involves the cruel treatment and slaughter
of over 9 billion farm animals in 1997 alone in the
United States.
3. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to God, "Who makes peace",
to be inscribed into the "Book of Life, Blessing,
and Peace". Yet, animal-centered diets, by requiring
vast amounts of land, water, energy, and other resources,
help to perpetuate the widespread hunger and poverty
that often lead to instability, violence, and war.
4. On Yom Kippur, Jews are told through the words
of Isaiah in the morning prophetic reading that the
true purpose of fasting on that day is to sensitize
them to the needs of the hungry and the oppressed,
so that they will work to end oppression and "share
thy bread with the hungry. (Isaiah 58:6,7) Yet, 70
percent of the grain produced in the United States
is used to fatten up farm animals, while 15 to 20
million of the world's people die annually from lack
of adequate food.
5. One of the most important messages of Yom Kippur
and the preceding days is the importance of teshuvah,
of turning away from sinful ways, from apathy, from
a lack of compassion and sensitivity, and returning
to Jewish values ideals, and mitzvot. Vegetarianism
is also a way of making a significant turn, away from
a diet that has many harmful effects to one that is
consistent with Jewish mandates to take care of our
health, treat animals kindly, protect the environment,
conserve natural resources, help the hungry, and seek
and pursue peace.
6. The Yom Kippur liturgy has a prayer that includes
the statement that "we are God's flock, and God is
our shepherd." Since Judaism teaches that people are
to imitate God in His acts of compassion and caring,
shouldn't we be treating God's defenseless creatures
in the ways that we want God to treat us?
7. On Yom Kippur, Jews ask for forgiveness for the
sin of "casting off responsibility". Vegetarianism
is a way to assume responsibility for our health,
for animals, for the environment, and for the world's
hungry people.
8. Yom Kippur is a time for reflection and soul
searching, a time to consider changes in one's way
of life, a time to make decisions for improvement.
Hence, it is an excellent time to switch to a diet
that has so many personal and societal benefits.
9. According to the Jewish tradition, our fate is
sealed on Yom Kippur for the coming year. But repentance,
charity, and prayer can avert a negative decree. However,
people have determined the fate of animals before
they are born, and there is virtually no possibility
of a change in the cruel treatment and early slaughter
that awaits them.
10. Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, a day of
being, in effect, at-one with God. One way to be more
at-one with God is by adopting a plant-based diet,
and thereby not harming animals, since "God's tender
mercies are over all of His creatures". (Psalm 145:9)
11. Yom Kippur teaches that, while it is often difficult,
old habits can be broken. Thus, the days surrounding
Yom Kippur provide a good period to break habits related
to the consumption of animal products.
12. The afternoon service for Yom Kippur includes
the reading from the book of Jonah, which tells how
Jonah was sent to warn the people of Nineveh that
they must do teshuvah, change their sinful ways in
order to avoid destruction. Today, the whole world
is like Nineveh, in need of redemption, and in danger
as never before from a variety of environmental threats.
Today, in a sense vegetarians are playing the role
of Jonah, pointing out that a shift away from an intensive
animal agriculture that has significant negative effects
on the environment, and a shift toward vegetarian
diets have become global imperatives, necessary to
shift humanity from its current perilous path.
13. The book of Jonah relates how Jonah was sent
to the non-Jewish city of Nineveh to urge them to
change their sinful ways. This teaches that God is
concerned about the fate of all of the world's people.
Vegetarianism is a way to show such concern and hence
to imitate God's attributes of caring and compassion,
since this diet requires far less land, grain, water,
fuel, and other resources, and hence can contribute
to a reduction of the widespread hunger that afflicts
so much of humanity.
14. The book of Jonah also shows God's concern for
animals. It ends with God's statement, "Should I not
then spare the great city of Nineveh with more than
one hundred and twenty thousand human beings . . .
and much cattle?"
15. On Yom Kippur, one of the many sins that we
ask forgiveness for is "the sin we committed before
Thee in eating and drinking." This can be interpreted
in terms of the harm that animal-based diets do with
regard to human health, animals, the environment,
and hungry people.
16. On Yom Kippur, Jews are forbidden to wear leather
shoes. One reason is that it is not considered proper
to plead for compassion when one has not shown compassion
to the creatures of God, whose concern extends to
all of His creatures.
17. Rabbi Israel Salanter, one of the most distinguished
Orthodox Rabbis of the nineteenth century, failed
to appear one Yom Kippur eve in time for the sacred
Kol Nidre Prayer. His congregation became concerned,
for it was inconceivable that their saintly rabbi
would be absent or late on this very holy day. They
sent a search party to look for him. After much time,
their rabbi was found in a Christian neighbor=B9s
barn. On his way to the synagogue, Rabbi Salanter
had come upon one of the neighbor's calves, lost and
tangled in the brush. Seeing the animal in distress,
he freed him and led him home. His act of compassion
represented the rabbi's prayers on that Yom Kippur
evening.
In summary, a shift to vegetarianism is an important
way to do teshuvah, to turn away from a diet that is
harmful in many ways to one that is in accord with the
many significant teachings and values that Yom Kippur
represents.