Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics: (Jewish Thought, Jewish History: New Studies)

Since the turn of the millennium, rapid advances in technology, globalized markets, and atomized politics instigated in the American and Israeli Jewish communities questions about the morals of food consumption. Contemporary issues such as workers' rights, animal welfare, environmental protection, among others, intersect with basic Jewish food ethics: while Jewish communities respect ancient laws, they also appreciate the importance of progress and look forward to a more repaired world. In these pages, readers will have the unique opportunity to delve into the minds of the brightest Modern Orthodox thinkers of the current generation. The contributions contained in Kashrut & Jewish Food Ethics by members of the progressive Orthodox Jewish association Torat Chayim are rich in detail and offer new paradigms for the practical observance of kashrut that have swirled in the ether for generations.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz Section 1: Kashrut Dynamics 1. On the Ethics and Politics of Kosher Food Supervision Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz 2. Are You Really Eating Kosher? On Camouflage, Hypocrisy, and Hiding Behind the Kashrut Laws Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo 3. Milk and Meat: The Dangerous Mixture Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo Section 2: Bridging Kashrut with Ethical & Spiritual Concerns 1. The Moral Underpinnings of Kashrut Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz 2. Eating Our Way from Holiness to Justice: Kashrut as a Bridge Between Competing Value Systems Rabbi Dr. David Kasher 3. Increasing Holiness in Life: Towards an Expanded Kashrut Rabbi Dr. Irving (Yitz) Greenberg Section 3: Spirituality of Eating 1. Eating as a Sacrament: The Eating Table and the Coffin Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber 2. Food for Thought: Hasidic Wisdom on Spiritual Eating Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse 3. Holy Eating in Jewish Thought and Practice Rabbi Hyim Shafner 4. Too Much of Everything is Just Enough: Eating as a Spiritual Practice in a Culture of Abundance Rabbi David Jaffe Section 4: Health & Consumption 1. Towards a Jewish Nutrition Ethic: The Theology, Law, and Ethics of Healthy Eating Rabbi Daniel R. Goodman 2. Why Are We So Hungry? Our Betrayal of Eating, Being Satisfied and Blessing and The Way Back! Rabbi Daniel Landes 3. Your Grains, Your Grape Juice, and Your Oil: Coming to Terms with Unhealthy Foods Venerated by Jewish Tradition Rabbi Asher Lopatin Section 5: Worker Rights, Equality, & Hunger 1. The Divine Image: Theological Reflections on Jewish Labor Law Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse 2. Judaism and The Crisis of the Rural Village in the Global South Rabbi Micha Odenheimer 3. Let Them Have a Little Bread Rabbi Marc Gitler Section 6: Animal Welfare 1.  תשובה בענייני צער בעלי חיים Rabbi David Bigman 2. Animal Suffering and the Rhetoric of Values and Halakhah Rabbi Dov Linzer 3. Animal Welfare: The Commandments Were Only Given for the Purpose of Refining People Rabbi Dr. David Rosen 4. The Case for Limiting Meat Consumption to Shabbat, Holidays, and Celebrations Rabbi Aaron Potek Section 7: Environmentalism, Conservation, and GMOs 1. Ethical Eating and the Impact on our Environment Rabbi Dr. Mel Gottlieb 2. Humanity and the Tree of the Field: Conservation as a Commandment Rosh Kehillah Dina Najman 3. Divine Wisdom or Altering Creation? A Torah Perspective on GMOs Rabbi Gabe Greenberg Conclusion Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

About the Author :
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is President and Dean at Valley Beit Midrash. He is an educator, social entrepreneur, activist, and the author of fourteen books on Jewish ethics. Newsweek named Rabbi Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America and the Forward named him one of the 50 most influential Jews.

Review :
“Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics is well-organized and thoughtfully presented, offering germane and urgent issues, even for those not fully compliant with Jewish dietary laws. Its remedies are balanced, middle paths between Jewish law, rabbinic dictum, and modern realities, showing that kashrut’s core values permeate Judaism, so that if the commandments are characterized as wheels driving Judaism forward, the dietary laws are their hubs and spokes. Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics is a remarkable book, creating a mnemonic, the simple act of eating, reminding us we have custodianship of the Earth, welfare for our fellow humans, and care for ourselves.”—Fred Reiss, San Diego Jewish World “The book is a feast of valuable insights, a very useful guide on how to make our diets more consistent with kashrut and Jewish values: holier, healthier, more compassionate, more environmentally sustainable, less wasteful of land, energy, water and other resources – and more just, by avoiding foods that involve the mistreatment of workers on farms and in slaughterhouses. … At a time when typical Jewish diets, and those of most people, contribute substantially to an epidemic of life-threatening diseases in the Jewish and other communities, to climate change and other environmental threats to humanity, and to the widespread horrific treatment of farmed animals, this book provides much 'food for thought' and practical ideas that can help produce a healthier, more compassionate, just, peaceful and environmentally sustainable world.” —Richard H. Schwartz,The Jerusalem Post