Is love, compassion and nonviolence in alighment with Torah/Judaism-beliefs about humans and animals?

A friend wrote me: “Please reconsider your position, not following Torah, it is illogical. The people in Judaism are just that people. However we/ you can't make a difference on the outside of Judaism. The road your taking is hurting people.”

Here are my thoughts. I only want to help, so I hope you take it in a positive way. I write this only out of caring. Please take your time to contemplate over what I write.

Some quotes I like:

"It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sake and not for the sake of anything else." ~Maimonides

"Milk was destined to to feed the animals offspring and not that man should take it with force for himself. The kid has the right to enjoy it's mother's milk and it's mother's love, but hard-hearted man, influenced by his materialistic and shallow outlook, changes and perverts these true functions. Thus the gentile kid is unable to partake of it's mother's love and rejoice in the splendor of life." ~Rabbi Abraham Kook, chief rabbi of Israel.

"Samson Raphael Hirsch stated: "Here you are faced with God's teaching, which obliges you not only to refrain from inflicting unnecessary pain on any animal, but to help and, when you can, to lessen the pain whenever you see an animal suffering, even through no fault of yours.""

You wrote: “The road your taking is hurting people.””

I don’t believe that doing my best to live a life of love, compassion and nonviolence to humans and all other sentient beings is hurting people. In fact I do believe that if we are hurting other sentient beings, this shows that we are already hurt. I believe that veganism is a message of healing to ourselves, and healing to all human and nonhuman animals. I do my best to make this world into a better place – a vegan world without poverty, starvation, wars, slavery, discrimination, injustice, violence and hatred, which all are so dominant and rampant in our society.  I don’t believe in enslaving, inflicting unnecessary suffering and death upon innocent and precious animals, who all value life as much as we do, destroying their families and friend relationships, stealing their purpose and life, just for “taste”, habit, convenience or tradition.

We know that it is morally wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering and death upon animals: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/what-michael-vick-taught-us/ .
Research shows that animal products are bad for human health. I don’t believe a Loving and Compassionate Creator would recommend a diet which causes cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.: http://www.adelicatebalance.com.au/ ; http://www.drmcdougall.com/medical_ailments.html ; and inflicts unnecessary suffering and harm upon animals, that all want to live and not to be killed, hurt, exploited and enslaved by us. Our culture only hurts and kills animals despite the complete lack of necessity. When we eat animal products we are contradicting the very principle we truly believe in, about not inflicting animals suffering and death despite the lack of necessity.

I highly recommend this wonderful lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvZpF1R6GUo ; and this book: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15188-7/animal-oppression-and-human-violence#.UZAIageHrdk.facebook

 The arguments I presented above are one of several reasons why I don’t follow the Torah.

“However we/ you can't make a difference on the outside of Judaism.”

What sort of difference are you referring to? I know that a lifestyle of veganism and nonviolence that are opposed to all injustices, discrimination and violence, instills love, compassion and nonviolence in people both towards humans and other animals.

What are your thoughts about all this?

Take care!!

Love and peace,

Love, compassion, non-violence = vegan, compared to Torah, Judaism, religion

A new mail to a religious friend about animals:
Hello .....
Hope you are doing well!!!

"Thank-you, I shall take care of your pants for you."
Thank you!!

You wrote: "I think that the question of whether we should really eat meat is a good one, but I don't think that you can't be a Jew to ask it, (...) but are you really sure you are thinking about everything here? "

I am sure that a non-violent, loving and compassion is the right way to live. To treat all people with love and compassion, to do actions that help people, poor persons, that fights injustice, poverty, starvation. To do actions that helps ending the animal slavery. To not treat animals as property, but as individuals.

You wrote: "Can you please think about this? The universe can't be made by its self so there has to be some infinite being and since there is an infinite being there has to be a relationship made, in order for us to be able be all we were made to become."

I have thought about it a lot. I agree with you that there is a certain moral that we should aspire too. You think it is in Torah.
I think there is some wisdom in Torah, like for example that people ate plants in the beginning before the fist "sin", the commandments 'you should not steal', you shall not kill (I learned that it covered all killing, before it was redefined to 'not murder').

I reason, first of all, that Torah's treatment of animals as property is unethical and that viewing animals as property is the cause to the worst animal abuse you can find. If we disregard animals rights - their right to their own life, their right to their own produce (e.g. milk), their right to their family, their right to live in freedom, their right not to be used by us -- then we allow others to disregard other animal rights.
See 'Animals as Property': http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/video/#.UVcAGFcWngM

"Going vegan is the path to real health for oneself, for the Earth, for animals, for all of us -- we are all interconnected and it's time to question the violence at the core of our culture and stop participating in it and stop making excuses for servile behavior. The only reason anyone eats animal foods is because they're following the orders given them from infancy by a culture of violence and exploitation. It's time for us to think for ourselves, and to came back to our hearts and honor the feelings of kindness for all. Thanks!"

I recommend World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle; www.worldpeacediet.org.

It will open a new world for you. As I said before,it is available here: https://www.spotify.com/

So if you remove all commandments related to domesticating and using animals, there are much fewer commandments.
Violence is never the solution. In Torah people are punished e.g. because they are working on shabbat. Death-penalty is not a loving and compassionate way and it doesn't solve anything. Violence can't be fought by violence. Violence give birth to more violence. Just because a person don't agree with keeping the shabbat doesn't mean he is unethical. Then we have death-penalty to women who were accused of committing adultery. The women could get this punishment if she was accused and couldn't prove that her hymen was found after intercourse. However, we know that women can lose their hymen before having intercourse. So a woman could get killed without having committed adultery.
I believe that adultery is unethical [e.g. causing harm and suffering to your partner], but I don't believe in the violent death penalty. Humans have no right to take the life of another being. Then we have all of these violent wars - killing innocent people just to fight over a land. Commandments about war captives, etc.

So I don't see to what gain it would be for humankind and all other animals of the world if I would follow an instruction manual with so much violence to other people and other animals. I know I did this for many years, but it was more like I was assuming that it was right based on a erroneous "logical proof". So, I recommend you to not assume that someone else is right; or that everything will make more sense when you have studied much more -- it doesn't!!
And what good did I do? Now, I am saving thousands of animals and I am also saving starving people, reducing green house-gases and thus the global warming-effect, that will cause more and more droughts and floods in this world. Every time I advocate for the animals, I am making a different. The posts that I wrote about Torah don't make this world to a more peaceful, loving, compassionate, non-violent planet, free of injustices, wars, poverty and starvation. The harm we inflict on other animals is the root to so many other evils that befall us.

You realized yourself that it is wrong to kill animals; and thus that there are errors in the Torah commandments. Continue to search, continue to dig, and especially become vegan for the animals sake (including humankind) and your sake. As long as a person is participating in exploiting animals (e.g. taking their milk and/or eggs), he/she cannot realize many things. Oppressing other individuals make us emotionally blind and disconnected. You have observed this behavior in humans that are oppressing other humans. More and more people are dieing of starvation, poverty, more and more other animals are being killed and used - so I think it is your responsibility to act and also to become a part of influencing other to become vegan.

First we take the purpose and freedom of animals and domesticate them; then we suffer from this:

"The Sanskrit word for war, gavisti, literally means a desire for more cows. This comes from the pastoral period of the Vedic society, during which cattle were a main source and symbol of wealth. During this time, many inter-clan wars were fought over getting and keeping cattle, and the warrior class of the society, known as Kshatriyas, were largely responsible for stealing cattle from other clans, and protecting their own clan's cattle. "

We sow suffering and death, and we reap suffering and death.
I rather study wisdom from all sources, and keep that which is loving, compassionate and non-violent - that which doesn't treat anyone as property; and that which doesn't cause suffering, harm and death to my fellow men and fellow other animals.

I don't believe there has to be an instruction manual. And you know that humans existed for hundreds of thousands of years before they learned how to write. I think there have been thousands of people who have known the right way to live throughout the ages, but knowledge can get lost. And all conscious beings are able to figure out how to live without having to rely on someone else, or some easily redacted book, influenced by its authors conceptions about humans and other animals.
All humans who want to can learn and find out about the loving, compassionate, and non-violent way to live. It may have been written down. But everything that is written down can be redacted by humans with their own agenda.

I don't agree with everything in the Buddhist tradition (and it may also be redacted), but the origins of it emphasize to live a life of love, compassion and non-violence to all beings. And today many misrepresent it, e.g. non-vegan persons who claim to observe it.
Just one tradition that you can learn from.

You wrote: "I'm not able to know at this time many explanations, but I have a good idea where I can learn and grow, not everything is bad about Judaism, but everything is wrong with the others that try to supersede or replace it. Judaism has been founded on rationalizing what is so important that we intelligent beings should exist, please still think about it. "

Are you sure? And people use "intelligent", "rational", "logical" and "scientific" to rationalize all sorts of beliefs. Just because someone is using that methodology doesn't mean they come to the right conclusions. If you have the wrong premises - e.g. that is right to use violence against other people or animals - then you will also make erroneous conclusions. If we are oppressing others, we don't understand so many essential things about what is an ethical lifestyle; and what we write will be fundamentally wrong.
I would say that the core of our being is love and compassion; and that we can learn the most from the people who are spending all their time to treat other beings with non-violence, love and compassion.
'
What do you think?
With hopes, love and care,
Your friend

Counter argument to “God wants us to kill “kosher” animals”, and "Humans are the top of the food chain"

I would like to comment on your statement on Twitter about being at the top of the food chain.

First of all, you intuitively know that it is wrong to kill and harm innocent animals. The intuition and empathy of you heart is in conflict with those who are saying that you are disobeying the “will of Hashem” by arguing that it is wrong to harm and kill animals.


Why would a Loving and Compassionate Creator endorse causing harm and death to sentient beings, whom want to live, not to suffer, don’t want to die and want to treat other beings with love and compassion, by taking their life and purpose, destroying their family bonds and creating lots of pain and misery.

Who invented this notion of “being the top of the food chain”? Some humans who wanted to justify killing of and stealing the purpose of animals? I think both killing and stealing are two unethical actions. What is the species in the world with the highest morality? Why? I think one cannot say there is any, but that it depends on the actions of the individuals of that species. The individuals with the highest morality are those choosing actions of love and compassion, including actions that are not causing harm and death to other beings – regardless of species.

Humans do many things to rationalize our actions. When humans want to justify the killing of animals, they come up with erroneous excuses such as “they are of lower intelligence”, “they lack free will”, “god wants us to kill “kosher” animals”, “it is okay to kill predators because they are so barbaric in their treatment of their victims”. Or humans even excuse themselves by claiming ”animals kill other animals”. However many other times humans condemn different animal behaviors (such as rape, or killing individuals of their own species), and say that we are more ethical than them. So really it is a “pick-and-choice” in order to justify what your intuition and inner being know is unethical. If we look at some predators as role models, we can virtually “justify” any unethical behavior.

And why don’t instead look upon the compassionate herbivores of the world and follow their ethical example. Humans have the body of a herbivore http://sites.jabyte.com/health/Home/humans-are-herbivores ; http://bloganders.blogspot.no/search?q=herbivore

The ethical approach would instead be, you don’t defend unethical actions by claiming “it is okay, because another being did it”.

Humans evolved. We chose a lifestyle of non-cruelty to other sentient beings. Now animal products are bad for our health (including products from “kosher” animals): http://www.drmcdougall.com/ ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNeWCvLZaFM


Quite recently some humans started hunting, and even more recently – 10000 to 15000 years ago – humans started with domestication, which is taking animals their freedom, life and purpose away from them.

Furthermore, the milk industry and other animal industry, has a vast environmental impact and is causing poverty, starvation, a vast amount of greenhouse-gases and subsequent deaths by droughts and floods because of climate change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fws0f9s4Bas&feature=em-uploademail


We can never justify hurting and killing other humans or other animals.

Killing, hurting or enslaving an animal is depriving precious animals on their rights to live a life in freedom: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/what-are-the-roots-of-freedom-and-slavery/


More about animals, their free will, their intelligence and ability to show empathy: http://bloganders.blogspot.no/2013/03/science-shows-that-animals-are.html


We already know the truth in our heart – the truth about how to live an ethical life. When we stop oppressing other sentient beings and turn vegan, we realize more and understand more about the ethical lifestyle that is our purpose. The authors and/or redactors of Torah and many other religious books failed to realize these essential truths since they were living a life of stealing, oppressing and taking the lives of other sentient beings. The truth is written on our heart, in our inner being, and can easily be found by anyone who stops to oppress other beings and spend all their time with spreading love and compassion to all beings. Authors/redactors who don’t understand this basic truth have also misunderstood much more about the truths of our life and purpose, and the essence of our Loving and Compassionate Creator. We have a choice – either to steal other individual’s purposes by killing/harming them and taking what belongs to them and their family (e.g. milk) and losing our purpose, or stop oppressing other beings and extend love and compassion to all beings, and find our true and only purpose. To take other beings peace and well-being and to lose true peace, or to extend love and compassion to all beings, and find true peace.


I really recommend this book: http://www.worldpeacediet.org/ [Also available on Spotify (www.spotify.com , I think you got in USA) as an audio-book legally and for free ].

What do you think?

Take care my friend! :)