The Myth of Vegan Judaism; the Myth of Christopher Columbus.

hey guys I'm a nihilistic atheist in
case you hadn't heard I do not regard the religion of Judaism positively at all but I am tied to it as a tradition by blood and by anti-semitism because so many people planet Earth are so anti-semitic I have to carry the Jewish identity in history with me forever another choice about it back when I signed up to join the Canadian Army I was actually pretty pissed off that they didn't have an option under ethnicity for Jewish because that's the reality Judaism is not my religion Jewishness is my ethnicity and when you're signing up to join the Canadian Army in 2016 the war you're going to fight in Judaism and anti-semitism are definitely going concerns the army you're fighting against does not regard Jews as equivalent to Christians or equivalent to white people or equivalent any other Europeans definitely regarded as a separate ethnic category so I'm a nihilistic atheist but Judaism remains a big deal in my life and it's not not optionally and i also have a very strange respect from this because I'm a vegan who has a prior background not just in Buddhism but as a scholar of Buddhism somebody knows a lot about buzz knows a lot about politics in Asia including politics of ethnicity and ethnic identity in Asia so with all that haven't been said it's with a special sense of apprehension that I see the attempts to link Judaism to veganism to make them into one ideology and really what you're talking about is not even biblical Judaism well as part of it it's really a kind of ethnic nationalism it's a kind of Jewish ethnic nationalism trying to link that to veganism and a lot of that's going on partly because of the seeming success of veganism in Israel and partly just because I think there are there are a lot of people who are ethnically jewish whether or not they're religiously Jewish who want to somehow promote Judaism through veganism or promote veganism as a fast Judaism I'm gonna play you a clip right now from this group who who have the catchy name Jewish vague that's the name of their foundation there are real incorporated foundation there are registered charity they're taking donations they're making things happen so I mean you know credit words do they exist Jewish bag is not just a website it's an actual charity its national organization but I think you're going to hear pretty quickly are going to play you like a one-minute clip and you're going to hear what my problem is this approach what your rabbi maybe never told you is that a plant-based diet is truly the ideal in Judaism that meeting while permitted is presented in a negative light in some cases a very negative light so I just paused you may be able to hear that that clearly because it's a live recording from a live lecture so he said what your rabbi may have never told you and then he's getting into giving a justification for the bib lyssa tea for a biblical Old Testament basis for veganism in Judaism and besides all that we are many I've even instructed by the mandated in Judaism to treat animals with respect and equipment exquisite imagine so right so he's claiming and reason we are mandated to treat animals with respect and exquisite compassion sure that our organization is on a rock solid Jewish foundation what is the sort of thing people only say when it's not true if you're someone say you know a merican humanitarian intervention in Haiti is on a rock-solid foundation already you know it's [ __ ] up someone says to you you know uh you know Canada's humanitarian engagement in Afghanistan is on a rock-solid foundation why would you say that if it were true when things are actually on a rock solid foundation nobody ever says that even if this is the first you've ever heard of Judaism already from the way this guy presents the information uh got a sense that actually the foundation that that veganism rests on within Judaism is pretty shaky I'm ending something on to Judaism we're raising up core values that too often or suppressed or so again sorry even though it's really brief that's crucial he says we are not appending something on to Judaism so he's arguing that they're not appending veganism on to Judaism he says but they're raising up values that are already within Judaism so let me move in order okay sorry that's enough of that he think it's into talking about the organization and what they do and thanks their donors and then goes on to other topics okay so as simple as that those 30 seconds I think it was well under one minute I was quitting there as simple as that is that's really everything I object to in this premise for this approach to veganism and actually I object to it equally whether we're talking about it within Buddhism or talking about it within Judaism I think it's actually really important to recognize the extent to which veganism is a new idea and veganism has very shaky roots if any in ancient religions I mean I've met people have tried to argue that veganism is a natural extension of Islam that veganism is a natural extension of Christianity and again with Buddhism and Taoism even though the argument seems so much easier with Buddhism or Taoism for that matter I think it's really really important to recognize the opposite of what this guy just claimed that this is a modern idea that we are appending on to the ancient tradition or the traditional religion this is not an ancient idea we're finding in or that was breached by the Trojan now in the case of Judaism of course it's a little bit extra observed because anyone who is actually studied pardon me anyone who's actually studied the Torah anyone's actually studied the Old Testament knows that that was a religion absolutely built on animal sacrifice ritual animal sacrifice and meat-eating as part of the animals arione just kill the animal you kill the animal cook the animal share the meat the ritual sharing of meat between the different classes or different castes including and especially you know the the priestly caste however you want to say it the ritually special cast um this is the core of ancient Judaism ancient Judaism was built on ritualized meat-eating and the number of laws uh-oh the whole the Old Testament is virtually obsessed with law both law as a general concept and then details of particular laws the extension which the laws really concern raising animals at for food and ritual slaughtering of animals in consuming is ridiculous so you know honestly what I think of when I hear this kind of to me the totally fictional approach history to me he is fictionalizing the history of the religion it actually reminds me of a crossroads I feel that the Western world came to that all of Western civilization came to back in the year nineteen ninety-two 1992 is a long time ago folks in 1992 there were many many celebrations of the life and career of Christopher Columbus ak1 de cologne um 1492 1992 the years sort of rhyme I think everyone stood at a crossroads in America in England in Spain in Hispaniola and Alyssa I think ever wanted to look in the mirror and ask themselves are we going to fictionalize the history of how Europe colonized and Concord North American South America or are we going to keep it real are we going to be honest are we really going to reexamine what happened are we going to look at slavery and genocide and conquest and the the individual person of Christopher Columbus and his personal involvement with atrocities the involvement of the Catholic Church in those atrocities that you know very important role of Roma and of EDX of legal decisions made in Rome in the history colonization which way are we going to go and from my memory I mean I was a kid but in 1992 i can remember i think you know Western civilization to generalize about it Europe and all of Europe's perform our callings I think in 1992 people really sat in the fence during that year I think a lot of people were not decided there were a lot of people who felt maybe was harmless to tell a sort of comforting lie of half truths about to what extent Columbus was a good man or a great man or the discovery and colonization North America was a good thing a great thing and to present the enslavement and genocide and slaughter of native peoples in a fluttering light I think at that moment uh there was a sort of indecision but in the decades afterwards I think there's been a great disambiguation I think today among educated people it's almost universally accepted that we have to teach that Christopher Columbus was a terrible person and that what he did both in theory and practice and conception and execution that you know the the basic idea of that colonization in terms of enslavement genocide etc was was wrong and evil from the start the actual ax carried out by Columbus and his direct employees are crimes against humanity that you remembered his terrible things I honestly feel I've seen that emerged as a kind of consensus as a kind of common shared value in the Western world since 1992 and partly because in 1992 people had to face up to the ugliness of propaganda that was just outright celebrating and glorifying Columbus I think people had to look at that propaganda and think is this the road we want to go down do we want to live a lie and for how long for another century for eternity or do we want to deal with the truth um I think each of these religions basically has to ask themselves that question when it comes to veganism and for me you know which way I'd vote I would much rather see people whether they're involved in Judaism or Christianity or Islam or even Buddhism take the honest down-to-earth attitude that you know this is something new this is a new modern ideal being appended onto the religion if you sincerely believe what this guy claims i'll give you the link below this video to his to the youtube page for this group if you sincerely believe that this is not a new idea but this is an ancient and consistent part of christian urge christianity judaism etc why are so few pages devoted to it right the Bible depending is many hundreds of pages long I don't know what copy you have but anyway maybe it's over a thousand pages many many hundreds of pages long how many pages are devoted to veganism now in Buddhism even though I do think it is easier to argue that Buddhism asks questions that veganism can answer like I think there are fundamental challenges to our social values that can be answered by veganism you can find in Buddhism still Buddhism is not a vegan religion it's not I've studied ancient authentic canonical Buddhism and people want to kids with of this but I can basically put the on the same challenge I can say look the Buddhist cannon is much much longer than the Jewish Bible we got thousands of pages how many of those pages are devoted to veganism all right and the answer my honest answer of written articles I think the answer is zero but even if I mean people managed to pick out a couple of sentences that they can kind of sort of interpret has supported veganism this is this is really a joke this is a bad joke this is well into the realm of you know you're past the point of diminishing returns now um okay so really but this isn't my thing to talk about other people have talked about this there was actually a Jewish vegan youtuber and she deleted her channel because of the high jinks of vegan cheetah because we can cheat a her a stir and claimed they had a sexual connection between them and they didn't so respectable people get chased a tu tool time but I remember she had a video where she talked about a down-to-earth way look the reality is the dietary rules for true believing Orthodox Jews are so complex there are some religious Jews who become vegan just as a way to simplify their lives where they look at these ridiculous dietary rules that you're supposed to follow as a religious Jew and they decide you know what it's easier to just be to be vegan now if that's the connection you're working with I think you in a sense this only creates more problems we're very accustomed to in veganism talking about the difference between ethical vegans and dietary vegans well now you're talking about like religious simplification vegans I discussed that Pia so in theory you be tied with some people who are neither ethical vegan snored Terry vegans but are becoming vegan so they can avoid dealing with the complexities of a religiously a ritual and magical diet this is not a good foundation for veganism as you know as a political movement or even as a as a diet trend or anything else but I think there was some truth to that and I just say her her channel is now deleted and gone but she had some videos where she was really countering the idea that Gary Yurovsky had flown to Israel and given some lectures and thousands of people became vegan overnight that really is total myth the bit there is an interesting basis to examine for why veganism grew as rapidly as it did with in Israel and of course before that vegetarianism somebody's got to do the study on that somebody's got to do the research but the answer is not Gary Yourofsky the answer is not youtube and it is also not in a simple sense a connection to you know the Torah or the Talmud or you know true believing religious Judaism I guess that's I guess that's all I had to say this video I mean for me I think the most fundamental question here whether you are an atheist or not actually is is the parable I posed in terms of Columbus the question is in the present tense are we going to fictionalize history or are we going to face up to the reality of history that is often ugly and often ideological inconvenient right if the reality is like the vast majority of people identify as Jewish are frankly atheists Jews now in 2016 you know II theism and Judaism are de facto compatible there are a lot of people who feel passionately about Jewish identity or Jewish nationalism or they're Jewish Jewish ethnicity but who do not really believe in a in a monotheistic God who do not pray who don't have that kind of personal religion anymore I understand many of those people want to believe that they're part of a tradition that is moral and good so they're looking around for bits and pieces of a vegan ethic or vegan aesthetic in these copious religious texts and is it is it that they're looking for the Jewish religion to justify veganism or are they looking for veganism to justify the Jewish religion I think it's the latter I think in a lot of cases people just want to believe that Judaism is morally good so as soon as they're ethically committed to veganism they then look for some roots of veganism in Judaism justified and i gotta tell you the step forward for everyone whether you're Jewish or Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Japanese Shinto the step forward for everyone is to instead come to the same realization we had to come to with Columbus which is that we just have to draw a line in history and we have to admit frankly this is a fundamental ethical problem that our ancestors did not want to face up for centuries and centuries or in some cases for millennia this is this is a question we're asking this is a question we feel we have the answer to but there is no point in pretending that our ancestors shared this concern well that our ancestors ask the same questions that we're asking nor that our answer ancestors ever came to the simple and in electively modern solution that is veganism hit me up