Annual International Vegan Shabbat Torah Portion Beha'alotcha

Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, PhD

Thoughts on Creating Our
First Vegan Shabbat Ever
to soon become a regular celebration:

At the following Vegan Shabbat event, we will be bringing up the topic of this brand new Vegan Shabbat to begin this year, hopefully tonight, one of many such Vegan Shabbat events to follow locally internationally and world-wide including in Israel, of course, where we think it would easily become a National Holiday, observed as an Israeli annual Vegan Shabbat Day! Sorry about the last-minute notification. How might one expect to participate, and where will this take place and when?

It will begin at 7:00 P.M. tonight,
Wednesday 22nd of June, 2016
at the social gathering vicinity of JACLA ---
Jewish Activities Center of Los Angeles, located at:
8631 West Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles, USA CA 90035

Last Shabbat, in Israel, was the reading in Synagogues of Beha'alotcha, and this coming Shabbat, the 25th June, 2016, we "catch-up" here in the Diaspora in the Northern American continent, and elsewhere, and read out loud, and dare to share a Drash or Torah Teaching, or discussion of Beha'alotcha, with an eye, mind you, for why it might be interpreted as the most strongest examples of the giving of the anti-meat message to us fellow Jews as a Light Unto All Nations and to all the world to follow! During this Vegan Shabbat, tied to the reading of Beha'alotcha, we are all to "Eschew Meat!" Pun intended, ha, ha, ha...

Where else but Israel, the soon-to-become first Vegan nation on this planet should we promote this event? Just recently, we heard of Israel adopting the first Aliyah Law Day. We're proud to acknowledge accomplishments of New Immigrants to Israel. Can we not become proud of thinking about starting an internationally, and annually occurring Vegan Shabbat Day also to be publicly observed and deemed quite an important event?

What is it about our realization that maybe Hashem, the Lord our G-d has challenged us to the point where we would be disturbed enough by not taking action, to such a degree, that instead of doing nothing, we feel that it is our duty to become vegan, and call for justice and action to spread the message of the upcome soon-to-become an internationally celebrated Vegan Shabbat, to be observed annually as a very important Jewish Vegan event around this Shabbat and the Reading Out-Loud very descriptive and meaningful pertinent verses, based on this important lesson from the Torah Portion of Beha'alotcha?

Can you not find a stronger source from our Sacred Torah, our Biblical Blue Print of how to conduct our lives, that shows such disgust for a society who would cling to the notion that we had been granted this concession to eat meat as in the horrific story of the quail, with its resulting graves of lust, and therefore we can continue to lust for it disrespectfully, or for similar greedy wants, taking advantage of those precious souls we've come to regard as disposable replaceable commodities, rather than intelligent sentient beings to our hearts content, unthinkingly?

Isn't there a hidden message appealing to our conscience that there would be perilous consequences, unless we realize that there is indeed a better way --- calling for our immediate reconsideration for or a gradual but permanent change in our lifestyles from meat eaters to non-meat-eaters to vegans, and beyond just being merely dietary vegans?

What do we now know, that before might have been hidden from us, what really happens throughout most of their lives, to these animals or their derivatives thereof, ending up as food on our plate, or used in countless other ways, or abused by us, in many other fashions, or if we became lifetime vegans, and even forever-raw-vegans, would these most definitely never end up on our plates, etc., and how would we become more compassionate?

It's not just about the food, is it, and the mistreatment of these non-human animals (as well as human employees in the factory farming slaughterhouses, but the whole meat industry of exploiting sentient beings to begin with, that is made apparent from such movies as A Sacred Duty!

Come watch it this evening being screened following the Drash/Dvar-Torah lesson from this Torah Portion Beha'alotcha, given by Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, PhD and comment by asking the Rabbi(s) Questions, awaiting for their answers eagerly!!! We shall also promote Richard Schwartz' new book, "Who Stole My Religion?" all 385 pages of it!

Who is Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, PhD?

Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, Ph.D. is the President of the Academy for Jewish Religion California as well as Dean of the Rabbinical School and Chaplaincy Program. Rabbi Gottlieb was ordained at Yeshiva University. He holds a doctorate in Mythology/Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute where he has served as an Adjunct Faculty member. He has also taught at Columbia, Yeshiva University and the University of Southern California’s Graduate School of Social Work. Widely published, his essays have appeared in such publications as the national journals, Ideas and Shma, and the book, "Illuminating Letters." Rabbi Gottlieb is the former Director of Hillel at MIT and Princeton, and was the Rabbi at Kehillat Ma’arav in Santa Monica as well as Westwood Village Synagogue. He has inspired countless students with his enthusiasm for Jewish learning and deeply believes in the emphasis that the Academy places on spirituality as a major component of religious training and teaching. 

Come one, and come all, everyone shall be welcome!!! Bring others, and promote for future such Vegan Shabbat events, year-in-year-out!!!

In today's day and age, what do you think about discussing all issues surrounding this Vegan Shabbat, and discussing how we might actually make this an event to be recognized and promoted further? Thanks for participating, and for all you are doing to generate more interest in this topic. Suggestions welcome! 1-310-358-9941 24/7 voicemail.

May you be eternally blessed and admired.
Blessings, Hana/Janine Laura Bronson.