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Ethical ConsumptionText
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Humanity's role is to tend the garden, not to possess it; to "guard it and keep it" (Genesis 2), not to exploit it; to pass it on as sacred trust, as it was given. Even though we are given the authority to have dominion over the earth and its creatures, we are never allowed to own it, just like we cant own the waters or the air. "The land cannot be sold in perpetuity" (Lev. 25:23). The land is the commons,and it belongs to everyone equally and jointly.
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Q: In 1971, you were the only Orthodox rabbis to declare that non-union lettuce and grapes should be regarded as non-kosher and you urged Jews to boycott them. What is the basis in Judaism for that position?
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Children confront us with our paradoxes and dishonesty, and we are exposed. You need to find an answer for every why — Why do we do this? Why don’t we do that? — and often there isn’t a good one. So you say, simply, because. Or you tell a story that you know isn’t true. And whether or not your face reddens, you blush. The shame of parenthood — which is a good shame — is that we want our children to be more whole than we are, to have satisfactory answers. My children not only inspired me to reconsider what kind of eating animal I would be, but also shamed me into reconsideration.
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[Below is a story told by the author's grandmother, ending with a brief conversation between the author and his grandmother] LISTEN TO ME
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1. How does the understanding of "social justice" differ in the different American Jewish denominations? Political or social activism was hardly the hallmark of American Orthodox rabbis in the 1960s. While a number of Conservative and Reform rabbis participated in the civil rights movement or protested U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, their Orthodox counterparts typically regarded such causes as too far removed from Jewish concerns to justify their involvement. Haskel Lookstein, while not personally active in those battles, early on recognized a connection between traditional Jewish concepts and modern social struggles.
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Judaism teaches that we have a sacred obligation to the Creator, to Creation, and to future generations to safeguard and protect Earth's ecosystems. Before the Flood, Noah and his family protected at least two of every animal species, enabling all creatures to make safe passage from one era of human history to the next. After the Flood, God said to Noah: "Behold, I establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you, of the birds, of the cattle, and of every wild animal of the earth with you" (Genesis 9:9)....
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So far as we feel sympathy, we feel we are not accomplices to what caused the suffering. Our sympathy proclaims our innocence as well as our impotence. To that extent, it can be (for all our good intentions) an impertinent — if not an inappropriate — response.
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Do not think that you are giving to the poor from your own possession, or that I despised the poor person by not giving him as I gave you. For he is my son, as you are, and his share is in your grain; it is to your benefit to give him his share from your property. ולא יעלה על רוחך כי משלך אתה נותן לעני או כי מאסתיו מתת לו לחם כאשר נתתי לך. כי גם בני הוא כמוך, אך חלקו הוא בתבואתך, ולזכותך כוונתי לתת לו חלקו מתחת ידיך. וזהו החילו בלשון רבים, באומרו 'ובקצרכם,' וצאתו בלשון יחיד באומרו 'לא תכלה' וכו'. מתחילה אמר לשון רבים, לומר קציר ארצכם של בעל השדה ועני והגר, לפי האמת כי חלקם שם. ומה גם כי דרך העשיר להעמיד קוצרים שכירים עני וגר, ועל בעל הבית והקוצרים אמר 'ובקצרכם את קציר ארצכם.' ואחר כך אל בעל הבית 'לא תכלה' וכו'.
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A person should only eat meat on rare appointed occasions, and the reason is that a person should not become accustomed to eat meat, as it is written, "You shall eat meat with all your desire. Eat it, however, as you eat the gazelle and the deer," (Deuteronomy 12:21-22). This means that you should eat meat by circumstance [accident] rather than in a set way. For the gazelle and the deer are not easily found around human dwellings for they are wild, and their habitation is not with people, but in the deserts and forests.
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Pride in one's body has two components, one which is good and one which is evil. This is the evil type of bodily pride. At the time that pride grows in the heart of a person it will control him/her from the top of the head to the sole of the foot...[When pride is] in the ears - one does not listen to the words of the abject poor; in the breath of his nose - when one stands next to the poor, even upon entering their homes they seem putrid; even in speech - in speaking poorly of the righteous out of pride. גאות האדם בגופו יש בה שני חלקים: האחד - טוב, והאחד - רע. וזאת היא גאות האדם בגופו הרעה. בעת שתתגבר הגאוה בלב האדם, אז תמשול על האדם מקדקדו עד כף רגלו: 
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