A SACRED DUTY (Jewish Vegetarians of North America, 2007)

By Adina Allen

THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS that we are now facing is unlike any problem humanity has previously faced. The peril to our life-supporting ecological systems is an issue that cuts across the divides of race, class, nationality, and religion. This is a crisis that calls upon us to cooperate on a global level, despite our differences. We need a fundamental shift in the way we approach the world, one that opens us to the sacredness of all life. To bring our actions in line with this view of life, the wisdom of our religious traditions may be one of our most useful resources.

The recently released film A Sacred Duty provides an in-depth look into the state of our environment and the teachings that Judaism offers to steer us on a sustainable path. Professor and leading Jewish activist Richard Schwartz, together with educators, environmentalists, and leaders from all parts of the Jewish world show how the unique insight of Torah can guide us as we join with others in confronting this challenge to help heal our planet and, in so doing, heal ourselves.

It is written in the Torah that God spoke to the Jewish people saying, "I place before you two choices: life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life that you may live, you and your offspring" (Deut. 30:19). Choosing life, the film argues, means recognizing the interconnectedness of all life on the planet and beginning to take seriously the knowledge that what we do in one part of the globe affects the whole world. By drawing on important Jewish texts and interpretations, the film shows the responsibility and power that religious communities have to help lead humanity towards a sustainable future.

Divided into two distinct sections, A Sacred Duty focuses on the environmental destruction of the Land of Israel, and the ethical ramifications and environmental impact of our diet. In terms of the daily choices that we make and our ability to create a more sustainable world, diet may be the most central issue. The film cites the results of a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, which shows that 18 percent of all greenhouse gases come from the raising of livestock agriculture. A Sacred Duty takes the viewer inside the industrial meat industry and provides an in-depth and probing look at our food system.

Through the documentary footage in this film, we learn that most kosher and non-kosher meat is processed through industrial methods that rely on practices that harm human workers/consumers, the environment, and the animals themselves. The industrial meat industry functions by confining animals to overcrowded feedlots, where they are forced to exist in close and often filthy living quarters and are injected with hormones and antibiotics to combat the inevitable diseases that result. In addition to the cruelty inflicted on these animals, there are serious externalities. These include: unnatural concentrations of manure that pollute water and release high amounts of the greenhouse gas methane, the often unsafe and violent working conditions of the slaughterhouse, and the monopolization of wealth and power among big production plants and drug companies while small-scale organic producers are driven out of business. Many of us are becoming more familiar with the shocking details of the meat industry as discoveries of contaminated meat--a result of unsafe and unethical practices--cause instances like the debacle in the California Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., which recently had 143 million pounds of beef recalled, making it the largest beef recall in U.S. history.

Looking through a Jewish lens, the film urges Jews to expand our current standards of kashrut (dietary laws), to include the impact of our food choices on the environment and on the animals themselves. A Sacred Duty calls upon us to live from the highest values of our tradition and to realign ourselves as partners with the Creative Source in being shomrei adamah (guardians of creation). In every faith there are valuable teachings that can help us to confront the global challenge of climate change. It is time for each of us to ground ourselves in the texts and wisdom unique to our traditions that together we may bring healing to the earth.

Adina Allen is Assistant Editor of Tikkun. She was recently awarded a Wexner Fellowship, and will begin rabbinic studies at Hebrew College in the fall of 2008.

Review by Adina Allen