Sara Eifler: Judaism Unbound Episode 317 - Food is Spiritual Practice


Sara Eifler, Program Director for Jewish Veg, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about the spiritual practice that is....eating! Together they look at some ancient Jewish texts, some contemporary Jewish rituals, and play around with some puns. 

Jewish Veg is an organization that inspires and assists Jews to embrace plant-based diets, as an expression of Jewish values. This episode is the 3rd in an ongoing mini-series, exploring what Jewish food has been in the past, what Jewish food is today, what it could be in the future, and who decides. To access shownotes for this episode, click here.

[1] Learn more about Sara Eifler by clicking here, and learn more about Jewish Veg by heading to JewishVeg.org.

[2] Eifler references a few key Biblical texts, related to the subject of a plant-based diet. Click here to see, in Genesis 1 (in particular 1:29-31), the directive that plants will be food for humans. Click here to see, in Genesis 9 (9:4 in particular), the restriction around consuming the blood of animals (after Noah and the flood). For two texts about lions one day eating straw, like the ox, see Isaiah 11 or Isaiah 65.

[3] Jewish Veg offers a Passover Seder (Zeder) online, which you can attend. Register for Jewish Veg’s 2022 Passover Zeder by clicking here!

[4] Eifler also mentions a program offered by Jewish Veg, called Plant Pathways. Plant Pathways supports anyone considering moving toward a greater emphasis on plants in their diet, whether that’s fully committing to veganism or simply shifting away from meat to some extent. Learn more about Plant Pathways by visiting PlantPathways.com.

[5] Lex hints at some particularly awesome materials that are part of the Jewish Veg Haggadah. Access the Haggadah by clicking here. To check out the story that Lex referenced, about Moses’s relationship to animals, click here.

[6] At a couple of points in the episode, Eifler gives a shout-out to Melissa Hoffman, director of the Jewish Initiative for Animals (JIFA). Learn more about Hoffman by clicking here, and learn more about JIFA by heading to JewishInitiativeForAnimals.com. For another organization doing related work, and offering synagogues the chance to experiment with plant-based eating for a year, see Shamayim, and its Synagogue Vegan Challenge.

[7] Toward the end of the episode, Lex mentions that at Mishkan Chicago, they recently moved toward a “Default Veg” model — where the default food at their programming is vegetarian, and one opts actively to have meat (as opposed to the inverse, which is more common). Learn more about this practice by heading to DefaultVeg.org.

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Rob Nipe, Nora Rubel: Judaism Unbound Episode 318 - Kosher Prosciutto

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Nir Levy, Annie Prusky: Judaism Unbound Episode 316 - What's for Dinner this Shabbat?