Category: Torah Ecology

This project is a subset of my Bible/Torah-related posts. I started this project as I searched for insights on food, “animal rights,” agriculture and ecology. I called it “Torah Ecology” because that described nicely how I thought my project would unfold.

Ecology is the “study of interactions among organisms and their environment.” It is a study, therefore, of relationships, and one thing I was pretty sure I’d find as I studied the text is that Torah is a study of relationships.

At the time, it seemed to me there are three domains in Torah: Transcendence/G-d, humans, the rest of creation. I wanted to look at relationships between and within those categories, Torah ecology.

Early on, my interest focused more on the human-nonhuman animal relationship described in the Torah. My study stalled for a significant period of time for a variety of reasons, only one related to the study itself.

During the first half of 2022, I find myself beginning to engage again. Beginning is the operative word. I’m not sure where this might go right now.

The Wilderness of Sinai – BaMidbar

On: June 7, 2022July 10, 2022 By: Leslie Cook

Wilderness of Sinai. Why 40 years wandering? Google Maps says the walk Cairo-Jerusalem is 452 miles or 148 hours on foot.

Preface to The Animals’ Story in the Torah

On: March 1, 2020June 16, 2020 By: Leslie Cook

In The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, Charles Eisenstein coins the word, “Interbeing,” a knowledge “that my being partakes of your being and that of all beings. This goes beyond interdependency—our very existence is relational . . . that

On: February 20, 2020June 17, 2022 By: Leslie Cook

“Let us remember that animals are not mere resources for human consumption. They are splendid beings in their own right, who have evolved alongside us as co-inheritors of all the beauty and abundance of life on this planet” ~ Marc Bekoff

Chapter Two: Cain and Abel – From Abundance to Scarcity & Competition

On: February 15, 2020January 10, 2021 By: Leslie Cook

All in the Family: Transactions וְהָ֣אָדָ֔ם יָדַ֖ע אֶת־חַוָּ֣ה אִשְׁתּ֑וֹ וַתַּ֙הַר֙ וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־קַ֔יִן וַתֹּ֕אמֶר קָנִ֥יתִי אִ֖ישׁ אֶת־יְהוָֽה׃ Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gained a male child with the help of the LORD.” (Gen. 4:1)

On: January 15, 2020June 16, 2020 By: Leslie Cook

The idea of the universe as an interconnected whole is not new; for millennia it’s been one of the core assumptions of Eastern philosophies. What is new is that Western science is slowly beginning to realize that some elements of that ancient

On: October 27, 2019March 1, 2020 By: Leslie Cook

My purpose in writing The Animals’ Story in the Torah is to discover a story the text tells that varies from the single one so many of us learned or heard about “what the Bible says.” The story I want to focus

On: December 20, 2018March 23, 2020 By: Leslie Cook

February 1, 2017, I began a Torah study project. These words described my intention: “Today I begin a new project of looking at the weekly Torah portions, searching for insights on food, ‘animal rights,’ agriculture and ecology.” The name of the section I

On: August 12, 2018August 13, 2018 By: Leslie Cook

This portion, Re’eh, includes what I believe is a pivotal statement with regard to animal sacrifice and the relationship between humans and other animals. It is a significant next step in the biblical Story of the Animals: Deut. 12:15-16 15 רַק֩ בְּכָל־אַוַּ֨ת

On: June 29, 2018February 10, 2020 By: Leslie Cook

This year I read one of those books that you keep returning to, a book that gave coherence to my own half-formed thoughts and startled me into a journey of self-recognition and definition. The book was Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. In

On: March 10, 2018 By: Leslie Cook

Last year when I worked with this portion, I was struck with the ongoing “love story” these portions in Exodus tell, a love story between G-d and the Israelites. In Ki Tissa, I felt the deep wound in the relationship that resulted