Vegetating with Leslie

I like food, plant food, that is — I like to plant, grow and eat it. I like to serve it to others and recycle it to contribute to next year’s harvest. I like working and being outdoors, walking and hiking. I like to study Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, especially the first five books, the Torah. Most of all, I like to think about all these things and what they have to say about the meaning of life. I started my blog when I decided to explore veganism, and it has led not just to recipes and farming but to taking a look at the Hebrew Bible from a different perspective. It also gave me a chance to study the biblical perspective on modern themes like ethics, ecology, evolution, animal rights, and the human place in creation. I explore and refresh my own spirituality through these projects.

Living Life Hands-On

On: May 20, 2017May 29, 2023 By: Leslie Cook

Living Life Hands-On means reconnecting to things that sustain our lives, food, air, water, clothing, shelter.

Cooking, Pulling Weeds And Resisting

On: May 18, 2017June 1, 2018 By: Leslie Cook

I never thought I’d hear myself say this: Trump gave me a huge gift when he was elected. It’s hard to imagine myself saying that because my inspiration usually comes from very different kinds of sources. Yet perhaps it’s just the mind-

On: May 17, 2017May 20, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

Today was my first day back at the farm for the season. Although it was my first day, others have been hard at work, installing a new greenhouse (greens through December! yay!), planting starter plants, getting in leeks and garlic and greens

On: May 14, 2017May 17, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

It’s hard not to notice that the last chapter in the portion that precedes this week, Kedoshim, concerns a stoning and the last chapter in this week’s portion, Emor, does as well. This signals me to an organizational scheme that doesn’t quite

Another Take On The Garden Of Eden

On: May 12, 2017May 17, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

I often say that translation is interpretation. There is a powerful example of this fact in the creation stories of Genesis. I can’t help but wonder how history would have played out had two words been translated differently. ADAM IN GENESIS 1-3

On: May 4, 2017May 17, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

If the first three chapters of Genesis set out the framework for the Torah project, Leviticus 16 forms its narrative heart. Positioned between the Purity Code and the Holiness Code, it ties together two parts of a central Torah concept in a

Explaining My Torah Ecology Project

On: May 4, 2017May 17, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

For those of you who follow my blog and who are puzzled with my Torah Ecology posts or find them unreadable…I would like to explain. In a few words, my blog is about religion and food and the intersection between them. This has

On: May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

This past weekend, I prepared (with a little help from my friends at MCJC) a Falafel Feast for 100 on Israel Day. The pictures, with the exception of one my son took a while back of the finished product, are from an

On: May 2, 2017May 4, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

Once upon a time I had a teacher who assigned me to read and report on a book titled Nizzahon Vetus, more fully titled, THE JEWISH-CHRISTIAN DEBATE IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES: A CRITICAL EDITION OF THE NIẒẒAḤON VETUS. The book is

On: April 19, 2017May 2, 2017 By: Leslie Cook

What we eat shapes ethical consciousness. It is a key to social and environmental justice and to restoring harmony in our relationships with our world and with G-d. It has the power to dull our senses or stir our sense of joy and gratitude. What we