Category Archives: Bereshit_9:1-7

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we should eat- PS

Deciding what we should eat

  1. Do you think parents should decide what food their pre-school child should eat?
  2. Do you think your family should decide what you eat now?
  3. Are there food you can eat too much of?
  4. Are there foods you can eat too little of?
  5. Are their kinds of food that it is hard to stop eating once you start?
  6. If a species is endangered, should people continue to eat it? (even if it acceptable to eat it)
  7. Are there animals you don’t think we should eat because it is wrong to kill them?
  8. If you raise an animal and look after it – would it be wrong to eat it? (Would this be the same if you lived on a farm?)
  9. In many ways, animals are like people – is that a reason not to kill them?
  10. Think of eating an animal’s eye – disgusting? Why does this disgust you?
  11. To what extent do you think that your culture decides what it is possible for you to eat?

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we should eat – HS

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we should eat

  1. Do you think parents should decide what food their pre-school child should eat?
  2. Do you think your family should decide what you eat now?
  3. Are there food you can eat too much of?
  4. Are there foods you can eat too little of?
  5. Are their kinds of food that it is hard to stop eating once you start?
  6. If a species is endangered, should people continue to eat it? (even if it acceptable to eat it)
  7. Are there animals you don’t think we should eat because it is wrong to kill them?
  8. If you raise an animal and look after it – would it be wrong to eat it? (Would this be the same if you lived on a farm?)
  9. In many ways, animals are like people – is that a reason not to kill them?
  10. Think of eating an animal’s eye – disgusting? Why does this disgust you?
  11. To what extent do you think that your culture decides what it is possible for you to eat?
  12. To what extent do you think the Torah should guide what you eat and what you don’t?
  13. Do you think that if we think it is OK to kill animals we are more likely to think it is ok to kill people?
  14. Can you love animals and eat meat?

 

 

 

Activity: Interviewing community members about food choices

Activity:

Interview two people in your family or community about the following:

  1. Is there any kind of food that you personally choose not to eat?  Why?
  2. Do you think that what you eat affects your health?
  3. Do you think that what you eat affects your mood?
  4. Can you look at what someone eats and draw any conclusion about their values?
  5. Do you think that what you choose to eat or not eat can makes you a better person?
  6. Do you eat meat? Do you think this affects the kind of person you are?
  7. In the account of creation God blesses us and tells us and gives us all seed bearing plants  to eat.  In Noah, after the flood he tells he blesses us again, but this time he also allow us  to eat meat. Why do you think God changes his blessing? Do you think we should eat meat?

 

 

 

 

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we eat – PS-HS

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we eat

  1. Is there any kind of food that you personally choose not to eat?  Why?
  2. What makes certain foods attractive to you  – such that you want to eat them?
  3. What makes certain foods unattractive to you – such that you don’t want to eat them?
  4. Do you eat the same range of food now as you did 5 years ago?
  5. Do you eat the same range of food now as you did when you were a baby?
  6. Can people’s diets change, even when they are adults? Can you give an example?
  7. Do you think that what you eat affects your health?
  8. Do you think that what you eat affects your mood?
  9. Can you look at what someone eats and draw any conclusion about their values
  10. Do you think that what you eat or don’t eat can make you a better person?

Leading idea- Eating Meat

Leading Idea: Eating animals.

This text parallels strongly elements of God’s blessing in Bereshit 1:28-29. Yet there is a striking difference. In the account of creation in Bereshit, God blesses us as have dominion over all of creation, but only the plant kingdom is given to us to eat for food. In this blessing, God not only gives us plants, but also the animal kingdom as food. In this, it marks a human transition from being herbivores to carnivores. Yet there are distinctions and limits here as well – we can eat flesh, but not blood, and we will be held accountable for killing another human being. What does this transition signify? What might it say about our relationship to creation and our nature as human beings? To what extent are we what we eat? Does eating flesh make us more violent or is it a release that leads us to be less violent? If we start thinking that it is acceptable to kill animals will we end up thinking it is acceptable to kill people?  Both the Jewish textual tradition and philosophical discourse are animated around these questions, offering us multiple responses to that can inform our inquiry.

 

A related issue to that of eating meat concerns our relationship with animals overall. What does Judaism say about our treatment of animals; how we should relate to them and care for them? The source materials relate to this question of our care for animals.

 

Noach (Bereshit-9:1-7)- בְּרֵאשִׁית

Download the text here:  Word word-doc-icon  PDF  pdf-icon

Please note: A lower primary school version of the Biblical text is offered here

 

Noach (Bereshit-9:1-7) – בְּרֵאשִׁית

1. And God blessed Noach and his sons, and
said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply [be
many], and fill the earth.		 א  וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-נֹחַ וְאֶת-בָּנָיו; וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ, וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ.
2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall
be upon all the wildlife of the earth, and upon
all the fowl of the heavens, and all that crawl
on the soil, and all the fish of the sea – into
your hand are they given.		 ב  וּמוֹרַאֲכֶם וְחִתְּכֶם, יִהְיֶה, עַל כָּל-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ, וְעַל כָּל-עוֹף הַשָּׁמָיִם; בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תִּרְמֹשׂ הָאֲדָמָה וּבְכָל-דְּגֵי הַיָּם, בְּיֶדְכֶם נִתָּנוּ.
 3. All things crawling about that live, for you
shall they be, for eating, as with the green
plants, I now give you all of it.		  ג  כָּל-רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא-חַי, לָכֶם יִהְיֶה לְאָכְלָה:  כְּיֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב, נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת-כֹּל.
4. However – flesh with its life, its blood, you
shall not eat.		 ד  אַךְ-בָּשָׂר, בְּנַפְשׁוֹ דָמוֹ לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ.
5. And for your blood, of your own lives, I will
demand satisfaction – from all wild animals
I will demand it, and from humankind, from
every man regarding his brother, will I
demand satisfaction for human life.		 ה  וְאַךְ אֶת-דִּמְכֶם לְנַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם אֶדְרֹשׁ,
מִיַּד כָּל-חַיָּה אֶדְרְשֶׁנּוּ; וּמִיַּד הָאָדָם,
מִיַּד אִישׁ אָחִיו–אֶדְרֹשׁ, אֶת-נֶפֶשׁ
הָאָדָם.
6. Whoever now sheds human blood, for that
human shall his [own] blood be shed, for in
Elohim’s image he made humankind		 ו  שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם, בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ: 
כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים, עָשָׂה אֶת-הָאָדָם.
7. As for you – bear fruit and be many, swarm
the earth and become many on it.		 ז  וְאַתֶּם, פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ; שִׁרְצוּ בָאָרֶץ, וּרְבוּ-בָהּ