Jun 8, 2026 · 58 min · 13 segments
In this episode, Rabbi Akiva Gersh, "the Vegan Rabbi" explores veganism through the lens of Judaism, Genesis, Rav Kook, compassion toward animals, spirituality, holiness, and the future of food. We…
No entities detected.
I have like two points I want to ask you about and you can push back if I'm wrong.
But it sounds like you were also ready for some sort of discipline that maybe there was so much freedom and, you know, changing not only how you treat the world, but your dietary plan and the intake of food, which was such a 180 from what you were used to.
It sounded like you were ready for some boundaries, which religion is very comfortable with that.
So, you know, it seemed like you already laid the groundwork.
And I would also say, growing up religious, I would be just as surprised as you are coming from outside the culture to hear about the environment in Judaism or how you treat animals in Judaism.
For us, it was almost like a side note or an asterisk, like, oh, be good to animals.
And let's talk again about, you know, Shabbat and the Mishkan.
And, you know, it took me later on in life as reading the Torah on my own, which I recommend to everyone to sort of see it with their own eyes in their own way.
What do you say to people who have always been religious and see very little validity in what you're saying?
I had like an academic discipline in my life, you know, all throughout, you know, my upbringing, high school, you know, and like I said before, I was like trained to like do well in school and get into a good college and all that.
I mean, veganism, first vegetarianism and then veganism was a whole, you know, new form of discipline in my life.
and I wanted ritual, I wanted like, you know, things to do, I wanted things to do that, you know, people were doing for thousands of years, you know, that classic kind of like Balchuvah desire to like really connect, and I found it, and I did it, and I brought it into my life.
But you're absolutely right, you know, I'll just share this, a couple years ago, this guy who I was working with, who's, full-on Orthodox, been Orthodox his entire life, right? And we were doing some, like, good work together.
I have like two points I want to ask you about and you can push back if I'm wrong.
But it sounds like you were also ready for some sort of discipline that maybe there was so much freedom and, you know, changing not only how you treat the world, but your dietary plan and the intake of food, which was such a 180 from what you were used to.
It sounded like you were ready for some boundaries, which religion is very comfortable with that.
So, you know, it seemed like you already laid the groundwork.
And I would also say, growing up religious, I would be just as surprised as you are coming from outside the culture to hear about the environment in Judaism or how you treat animals in Judaism.
For us, it was almost like a side note or an asterisk, like, oh, be good to animals.
And let's talk again about, you know, Shabbat and the Mishkan.
And, you know, it took me later on in life as reading the Torah on my own, which I recommend to everyone to sort of see it with their own eyes in their own way.
What do you say to people who have always been religious and see very little validity in what you're saying?
I had like an academic discipline in my life, you know, all throughout, you know, my upbringing, high school, you know, and like I said before, I was like trained to like do well in school and get into a good college and all that.
I mean, veganism, first vegetarianism and then veganism was a whole, you know, new form of discipline in my life.
and I wanted ritual, I wanted like, you know, things to do, I wanted things to do that, you know, people were doing for thousands of years, you know, that classic kind of like Balchuvah desire to like really connect, and I found it, and I did it, and I brought it into my life.
But you're absolutely right, you know, I'll just share this, a couple years ago, this guy who I was working with, who's, full-on Orthodox, been Orthodox his entire life, right? And we were doing some, like, good work together.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.