The Vegetarian from Outer Space

About six months ago my wife stumbled upon the "Best Speech You Will Ever Hear", which is an hour long monologue by vegan activist Gary Yourofsky, describing how and why he became a vegan, and why you and everyone else should join him. It is a surprisingly effective talk and my wife, like many others, was deeply affected by it; after watching it myself, so was I.

For many years I had acknowledged the health benefits of a vegan lifestyle but never gave up neither meat nor milk or eggs, and I most certainly never considered the effect of my eating habits upon the animals involved. This is most surprising since I spent two full years growing poultry and personally participated in the violence perpetrated against these animals. Much of what Gary said in this matter resonated very deeply with me. I feel that what he says is true - in order to grow animals industrially you must become very hardened to their suffering and view them as non-living objects, pieces of plastic to be manipulated at will. Somehow, Gary brought me back to a place where I realized that animals have feelings too.

My new story, "The Vegetarian from Outer Space", is a reflection upon our world from a vegan point of view. In order to do so, I used the science fiction genre (which I love) to flip the roles so that the hunters become hunted. You are welcome to download the story for free in any format and without DRM from my Smashwords page.

Below is the "Best Speech You Will Ever Hear" for your viewing pleasure.

The Jewminator: Updated

The Jewminator book has been updated.
I have been working on another Kaminsky detective story, and as a result of developing his biography I had to make some very minor changes to the Jewminator. I also re-read the text and made some proof reading corrections.
The Jewminator can be downloaded at Smashwords in a variety of formats. the Jewminator is free and does not have any form of DRM. Just download and enjoy!

First Signs of Autumn in Jeruslaem!

When the tide of summer heat recedes,

And the cloudless skies begin to fail,

The slanted light on hilltops gleams,

And a cooler breeze wraps the skins,

The first signs of autumn, such a delight,

For winter-loving Jerusalemites!

Jerusalem in the autumn - no place is prettier, more serene, or God-fearing. I love it!

Theodicy

In the philosophy of religion, the problem of explaining the existence of evil in the world along with the supposed existence of a benevolent, loving, omnipresent and omnipotent god is called theodicy. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about this, probably due to two reasons. First, the idea that got me writing the Jewminator was basically the thought of a human being with super powers, which quite naturally led me to the thought "What if I were God?" When I got thinking about that, it seemed to me that I would have done a much better job of things. I thought: no way would I allow humanity to be so cruel! The Spanish Inquisition? Not under my watch! The Black Plague – why cause needless suffering? Slavery – Hell no! Blowing up children in school buses – never. Cancer, cerebral palsy, polio – a thousand needless, cruel, painful diseases – gone. So basically, I was thinking that if I was God, I would never have kicked out Adam and Eve and everybody would still be living in the Garden of Eden. Sure, it may have gotten a bit crowded, but I could have handled that, although the celestial zoning committee would have probably given me hell, so to speak…but anyway, as to Adam and Eve: so what if they ate from the tree of wisdom? I'm God – I'm sure I would not have been so insecure as to kick out the only two humans in the world and condemn them and their descendants to lives of misery and pain. If I ever get the chance to be God – I promise to be bigger than that…

The second reason for all of these thoughts about theodicy was that lately, in my regular day job, I had to work on several texts concerning the Holocaust. This was the first time that I found myself being able to cope with such materials. Previously, the unimaginable cruelty and evil of the Holocaust were too much for me to handle. But still, after finishing the job I was left with the inevitable question: How, in the name of everything that is holy, could God let such a thing happen? Is there no inherent limit to what humans can do to each other? Will we be allowed to mutually kill and torture ourselves to a collective death? In a way, it's like having several two-year old children over at your house to take care of for the afternoon. Leaving them alone for a few hours would be considered completely irresponsible – who knows what would happen? I feel the same way about God and the Holocaust – He just dropped the ball, so to speak.

Anyway, I am not a philosopher and I'm sure that I do not have better  answers to the problem of evil in this world than the experts (and if you are interested in what the experts have to say, you can start with this quite comprehensive wiki article). But I am a creative writer, and I can think of at least one scenario that could explain theodicy, and here it is:

Introducing: The Jewminator

Stanley Greenbaum, a mild-mannered American-Jewish accountant living in Israel, discovers that he has unique superpowers. As the Jewish superman struggles with the age-old questions of good and evil, the body count and the unintended consequences of his actions continue to mount. Love, death, revenge, and the Israeli security forces bring the story to a surprising conclusion.


The entire story ( about 25 thousand words) is available for free below. If you are reading the story on the site and you want to save your place in the text, you can mark it using Wired-Marker, which is a Firefox add-on. You can download the Firefox browser here.

If you have an e-reader such as Kindle or Nook and need a more accessible electronic format (like epub), you are welcome to purchase the format you prefer at the Jewminator's Smashbook site. The price is only 1.99$ and your purchase will be greatly appreciated! All books at the Smashbook store are DRM-free.