Art
Philosophy
Activism
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My story
"Everything is expected and permission is given"
A statement attributed to Rabbi Akiva and called the paradox of knowledge and choice: if a person's future is predictable, how is free choice possible?
Very nice, I'm Yafit Saranga. A painter and creator in art and philosophy, author of the book "And the palate, food will taste good to him."
Life for me is a profound puzzle, the attempt to understand the universe holds fascinating themes. The preoccupation with the content of fate versus personal responsibility, the ability of the individual to influence and inspire change, and most of all, the meaning of life and our role in a world where good and evil are sometimes subject to arbitrary interpretations.
There are a lot of things that are beyond my control, I don't have control over everything, but I strongly believe that a person's choices throughout their life have a critical impact and responsibility on the quality of their life and the excellent person, or not, they will become.
Granddaughter of the butcher family
My beloved mother is the daughter of a butcher's family. I was born into a household where eating animals was routine. In my grandmother's house, animals were "cleaned, gutted, and butchered" and prepared for eating and buying. My mother did not consume dairy products until she was fifty, not because there was no milk in the house, but because since eating meat was customary throughout the day, due to keeping kashrut, it was not possible to consume dairy products at the same time. We ate everything that was kosher, and every organ. This was seen as a norm that there was no room even to question. There was no room to question it, and certainly no room to choose otherwise.
It was at a very early age, if I go back really far in time I might be 4-5 years old, when I saw the process that animals go through to the plate - whether it was in the bustling market when animals are hung upside down and considered "fresh meat" and waiting for a buyer, or during a visit to the butcher on Yom Kippur when my father takes me for the custom of "Keparot", when the chicken flaps its wings and the rabbi spins it several times over my head with its claws touching my forehead, and then it is thrown straight into a metal chute with a knife at the end. Every year it was always a new complete panic at the mere thought that such an act is commanded in any way.
This continued with my visits to the fish shop – in the past it was customary to have a fish tank in the supermarket – every visit to the supermarket I would want to look at the beautiful fish swimming in the small pond. Then I was told to choose a fish, I would affectionately choose the fish I had been playing with, that fish would be picked up by the fishmonger, placed on the counter, and with a blow to the head it would lose consciousness, then wrapped in newspaper, placed in a bag and given to my mother. Sometimes the “bag” would keep jumping all the way home, I would move away from my mother just so that “it” wouldn’t touch me. As a child I didn’t understand how this was okay.. How could no one care about the fish?
I like it.
Even as a little girl, when meat, fish, and chicken were placed on my plate, I refused to eat the dish that was served to me every time. But my mother, the wonderful Tripolitanian cook, did not agree. I remember the moment she told me, "My daughter will not be a vegetarian"... It did not stem from malice, or from a lack of consideration for my feelings, but rather the exact opposite - it stemmed from concern. From the thought that eating animals is a reality - this is how we grew up, this is what should be eaten, this is what is healthy, this is what is customary, "this is how it has always been and it will never change" .
As a child I didn't feel I had the power or the space to make a decision to stop eating animals, I didn't see any other option, and I continued despite my reservations about the sights, and the consequences of my food choices. At some point it was automatic, I didn't even stop to think, I ate because it tasted good .
Over the years, whenever anyone declared to me that they were "vegetarian," I would jokingly grin and ask, "So what do you have to eat?", as if there was no other food in the entire world except animal food, but the real question about eating animals was always inside me.
The decision to stop
In my professional role, I am a marketing and digital professional and work as VP of Marketing at the high-tech company Comtel Israel. One day, during my lunch break at work, I went down to a restaurant where they served meat borscht every Wednesday at the buffet. Since I was a regular customer, they already knew how to save it for me, and "put it aside for me" because it was a very popular dish.
I was 35, after a long process of divorce, introspection, and deciding on the life I wanted to live. Such a process is always a cross-sectional process – when a person examines their decisions and expresses their will, the impact on their life is often cross-sectional and is expressed in a desire for change in many areas of life.
That day I arrived at the restaurant, picked up the tray with the meat borax, tried to eat, poked at the borax with my fork, and that was it. I couldn't eat it anymore. Again, the realization of what I was eating and what I was taking part in landed on me. I decided to stop. The meat borax remained on the plate.
A decision, that's all it takes . And to return to Rabbi Akiva's opening sentence - "Everything is predictable" - I was born into a family of butchers, in a time when eating animals was a routine norm - it was not my choice, and not something I could influence, but "permission is given" - I have the ability to choose differently . In my part of God, in relation to the person I want to be, I myself can no longer take part in it.
My Game Changer
The decision to move towards veganism was not straightforward, I didn't know what veganism was. I only knew that I didn't want to eat animals. I consumed a lot of dairy products, a lot of dough, a lot of eggs. One day while browsing Facebook I wanted to connect with a group of vegans, connect with people who would give me information, and a supportive environment. After all, there was no one vegan around me, not among my friends and certainly not among my family.
The girl who ran the group asked me, "Are you vegan?" And I answered, "Almost... I don't eat animals, but I do eat eggs and cheese, especially yellow cheese," and she answered, "Then come back to us when you're vegan," and that's how the conversation ended.
I was frightened by the answer, I was filled with rage, and most of all I was hurt – beyond the reaction of being refused admission to the group – how can I be vegan if no one around me is? If I don't have basic knowledge... and what's the problem with consuming dairy products anyway?
You could say that this girl's refusal to let me into the group sparked in me the need to investigate. I went online and what I saw there left me speechless. I didn't know. I really didn't know. Not only do they not tell anyone this, every possible commercial on television shows exactly the opposite. How can such a terrible industry exist under the noses of dairy consumers in complete silence, without awareness of what it entails.
I am a big believer in "what needs to happen happens", or if you call it "God's ways are hidden". If you ask me what was my Game Changer? The event that changed my perception of life? It was this conversation with the girl who didn't want to accept me into the group - thank you for being you . Sometimes even things that seem to us at a point in time as hurtful and even bad, in the distance of time have great wisdom and the ability to bring us to where we need to be.
Carnism
Unlike today, when there are an abundance of plant-based products in every field, I became vegan at a time when there weren't many alternatives, and yet I managed with food. The main difficulty was sorting out each and every product. I became an expert on the "ingredients" labels of products, searching for and understanding which foods contain animal products and which don't. Since the norm is to eat animals, there is no obligation to indicate which products contain animal products and which don't. This results in a situation where those who don't want to take part in this have to make great efforts to avoid it.
Psychologist Dr. Melanie Joy said it beautifully – when everyone takes part in a certain act, such as eating animals, and a small group chooses to behave differently – the minority group will receive a name, in this case it will be called “vegan”. And what will the majority group be called? Until Melanie Joy gave it a name, “carnism”, the ideology of eating animals did not have a name, because the majority were part of it, and the majority does not recognize the ideology in which it takes part. But eating animals is part of an ideology. In this case, a dominant and violent ideology, so entrenched that its principles are perceived as logical and “the way things are”. And therefore for this reason, normatively, there was no need to label products as containing animal ingredients or not.
The idea of labeling products as vegan has been spread mainly in recent years, and is part of a very significant change in perception. It is part of a change in discourse, of creating awareness. It is not only the product that is labeled as vegan, but also the words chosen in the discourse - the choice to refer to "animal" rather than "meat", to chicken rather than "schnitzel".
The power of words
In my undergraduate studies in Communication and Management at the College of Management, I submitted a thesis on the power of words, and addressing the change in discourse is a large part of my work today, out of a deep understanding that we must address the language we use. Language expresses reality. Our thoughts are expressed in words, words will lead to actions, actions will perpetuate habits, and our habits will reflect the world of values we hold. It is not fate – it is a choice. The reality of our lives will be based on thought, speech, and action. These have created the reality in which I will live, a change in them can change reality.
As the granddaughter of a butcher family, and as a vegan today, I am aware of the very difficult challenges when I always have compassion and a view of others, especially the lives of animals alongside humans, before my eyes. I use the tools I have, and my abilities, to encourage awareness and create change in the world. Whether it is through works of art or philosophical and thought-provoking manuscripts.
I began my artistic path as a painter as a child, when it was clear to those around me that I had a high ability and a strong passion for expressing myself through visual and written means. Over the years, I studied art and graphic design at the Avni Institute and at Bezalel's external studies, and my paintings were exhibited in various exhibitions in Israel and abroad.
My art, the decision to paint a particular painting, expresses a deep inner cry, and a request to the viewer to remove the veil from their eyes, to see the direct connection between our food choices and the suffering of the animal. From this place I create and speak the real reality that I see, without trying to beautify or suppress it, so that I paint not necessarily what people like to see but my authentic pain and what I would like them to see. I hope to make people stop, observe and feel something through the painting. To create some kind of emotional engagement, in the hope of leading to awareness, and perhaps even behavior change.
A selection of my works are displayed in the galleries:
Art & About in Emek Hefer
Air Force Gallery in Herzliya
Ben Ami Gallery in Tel Aviv
In changing exhibitions in Israel and around the world, and more.
Deciphering the riddle of life
In addition to my art practice, I have a master's degree in philosophy. My new book "And Taste, Food Will Taste Good to Him" is based on my master's thesis at Bar-Ilan University. The book offers an open discourse, since I myself have eaten animals most of my life, an interesting, comprehensive and touching philosophical discourse about man's place in his relationship with animals, the forces acting on him, and his personal responsibility for the consequences of his food choices. The book opens up to the reader in the modern era the possibility of questioning his various choices, including his food choices, of rethinking man as he thinks he is and as he really is, and of truly examining his freedom of choice. In addition, I also give lectures at organizations on the subject and am always open to collaborations that can promote ethical social agendas, with the bulk of my work devoted to animal liberation.
Deciphering the riddle of life and the paradox of choice in the face of fate will always remain an open question, or at least as long as no new information is found about the law of nature or some heavenly control, which we call divinity.
But there is a place where this puzzle has been solved for me – my ability to make a difference in a world where I have no control over what is happening, is the ability to choose what I take part in within the framework of the alternatives offered to me. The place of my free will is in understanding the consequences of my choices and in the person I choose to be.
Yafit Saranga
The place of my free will is in understanding the consequences of my choices, and in the person I choose to be.
