Jewish Food Ethic--D'var Torah

“When you are asked in the world-to-come, ‘What was your work?’ and you answer, ‘I fed the hungry,’ you will be told, ‘This is the gate of the Lord, enter into it, you who have fed the hungry’” (Midrash T’hillim 118:17).

In my journey to become Jewish one of my tasks, which has become a labor of love, is to write a D’var Torah so that I can teach about the section of the Torah I chose and if I am lucky educate you to stand up for what is right and just. The parsha that I selected is Kedoshim: Leviticus 19:1-20:27. It is a section that talks about holiness. “Hashem spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for holy am I, Hashem, your G-D.” Even though we are not G-D we as a people are to strive for the same holiness and do as G-D would do.

The two verses that I am going to concentrate on really spoke to me out of this section and they are verses nine and ten. “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not complete your reaping to the corner of your field, and the gleanings of your harvest you shall not take. You shall not pick the underdeveloped twigs of your vineyard; and the fallen fruit of your vineyard you shall not gather; for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them-I am Hashem, your G-D” In other words we have been commanded by G-D to not harvest all of our fields, pick all of our vineyards, or to pick up any fallen grains or fruits but instead leave them for the poor so that they may take what they need to survive.

Rabbi Hirsch commented that “A Jew must discharge his responsibilities to others before he regards his crops as his own. Even at the moment of his harvest, when a full season of labor comes to its climax, he must leave part of his crop for the poor before he takes it for himself and his family.” (The Stone Edition Chumash). I found it very enlightening that the farmer should make sure the poor are taken care of even before his family.

Rashi and Sifra continued discussing the portion about the gleanings of your harvest. They both felt that if “one or two ears fall to the ground at any one point during the harvest, they are gleanings that must be left for the poor, but if three or more ears fall together, the farmer may retrieve them.” That is the balance in the world in the fact that G-D expected you to be holy but fair. (The Stone Edition Chumash)

Rashi continued on with his thoughts on “You shall not pick the underdeveloped twigs of your vineyard,” to mean the single grapes that have not formed into clusters. (The Stone Edition Chumash)

In this section G-D teaches us tzedakah but it does not just mean charity it comes from the root tzedek, which means justice. So when you perform an act of tzedakah you are not just performing an act of charity you are trying to make the world a fairer place.

The tzedakah ladder of Maimonides would look highly on this charity because you are giving to the poor anonymously and without them knowing who the benefactor is thus “performing a mitvah solely for the sake of Heaven.”

As I was asking myself while reading this portion, I am sure you are asking yourself how do we fulfill these mitzvoat today? I am not a farmer so what do I do?

During the high holy days my synagogue held a food drive which I thought was a great idea and so very easy. We go to the store buy some extra food take it to synagogue with you and the mitzvah is done and it is even higher on the ladder because it is anonymous help. After Yom Kippur we gathered for coffee and bagels and then to sort all the food that people had donated. This is the spot where it got amazing for me personally. There was an absolute mountain of food that was brought in and the “gleanings” were ripe for the picking. We sorted and sorted some more to make sure that the kosher stamps were the correct ones for the Yachad kosher food pantry here in town and then we loaded it up and delivered it. Like a small army we got it all hauled into the pantry and most of it put away before any of the customers came for the day. Our anonymous tzedakah! I left feeling like I had done some good in the world and I know the families that were helped felt it as well but now what.

“G-D has sent you to help the needy not to refer the poor back to G-D.” Leover Hassidic Rebbe

In the spirit of Tukkun Olam, how are we as individuals and more importantly as Jews going to continue this fight? Even though the Society of St. Andrew is a Christian organization they have really stepped up to stop hunger in the United States. Their website (www.endhunger.org) states, “We have the means to end hunger in America as the first step to ending global hunger. In fact, G-D has provided so abundantly that there is enough food produced to make sure no one ever goes hungry.” That is a fact and we all need to do what we can to help fight hunger and not just by giving some money or donating some food but by only buying what you will use and cut the waste. “In the United States, according to the USDA, 27 percent of all the food produced each year is lost at the retail, consumer, and food service levels. That turns out to be about nearly 1.5 tons of food per year for every man, woman, and child in the United States who faces hunger. To put it another way, in the U.S. we throw away about 263,013,699 pounds of food a day... every single day! And much of what is wasted actually is just surplus food. It is perfectly edible.”

Many years ago I worked in a grocery store part time and I was absolutely disgusted by the amount of food that we would scour the shelves for and then load up to the dumpster to be thrown away. There was food that had just expired but am sure was still good, dented cans and boxes, all sorts of things that could have been put to such good use in a food pantry or a soup kitchen but corporate greed and policies get in the way of the donations. When I asked my store manager why we threw all that good food away the response I got was that it is to much of a hassle to log it all out to donate it. I was so shocked and upset by this information that I walked out and never returned to that store. In doing research on this topic I came across an interesting fact in the notes for the essay, “No one who donates food in good faith can be held liable, civilly or criminally, for someone who gets sick from the donated food. It is a federal law: The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996. It is important to know this, as “liability” is often an excuse that is used when food gets dumped.”

Hazon.org is a Jewish organization that is working on the fight for food justice by putting their money where their mouth is. On their website, “Yes, the New Jewish Food Movement is about more than growing your own food and eating healthfully (although these things are very important as well). It’s about ensuring that everyone has equal access to fresh food and control over their food systems. It’s about understanding that food is a right—not a privilege—and that hunger today is not caused by a lack of resources or overpopulation but by policies that directly impact people’s ability to feed themselves. It’s about policies and systems that we have the power to change.” They are working from an educational standpoint working to get the word out while The Society of St. Andrew is out in the fields gleaning what the farmers have left before it all gets plowed under. The amazing thing is that many Jewish organizations are working together from many different sides on the same topic and hopefully they are changing minds. The Union for Reform Judaism, “We call for a just Farm Bill that supports robust nutrition programs to aid the millions of Americans confronting hunger, while ensuring funding for vital conservation programs that protect our air, land and water for future generations. Jewish tradition demands we raise our voice on this critical legislation, as we read in Leviticus 23:22: ‘…when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.’”

So my question for you is this, What kind of person, What kind of Jew are you going to be? Are you going to be the person that just turns a blind eye and goes back to your warm house with your family and all your food? Are you going to be the Jew that comes to services and listens to the Torah talk about Tzedakah or Tikkun Olam and then do nothing? We owe it to G-D, to ourselves and to the world to stand up and fight the battle on hunger as we were commanded to do.

I have learned a lot of things on my journey and this is one I am so proud of, working in the plaza there are many homeless in need and I have walked past them because I didn’t have any cash. One day a woman asked me for money and I had none but she said she was hungry. I could have said sorry but instead I walked with her to a local restaurant, stood in line with her and saw that she was in need but more importantly a human being like myself. When we got to the front of the line, she ordered her lunch and a soda but I also made her order a coffee because it was cold outside. I paid for her lunch walked her to a table and told her to enjoy her lunch but I had to get back to work. That really stuck with me all weekend and I will look for her again. I can not do that for everyone but I can carry pocket change and help. It all makes a difference.

One of the things I have learned is that in Judaism every occasion is celebrated and food is involved and so much food is wasted. A wonderful book that was suggested to me, “The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic” has a section dedicated to justice or tzedek. In the sixteenth century the Shulchan Aruch 169:1 recorded a very interesting law, “A person should immediately offer to the waiter anything that is being served that has an [enticing] aroma, as well as anything else that anyone would have a strong appetite for. It is a particularly fine practice to give the waiter something immediately from each kind of food.” The concepts of “justice”, “generosity” and “basic decency” are prevalent and as important then as they are now.

“The Sacred Table” brings up some very important ideas. The essay, “Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat” by Neal Gold, asks a very direct question of each and everyone of us, “What values does the typical American simchah convey?” After reading, learning and living as a Jew this question really hit me hard and as you continue reading it discusses not only our values but how these events are perceived by outsiders. I have to say that in hindsight it is disturbing at best. I have been honored to be invited to many bat and bar mitzvahs since moving to Kansas City and the parties are just lovely. There are waiters passing food, then a sit down meal, then desserts and more food because after all it is a celebration. (In all fairness to the hosts, I do not know what the arrangements for the left over food were.) After doing research now all I can think about is what happens to all that left over food? As the essay suggests, did the parents talk with the caterers about the leftovers and donating it? Did they find a caterer that made sure the food was donated or did they just use the caterer they always use because it was easy? The purpose is to make sure that the food is not dumped. When planning simchas remember, “They are opportunities for tzedakah and for bal tashchit. All too often, they are displays of precisely the opposite: conspicuous waste and grotesque over consumption.”

Rabbi Jeremy Master said, “When it’s not an issue that you personally face, it can be very easy to feel unconnected to the issues of homelessness and hunger. However, the statistics illustrate that these are pervasive issues that plague our society and which we cannot ignore. In the United States, approximately 3.5 million people are likely to experience homelessness in a given year. In terms of hunger, 35.1 million people, including over 12 million children, live in food insecure households.”

On the website www.jewishvaluesonline.org a question was raised about how to prioritize tzedakah and the response was given by Rabbi Mark Washofsky and he stated, “That decision, rather, must be made by us, working together in community. And we must take responsibility for that decision.” So give money, give your time, give up some food but just give!

I know that in our household things will change because as sad as it is to say we are just as wasteful as the next person but those days are finished. My commitment is to be more aware! We are going to spend and extra ten dollars every time we are at the grocery store on kosher food for the Yachad food pantry. We are going to buy as much local produce as we can. We are going to cut our food waste and increase our tzedakah for food related charities. We are going to be outspoken on this topic. I am also going to be in contact with the local chapter of the Society of St. Andrew and if schedules allow I will be out in the fields helping to glean what is left. I think that is the least I can do to help the millions of hungry in our country and in the world. We are going to put our money and time where our mouth is. So again I ask, what are you going to do?

Pirkei Avot Chapter One verse fourteen states, “He used to say: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” This verse spoke to me as a charge and a challenge. The commentary is very eye opening, “If I am not for myself. A person must see himself as an important individual, whose unique potential and contribution to the world can only be actualized by his own efforts. But he must not forget that he is a part of the collective community, without which he can not succeed (see Mefarshim). If not now. If I do not change my character in my days of youth and strength, when will I-when I am old and feeble? (Rambam). Furthermore, if I do not seize this moment and fulfill its unique purpose, when can I retrieve it? (see R.Y. ben Shushan).” If this is not a call into action I don’t know what is. We all have talents that will help in this challenge and as a community standing together we will over come this