Creating Food Justice

I recently took an rabbinical continuing education session online entitled ‘Creating Food Justice.’   The session looked at the book, “The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic.”

Midrash says (loosely translated): The mitzvot were given for one reason:  ”For us to be refined into better human beings and to fashion more ethical communities.”

One of the central messages of the book, “The Sacred Table,” is that:

WE MUST INFUSE EATING WITH ETHICS.

Reform Jews often throw out ritual such as kashrut because they see the purpose of Judaism as being all about the ethical rules of Judaism not about the “picky” rules, especially in the realm of kashrut.  BUT…….

What happens if rules of keeping kosher are fundamentally about ethics?

Dr. Jacob Milgram, a renowned scholar, posited that the dietary laws exist to help Israel develop a higher reverence for life.  One of the rabbis on teh call, Rabbi Zamore, said:  ”Our sacred practices, the way in which we interact with our traditions allows us to refine us and define us.”  She called on Reform Jews to be educated about Judaism and to reexamine our approach to kashrut and our relationship to food and food policy in our nation.

Kashrut can, at its best, bring a sense of intentionality before we purchase or eat something.  We must recognize that we are truly shaping our personal environment, our community, and the earth.  If we had this intentionality, perhaps we would make different choices. Another scholar on the call, Leah Koenig said that Kashrut also offers us the notion that the act of limiting our consumption can be a source of spiritual empowerment.”

“The Sacred Table” is challenging our Reform Community to not go into ‘automatic pilot mode’, but to think more deeply about the history of kashrut and Reform Judaism and to see kashrut as intertwined with greater values and spirituality.

I would highly recommend the book and would have provided some resources below.

The scholars on the call were asked to address the following questions and more and they are good for us to consider as a community:

1) What are biggest challenges facing America and Jewish community related to food?

-We’ve lost the spiritual center/sense of the food process.  Kashrut                        can help us do that and therefore do God’s work in the world.

2) What is a Jewish food ethic?  What will success look like?

3) What does a sacred Jewish table look like?

Leah Koenig:   ” We have to find a path of reasonable righteousness….following to the best of our abilities our traditions.”  Kashrut and ethics are the legs of our table.  Blessings create the table top…..We must remember to be grateful for the blessings of food that find their way to our table…..Brachot offer an anecdote to our 24/7 mode of living…….”  Eating at the Jewish table must be seen as both a privilege and a gift.  Brachot are a round applause to God and the farmers who made the food possible.   The glue that binds the table together are the blessings for food that we and others remember to make.  When we offer these blessings we will eat more mindfully and more responsibly.

4)What would you like to see rabbis do in the realm of food justice?

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Some interesting links to delve further:

Leviticus Text establishing basis for Kashrut laws:  http://ccarnet.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=4221&destination=ShowItem

http://ccarnet.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=4228&destination=ShowItem (phone call)

http://www.fairfoodbook.org/

http://www.fairfoodnetwork.org/

Fair Food YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/fairfoodnetwork

http://www.fairfoodnetwork.org/sites/default/files/HealthyFoodForAll_FullReport.pdf

http://www.doubleupfoodbucks.org/

www.rac.org