Rabbi Jon's Website and Blog

Food Links

What I mentioned in my Torah introduction a couple weeks ago:

• KOL Foods -- Kosher, organic, pastured/grass-fed beef, lamb, and poultry available for shipping to New Hampshire and Massachusetts (among other places)
• LoKo -- Local kosher, free-range chicken from a farm in Massachusetts -- fresh, you put in some time on the farm (we've got a group from the synagogue working on setting up a time to go together)
• Tav Hayosher -- ethical certification of kosher restaurants, mostly in New York, some in Chicago, Philadelphia, and at University of Maryland, through the Orthodox group Uri L'Tzedek
• Magen Tzedek -- new Conservative movement initiative to offer certification that kosher food providers meet high standards in workplace environment, health, environmental impact, corporate governance
  

Parashat Shmini: Liberated by Kashrut

The Sfat Emet has an interesting comment on the section of Parshat Shmini that enumerates which animals are fit to eat.  He says:  "By means of forbidden foods, freedom is taken away from the soul, and thus one who eats them denies the Exodus from Egypt."

One might think the opposite.  The laws of kashrut are often taken as the most arbitrary of the mitzvot, the ones least susceptible to any sort of rational analysis.  Claims that the kosher animals are more healthy, for instance, don't stand up to scrutiny.  The rabbis take kashrut to be gezerat hamelech, "decree of the King."  The most "oppressing" mitzvot.  So how can the laws of kashrut hold the key to freedom?

Here is one way to understand the Sfat Emet.  Eating can be our most desire-driven, most animal activity.  We spend a lot of time eating, it's woven into every part of the day.  If everything that doesn't actually poison us is edible, then our eating is no expression of freedom or choice.  It either lowers us to an animal level, or just takes us away for much of the day from the holiness, from things we do that are elevated.

By dividing the foods into permitted and forbidden, we bring free will all the way into our lives.  In fact, the more arbitrary the rule the better, you might say.! If I'm not eating pork even though it's no less good for me than beef or beans, then it's an act of pure freedom.  And I would argue that paying attention to eating leads us to ever more involving reflection on what we eat, where it comes from, what it does to us and our world.  (Here are gathered many related postings on food.)  That can lead us to a path of even greater responsibility.

There is a hint in the language that the Torah uses in Leviticus 11.  The requirement that an animal chews its cud is, in Hebrew, ma'alat gerah -- "brings up".  Similarly, God identifies Godself in the chapter as the Hama'aleh etchem me-eretz mitzrayim -- "the One Who brings you up from the land of Egypt."

This language, which concludes the chapter on forbidden and permitted animals, frames kashrut not as a static rule, but as a growing awareness.  As we eat, we are being charged to continue to "go up from Egypt."  Choosing not to eat something I want is an act of freedom in itself.  Noticing all living things, integrating our bodies' needs with an outward focus -- these can be an entry point into even more free and responsible action.

Kosher for Pesach 5770

Here's a head start on Pesach, even though we haven't passed Purim quite yet.  I put together this slightly revised version of last year's guide for eating Kosher during Pesach.  It contains both a strict guide and the idea of a ladder to climb in your observance of the holiday.

Download Pesach Kashrut Guide 5770 (pdf form)

Jewish Deli Meets Slow Food

Here's a great new article I came across in the Forward:

Can the Jewish Deli Survive the Sustainable Food Movement? Pass The Homemade Pickles  By Sue Fishkoff

Chanuka -- Fifth Candle

This afternoon a group of seven of us went to the Pheasant Lane Mall.  Last week one of the young Israelis working there called after me -- she saw my kippah -- and I found out she was from Modi'in, home of the Maccabees.  They come for the holiday season and work very late, no time to come out into the community to celebrate Chanuka.  So we went with sufganyot and songs, and surprised them!

Here's are pictures:

Today's profile in Jewish dedication:  MAZON:  A Jewish Response to Hunger.  This organization has, since 1985, given out over $50 million in the Jewish community's name to fight hunger particularly in the U.S., mostly through support of direct provision of food but also by standing behind local organizations that work on the causes of hunger in an abundant society.  In many places it has become the norm for Jews celebrating a simcha to donate 3% of the cost of the celebration to MAZON. 

A Milestone in Kosher for New England

I got this in my inbox today from my friends at KOL -- Kosher, Organic, Local:

KOL Foods is pleased to announce the launch of our Online Store!
 
We are so pleased to be able to offer our products just in time for Rosh Hashanah.  Glatt kosher, grass-fed beef and lamb as well as pastured poultry are now available for online order and home delivery.

Click here to SHOP KOL FOODS!

KOL Foods puts kosher meat and ethics on the same plate so you can feel good about the meat you eat.  Everyday we work to create a new food system that supports sustainable animal production, treats farmers and workers fairly, and improves the health of families and communities.  KOL Foods is dedicated to changing the face of industrial animal farming by making grass-fed, non-industrial kosher meat widely available.

Shanah Tovah,
The KOL Foods Team

August is Eat Local Month in New Hampshire

Did you know...

• The average item in the supermarket was transported 1500 miles.
  
• As much fossil fuel is consumed producing and transporting our food in the United States as driving our cars.
• Somewhere between two-thirds and four-fifths of all the food calories human beings on earth consume comes from four crops:  corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice.  These are for the most part farmed on an industrial scale, using pesticides and herbicides that are made from fossil fuel and whose runoff poisons water in many parts of our country and the world.

It's as if each time we wanted to eat in Nashua, New Hampshire, we had to call and order out from Sioux City, Iowa!  When we talk about climate change and global warming, the way we eat is a key factor the same way our driving is.

(The author Michael Pollan wittily suggests that "there is every reason to believe that corn has succeeded in domesticating us", not the other way around!  Corn has gotten us to take responsibility for its expansion, by giving us all kinds of ways to use its chemical derivatives.  Corn has gotten us to feed it to our grass-loving animals, and Pollan says that now that we eat as much corn as is humanly possible we've begun to feed it to our cars!)

In New Hampshire, August is Eat Local Month.  Eating food that comes from the immediate area has all kinds of obvious benefits.  It reduces pollution of all kinds.  It slows the use of fossil fuels.  It weaves the local community together.  It steers us toward fresher, healthier, tastier food. Spiritually, it reminds us to be humble, to remember that God gave the first humans a patch of land "to work and to protect" (Genesis 2:15).

So let's find a way to the local farm or farmers' market this month.  We can even each start by picking one product to substitute all month, to remove from the supermarket basket and buy instead locally.  Then see what happens to our consciousness, and our habits.  As Ben Azzai said (Pirket Avot 4:2), "One mitzvah drags along another mitzvah"!

If you read this during August and do go out and eat local, I invite you to let us know -- post a comment to the blog, say where you shopped and what you bought.

On this site, explore more links, articles, organizations, and podcasts about food, energy, and sustainability