Ki Tetze 2012/5772
All You Might Eat
Rabbi Neil A. Tow©
It has become a family tradition the past few years to go
apple picking on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. At the orchard where we go, the rules are
that inside the site visitors can eat as many apples as they like. To take the apples home, though, costs about
$20 for a big bag.
For the few hours that we spend there, if it is clear and
dry, I might have two or three apples off the tree at most – and that usually
is due to minor hunger and a major love of fruit and vegetables right off the
branch or vine.
I think the orchard got its rules from the Torah, from our
reading for this week, that reminds the Israelites that when they enter the
Holy Land and plant vineyards, all Israelites may enter the vineyards that
belong to others and eat from the grapes there to their fill – but they may not
stock grapes into their own basket or other vessel to take home.
We can appreciate the taste of freshly picked produce, but
we cannot hoard it. There is tzedakah in
making this food available and there is a limit to this tzedakah.
The Talmud clarifies the Torah’s teaching: A person may take some of the grapes that he
or she may be harvesting for the owner of the vineyard while in the process of
harvesting.
The original teaching does not stress that we are in the
midst of a harvest. The teaching sounds
similar to the teachings about peah and leket, leaving the corners of the
fields and the produce that drops to the ground available to anyone in need. The Rabbis take the word for basket or vessel
to suggest that we are in the midst of a harvest and we are referring to the
workers. And so we can assume that the
Torah is telling us that the workers get hungry out in the fields and are in
need themselves.
How much though does it take to be full, to feel full?
On Thanksgiving, when there is an expectation that everyone
will eat heartily from the feast, I tend to eat about as much as a regular
dinner serving. It feels as though I eat
very little.
On an average night, when we cook just enough for the few of
us at home, I believe I eat more, or it seems like I eat more, since I am
satisfying a real need for food as fuel as we get ready for the evening’s
activities. There is a purpose to eating
beyond the eating itself.
A commentary from the Korban Ha’ani teaches us that when we
eat to our fill, we should eat according to the desire of our souls, meaning,
we will know not only when we are full but when we feel good, energized,
balanced, ready for the next step in our lives.
With just over two weeks until Rosh Hashanah, it is my
prayer that the holidays will help us feel spiritually full and satisfied, that
there will be meaning and moments that move us to tears and to dancing, that we
will feel the holidays will point us in a good and positive direction this
year.
I also pray, at the same time, that the holidays will
challenge us to stretch our minds, our hearts, and our actions to fulfill the
message of tzedakah that the Torah shares in the case of the vineyard – how can
we share the best of ourselves with those in need? Where are the people in need? Who are they, whether right here among us or
beyond the borders of our towns?
May the days ahead, like the figurative grapes that we
collect from God’s world during this time of reflection and renewal, be filled
with sweetness and hope for a year of blessings.
Shabbat Shalom.
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