Tuesday, September 4, 2012

All You Might Eat - Ki Tetzte 2012/5772


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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