While the table and those gathered around it to eat has been a deeply holy time for me, I am beginning to see how much this sacred ritual goes beyond the table? What about the journey of the food before it is even in my kitchen to be prepared? Others have been exploring this for some time and their ponderings, writings,and ruminations have me venturing into a whole new level of this sacred life giving journey with food.
The following article from my current read on the subject is rich and provocative so I share it with you.
Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi
found on page 34/35 Bread Body Spirit - Finding the Sacred in Food
In an age of increasingly rapid technological change, the issue of what's kosher has widened its focus to an inclusive concern for the well-being of all our fellow human beings, our planet, and the entire universe. As soon as we orient ourselves to the path of planetary survival, we must ask about a whole range of things: are they kosher?
We want to know if nuclear power is kosher, and the electricity produced by it. (And what about nuclear waste, and all the other toxins with which we pollute the air, the earth, the seas, and eventually ourselves - are they clean or unclean, kosher or treif?)
Eggs are generally considered kosher, but what about eggs from chickens who spend their entire lives imprisoned in a cage one cubic foot in size? Food pellets are brought to them on one conveyor belt; their droppings and eggs are taken away on another. The Bible forbids us to torment animals or cause them any unnecessary grief. Raising chickens who can go out sometimes and see the sky or eat a worm or blade of grass is one thing, but manufacturing them in the concentration camp conditions of contemporary 'poultry ranches' is quite another.
According to Jewish dietary laws, all fruits and vegetables are kosher. But what about green beans or tomatoes harvested by ill-treated, underpaid, and exploited migrant workers - are they kosher? What about bananas from countries ruled by despots where the workers have few rights, and the bananas are heavily sprayed with DDT, picked green, and then artificially ripened in the holds of ships by being gassed - are they kosher?
Are chemical food additives kosher? They give food a longer shelf life, but what do they do to our lives? Who really knows what all those chemicals do to our livers, kidneys, stomachs, or intestines? And what about artificial colouring dyes that make food look 'pretty' but may cause cancer - are they kosher? And cigarettes, which we already know cause cancer, heart disease, and other health problems - are they kosher and pure?
The list of things about which we must answer the question - is it kosher? - is endless: fur from baby seals clubbed to death? Products from endangered species? The chemicals contained in many prepared foods (look at the list of ingredients on some labels)? Products or services produced at the cost of human pain and misery? Coal from strip mines that destroy our land; oil from offshore wells that pollute the seas? After a moment's thought, you can easily add to this list.
As you can see, the concept of kosher has to do with both the individual and the universe. Helping to take care of the business of the universe begins with taking care of ourselves. The Jewish tradition is very clear about this. Each of us is part of the whole, and we matter. We are therefore obliged to treat the temples of our bodies with the respect, gratitude, and even awe they deserve.
Once we have learned to care for ourselves - as individuals, as families, as groups, as an entire species of human beings - we reestablish our organic connection with the will of God. This organic connection is neither abstrct nor supernatural. it is based on a functional response to the ongoing processes of the universe. To discover these processes, all we have to do is open our hearts and eyes. If there is any great heresy, it is in making ourselves opaque to the world.