The recent controversy regarding the custom of Kapparot (see article in the Forward) made me realize that Kapparot is virtually the only remaining ritual that uses an animal sacrifice as an atonement for human sin. In Temple times, any inadvertent sin had a corresponding animal sacrifice that was intended to cause the sinner to contemplate the nature of sin and how this animal is now losing its life instead of the sinner. pretty powerful stuff, if your environment is agrarian and animals are preciously traded commodities. Today however, things are much different.

Two long months with hardly any rain. That is the dire situation we have been facing this season. Our CSA provides shares to 85 families in the Washington, DC area.  Long ago this past April, we missed a month’s worth of rain, kicking off a season of high and dry windy weather. This has been tough on everything and everyone around.  During this season’s severe extended drought we’ve been dealing with a 2-pronged “war”. On one hand, we must keep every new seedling and translant happy and moist, on the other, we must keep the deer at bay.

The deer come out around mid-August every year as their food runs out in the forest. This season, they were here in July. Entire plantings of green beans, sweet potatoes and edemame, were gone. Badly eaten were the new and still tender tomato and cucumber plants.

Earlier in the season we cought 6 groundhogs over the course of a month and a half, and safely transported them to a wooded area a few miles away. Now we have an early deer problem, and a drought like we’ve never seen before.

This Friday, DC’s rockin’ progressive havurah is taking on Jewish food issues!

Tikkun Leil Shabbat is a songful, soulful, Friday evening services featuring a teaching about a social justice issue and followed by a potluck vegetarian dinner. This Friday July 13, the “dvar tikkun” will be introduced by Hazon’s very own Laura Bellows and feature:

Aliza Wasserman (also one of our fabulous “The Jew & the Carrot” bloggers!), from Community Food Security Coalition, will talk about a progressive Jewish take on national food policy and the pending Farm Bill.

Written for Kol Zimrah’s Feb 2nd, 2007, Tu’Bishvat minyan:

Last week’s parsha featured the ten miracles and the ten doubts of the Israelites as they flee Egypt for the Holy Land. Ten times, the Israelites lose faith in Moses and God and ten times they return to God and Moses’ leadership after an appropriate miracle.

The people say to Moses, “Dude, we’re gonna die!” So Moses says to God, “Dude, gimme a trick!” And God says to Moses, “Here, try this.” Moses then turns to the people and displays a miracle, “Ta dah!” And the people say, “Whew, Moses that was close. We almost lost faith in you there. Thanks for the manna/water/victory/pillar of fire.”

Can I say that this is really stupid? We can all see it. This level of faith endurance is pretty shallow, this reliance on miracles. And I want to say that I don’t need miracles to be faithful. As a post-modern, post-Enlightenment, seriously spiritual but definitely down to earth guy, I’m not a fan of big miracles. When I set out to write this d’var, I was ready to be very condemnatory. But when I sat down to write this d’var, recent live events prevented me from being so:

Hello from the Food Conference!

I’ve just been to two sessions, and eaten so much amazing food, and tasted raw milk for the first time, and heard about the combination of different bacteria that are involved in making miso, in a process that takes anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 years.

And this only the first day!

It’s interesting, though, that the things that have grabbed me and pulled me out of my seat with “Wait! What about…!” thoughts are the same things that I’ve already heard about before, or ostensibly already studied, or were so ubiquitous to have never merited a second glance. The most recent session was about the Birkat Hamazon.

Greetings from the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center!

Over 150 Jewish food, farm, health, sustainability and spiritual learners are gathered here for the next four days to share our stories about food, connect Jewishly to contemporary issues, and celebrate innovative approaches to our heritage.

Said Nigel Savage during one of tonight’s sessions, as we innovate Jewish tradition in light of contemporary life, we also “vote with our feet” and determine which innovations have traction, which innovative ideas “stick.” That is precisely the purpose of Latkes to Lattes — innovating Jewishly, exchanging ideas, and ultimately broadening what it means to eat kosher with what “sticks.”