On a cold, wet Friday night last month, fifteen people converged on my Jerusalem apartment to experience Global Hunger Shabbat. This diverse group ranged from past participants on American Jewish World Service programs to those who had never encountered the organization, from rabbinical students to lay people, from Americans to Israelis, each bringing a unique perspective to the idea of Jewish responsibility to broader world.
After enjoying the potluck dinner and getting acquainted, we spoke broadly of the global challenges regarding food security including inefficiency in the aid delivery system, misguided policies overlooking the power of regional purchasing and prepositioning food in advance of a crisis, and damage of forcing liberal economic policies on developing countries in exchange for debt relief. It became clear from the conversation that the problem is much more complicated than simply a case of too many people and not enough food.
To examine the issue through a Jewish lens and explore the nature of our responsibility in relation to global food insecurity, our group engaged in a text using on Rambam’s explication of the laws of pe’ah as a point of departure. The text reads:
One who harvests his field should not harvest his whole field, but rather leave some stalks remaining for the poor at the edge of the field, as it says: “You shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field”(Leviticus 23:22). The same law applies whether you are harvesting or picking, and the part that he leaves over is called pe’ah (corner). (Rambam, Laws of Gifts to the Poor, Chapter 1, Section 1.)
It quickly became clear given the diverse and nuanced perspectives in the room that a superficial reading of the text would not suffice. We examined people’s personal experiences in agricultural settings, found parallels to giving tzedakah, and even discussed the implications for Kashrut.
Through all of this debate and discussion, an insightful question emerged. What if, in a local and global sense, the poor do not know where to find the “edges of your field?” The command to leave something of your crop behind empowers the poor specifically because it allows them to seek out assistance as they see fit in a location they can expect. Essentially, pe’ah creates a system to ensure access to food even for those who lack the means to secure food for themselves. In our contemporary world, this system breaks down as systems of food production have become more and more globalized. How does our responsibility change in response to the systematic changes in how food is grown and distributed?
I suggest that as we reconceptualize pe’ah in the modern context, an important opportunity emerges for our community to leverage its most powerful contemporary asset, our socio-economic privilege. Instead of leaving a corner of our field, we can set aside a portion of our privilege to work towards creating more just systems to ensure that everyone has access to food.
What does this mean in practice? We as Americans have a specific responsibility to address how American policies, such as local farm subsidies and international free trade agreements, often detrimentally impact people’s access to food both domestically and abroad. As both Americans and Jews, it is our responsibility to act on our community’s values and make our voices heard.
This message is especially pressing as Congress begins the process of crafting the 2012 Farm Bill in which many of the policies related to food access will be determined. Make your voice heard and sign The Jewish Petition for a Just Farm Bill. Furthermore, American Jewish World Service’s Reverse Hunger campaign represents an opportunity for sustained action to ensure everyone has access to a stable supply of food.
While most of us no longer have fields of which to leave a corner, we can still help ensure that everyone has access to food. How do you envision setting aside a portion of your personal privilege to help those who are hungry?
Jimmy Taber is a recent MA-MBA graduate from Brandeis University’s Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. He is spending the year in Jerusalem serving in the Joint Distribution Committee’s Jewish Service Corps on issues related to African refugees and migrant workers.
