Rabbi Green: Are You Alive?

 Are You Alive?
Reclaiming food sovereignty

The Torah admonishes us:

“Your life will hang in suspense before you. You will be in fear night and day, and you will not believe in your life [1] וְהָיוּ חַיֶּיךָ תְּלוּאִים לְךָ מִנֶּגֶד וּפָחַדְתָּ לַיְלָה וְיוֹמָם,  וְלֹא תַאֲמִין בְּחַיֶּיךָ."

In the Midrash [2], the Sages and Rabbi Berechya differed on how to interpret this verse.

The Sages said: “Your life will hang in suspense before you" -- that refers to a person who purchases wheat for a year. “And you will fear night and day" -- that is one who purchases wheat from the retailer. “And you will not believe in your life” -- that's a person who purchases bread from the baker.

Rabbi Berechya said: “Your life will hang in suspense before you" -- that is a person who purchases wheat for three years. “And you will fear night and day" -- that is one who purchases wheat for one year. “And you will not believe in your life" -- that is one who purchases wheat from the retailer.

The Sages objected to Rabbi Berechya: "What about someone who purchases bread from the baker?”

He responded to them: "The Torah did not speak of the dead."

* * *

Question: do you believe in your own life? Or do you buy bread from a baker or store?

If the latter, do you realize that Rabbi Berechya doesn't consider you to be alive? And the Sages deem you as one who doesn't believe in his own life.

And even if you bake your own bread, do you grow your own wheat or do you buy flour from a store?

If the latter, then Rabbi Berechya deems you as one who doesn't believe in his own life, and the Sages considers you as one whose life hangs in suspense before him, and who's in fear night and day."

Yikes. Either way, you're in a pretty precarious situation.

It's high time to take back your food sovereignty and cultivate your own food.

At the very least, start baking your own bread. Be alive, not dead.

You can do it. Hashem believes in you.

Start believing in yourself. Believe in your life תאמין בחייך, and not in those who predict your doom.

They call you a '“consumer” and “useless eater.” After all, you are totally dependent on their supply chain, and your existence is meaningless to them (or worse). To them, you're more dead than alive.

The Torah foresaw this over three millennia ago. Stop consuming and start producing.

Our sages taught that cultivating food is an act of belief in G-d. "[The farmer] believes in the Life of all worlds and sows” [3].

Believe in G-d and believe in life. Be with G-d and be alive.

Notes:

[1] Deuteronomy 28:66)

[2] Esther Rabba Psichta 1

[3] Tosafot on Shabbat 31a, based on Isaiah 33:6, citation from Yerushalmi; Midrash Tehillim 19:8; Bamidbar Rabba Naso Parsha 13, and elsewhere.