Real or Artificial?

Real or artificial?

[Warning: this article may contain harmful substances ]

The supermarket search is on.

Racing down aisles with carriages jockeying for the nectar of Eden, we level well-aimed jabs at jars and tins in blazoned with words declaring purity. Bold print screams out at the seasoned shopper: pure vegetable oil, low in saturated fat, all natural, organic! 

You ever let your eyes meander over the ingredient list for fruit juice? Of course you have. Most contain corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and artificial flavors. One famous brand proudly proclaimed that it has 10% real juice in it.  Gottenu! Others claim that they come from fruits that are naturally processed…along with the pesticides and residues from acid rain that annually falls.

Many years ago we decided to raise her children on nourishing foods, ones that were free from contaminants and unnecessary additives. So we bought apple juice with no more than two ingredients listed on the labels, water and apples.

Then came another scare something called a Alar. Remember that?  I heard that I was guilty of poisoning my child with some trisyllabic word.  Less fastidious parents than we -- filling baby bottles with root beer instead of superpure apple juice -- were the heroes, the real caring guardians of the child’s health. I remember feeling deceived and violated.

We live in an age when Cheetos are touted as health food. After all, they have real cheese in them don’t they? Nature stores sell items antithetical to sound nutrition.  Do we trust? And we are called upon to make choices every day, real or artificial?

We live in the healing universe.

Huge machine spew six smokers they grind intrude into the earth displacing massive boulders, uprooting trees. Gaping wounds spill over onto untouched ground like flesh peeled back from the skin, exposing the bowels of the earth. I’m ready soil is ripped up as the life force of the earth bleeds.

Truly amazing is that these terrible dismemberments gradually heal. By themselves. Moss slowly grows over the shattered and twisted lambs cast about. Grasses return to unfold the stark landscape. Flowers bring back bees and with them, arrive insects and turtles.  Left alone, all the radiation, smog, pollution, non-biodegradable shmutz is absorbed and healed by the universe.

We are just too small to see the magnificence of life; we are like fleas on a dog.

The holy days recognize the supremacy of nature as the hand of God behind the falling leaves, the darkening skies, the rain, the snow, the wind and sun. It is no wonder that we grow quiet and introspective when we open our eyes and hearts.  Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, offers this advice:

Remember your Creator and appreciate life

In the days of your youth, before the days of sorrow,

And years draw near when you will say,

I have no pleasure in them.

To sum up the matter,

Revere God and for fulfill His mitzvot.

Tu B'Shvat

This month we celebrate the renewal of nature’s cycle. Throughout the past cold, dark weeks of winter we have witnessed death. The leaves have withered and decayed, the grass is turned additional shade of brown, insects and the familiar the creatures of early morning are now burrowed snuggly under the ground.  Tu B’Shvat tells of life, which wells up from the earth. Finding less resistance from the hard crust, tiny heads to begin to push upwards seeking warmth. As if propelled by the giant foundations of the deep, the familiar sprigs of the oncoming season have decided that they have rested long enough from their long winter sleep.

A story: A calf was being lead along the street toward the slaughterhouse. As Rabbi Judah passed by the animal broke loose, sensing that it was going to its death. It ran to Rabbi Judah and nuzzled its head in his cloak, whimpering pathetically.

Gently, Rabbi Judah turned the calf around to where it’s understood waiting. He bent down to speak into it it’s here. “Go,” he said. “This is what you were created for."

On that day, the heavenly court decreed that since Rabbi Judah had shown no compassion, sufferings would be brought upon him.

Truth be told, Judaism seems to forever be concerned with humanity. We have laws governing every action, whether potential for real.  We call this menschlichkeit.  Our relation to our fellow human being is of ultimate consequence. But the heritage of Israel just as strongly advocates care for all life.

According to Torah, a farmer is prohibited from purchasing more animals than he could adequately care for. And if she could not provide for them the basic needs of all her animals, the farmer was forbidden from possessing them. In fact, our tradition go so far as to say that she even had to feed them before sitting down to her own dinner (this law exists until his day: we must feed our animals before feeding ourselves).

Why this level of concern?  After all, animal life is not on the par with humans. Beginning with Noah's Ark and extending through the laws of muzzling an ox with an ass, what does our heritage really want to teach us through the great number of stories and dicta about animal rights?

Is the lesson not this?  Beauty and supernal holiness pulsates through the fabric of all life. Appreciation for the processes of photosynthesis, upholding the natural currents of life, taking care of our oceans and forests; these things bring us a little closer to God.  When we look at a budding leaf or flower and feel wonder, maybe even something close to rapture, we are soulfully uplifted.  That moment connects us with the Source of all life, the Holy One.

Indifference is a cardinal sin for a religious person. Turning a deaf ear to the universe is the surest past to an unfulfilled life. What Heschel called the “Legacy of Wonder” is a God-given gift that we too often ignore.

Tefilah, real prayer, is an act awe and appreciation. It means seeing the world refreshed and replenished as we do when we celebrate Tu B’Shvat. Rabbi Judah’s crime was not recognizing the uniqueness of every fold in nature, let alone an animal. No form of life, however primitive or, is without holiness.

The words God spoke to Job still apply: “Stand still and consider the wondrous works of the Lord."

Stand still and be in awe.