This post offers two poems in Hebrew and English, excerpts from Dr. Tzemah Yoreh‘s work, «By the Sweat of their Brow, a Humanist Birkon.» After a brief explanation of the rationale behind his project, Dr. Yoreh offers a poem that references Biblical characters who altruistically fed the hungry, encouraging people to not only thank God for their food, but also their human providers. The second poem, based on the Book of Lamentations, challenges readers to acknowledge their responsibility to work towards the end of world hunger. As a humanist, feminist, environmentalist, libertarian, pacifist, agnostic Jew who grew up in religious home, Dr. Tzemah Yoreh’s mission is to compose new Hebrew prayers and poetry that reflect his modern values and make Bible and Prayer meaningful and accessible to all. This piece was submitted to The Open Siddur Project, an initiative that aims to liberate the creative content of Jewish spiritual practice as a collectively shared resource for students, scholars, artists, and educators to adopt, adapt, and redistribute.
Introduction by Dr. Tzemah Yoreh
As an auditory learner in a religious home, the first thing I knew by heart was Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after meals. When I was two, I didn’t know what I was saying, nor why, and I didn’t know to whom it was addressed. Unfortunately, this situation persisted for some twenty-five years. Why was I thanking God for food grown by farmers, packaged by factory workers, shipped by truckers, displayed by supermarket proprietors, sold by cashiers, purchased with money my boss paid me for my labors, and (sometimes) prepared by myself or my spouse? It seemed that there were many individuals to thank for the food.
I could thank God, but others deserve thanks, too! Not one of these many parties is acknowledged in the traditional blessing after meals. Yet the blessing after meals remains one of the most popular rituals at communal meals, at camp, at Kiddush in synagogues–as it should be, but different words need occasionally to be substituted to make it meaningful to the present day and age.
If rubbing your belly and saying, “That hit the spot” does not suffice in your mind and you want to say something more meaningful about the food you consumed, then I invite you to take a look at the blessings that follow.
ברכת הזן – Blessing the Sustainers
מִי הַזָּנִים אֶת הָעוֹלָם בְּטוּבָם בְּחֶסֶד וּבְרַחֲמִים וַאֲבָרֵךְ שְׁמָם?
שָׂרָה אֲשֶר לָשָׁה וְעָשְׂתָה עוּגוֹת לַמַּלְאָכִים
לוֹט אֲשֶר הִכְנִיס אוֹרְחִים וְהֵגֵן עַלֵיהֶם מִפְּנֵי הַנּוֹכְלִים
רִבְקָה אֲשֶר הִשְׁקְתָה עֶבֶד וּגְמַלִּים
יִתְרוֹ אֲשֶר הֵבִיא אִישׁ מְצִרי לְבֵיתוֹ וְהֶאֱכִילוֹ מַעֲדָנִים
רוּת אֲשֶר נָתְנָה לְנָעֳמִי מִן הַשְּׂעוֹרִים
גִּדְעוֹן הָרָעֵב אֲשֶר עִישֵּׂר מִלַּחְמוֹ לְמַלאָךְ הַמְּלָכִים
הָאִישָּׁה מִצָּרְפָת אֲשֶר נָתְנָה לְאֵלִיָּהוּ מִשְּׂרִידֶיהָ הָאַחֲרוֹנִים
וְלִרְבָבוֹת וּלְאַלְפֵי הָאֲלָפִים אֲשֶר בְּכָל יוֹם מְקַיְּמִים
«הֲלֹא פָּרוֹש לָרָעֵב לַחְמֶיךָ» הַאֲכִילִי עֲנִיּים מְרוּדִים!
בְּרוּכוֹת הֱיֵינָה וּמְבוֹרָכִים
מַכְרִיתֵי הָרָעָב מַרְווֹת הַצְּמֵאִים
Who are the ones who sustain the world in their generosity, kindness, and mercy?
Let me bless them by name
Sarah worked dough into cakes for angels
Lot took in visitors and sheltered them from fiends
Rebecca quenched the thirst of both servant and camel
Jethro housed an Egyptian refugee and offered him delicacies.
Ruth gave Naomi sheaves of barley
Gideon, starving, let the angel eat first
The woman from Tzarfat gave her last crumbs to Elijah
And the countless millions who sow, prepare
and in every way make
the food with which my fast I did break
Study Notes: The Bible is full of examples of people who fed the hungry, without hope or thought of reward. Though the Bible may be the great justifier and one can pretty much skew the text to advocate for any value system, it is pretty consistent when it comes to feeding the hungry. Literally every narrative book in the Bible is filled with examples of this type of altruism, some of which are listed in the poem above. Sarah prepared cakes for three angels/men who came to visit Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18, then his nephew invited two of these angels/men for matzah in Genesis 19. In Genesis 24 Rebecca gave Abraham’s servant water to drink. In Exodus 3 Jethro invited Moses, a man he had never encountered before, for a meal — the same Moses who in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 spoke to a rock from which water gushed, quenching the thirst of the entire nation. Ruth fed her mother-in-law in the Book of Ruth, and then married her benefactor. In Judges 6, Gideon gave an angel disguised as a man a prime rib roast though he himself was suffering from hunger. In I Kings 17, a widow fed Elijah with her final loaf of bread, the same Elijah who caused rain to fall on a tired, dry earth.
בִּרְכַּת הָרַחֲמִים – Mercy
אָבְדוּ נְפָשׁוֹת בְּכָפָן וְעַד אָנָה הָרָזוֹן
אֵיךְ אָגֵל בִּרְאוֹתִי רָעָב הָאֶלֶף וְהַמִּילְיוֹן?
בּוֹסַסְנוּ בְּדָמִים נִגְאַלְנוּ בְּקָלוֹן
אֵיךְ אֶשְׂמַח וְכוּלִּי מָלֵא עָווֹן?
גֶּשׁ הָלְאָה אָמַרְנוּ כִּקְצִינֵי סְדוֹם
אֵיךְ אוּכָל לֹומָר שִׂימֵנִי כְּמָלוֹן?
לֹא אֶשּׁוֹם וְלֹא אֶשְקוֹט עַד אֲשֶר אֲרָחֵם עַד כְּלוֹת חָרוֹן
וְנֹאמַר כֵּן יְהִי רָצוֹן!
דָבַק לְשׁוֹן יוֹנֵק לְחִיכּוֹ בְּצִימָּאוֹן
וְאָנוֹכִי טָס כָּל שָׁנָה בִּמְטוֹסֵי סִילוֹן
הָרַסְתִּי בַּיִת, בִּגְלָלִי גָּלָה מִשְׁכָּן וּמָעוֹן
וְאָנוֹכִי קוֹרֵא סֶפֶר בַּסָּלוֹן
וְנַטֶּה רֺאשׁ מִפְּנֵי זְעָקוֹת ושָׁאוֹן
וְאָנוֹכִי בְשָׁמְעִי סָגַרְתִּי הֶחָלוֹן
לֹא אֶשּׁוֹם וְלֹא אֶשְׁקוֹט עַד אֲשֶר אֲרָחֵם
עַד כְּלוֹת חָרוֹן
וְנֹאמַר כֵּן יְהִי רָצוֹן!
זַלְעָפוֹת רָעָב כְּתַנּוּר בִּישְּׁלוּ הֶהָמוֹן
אֵיכְכָה אָכַלְתִּי אוּמְצַת בְּקָרִים בְּתֵיאָבוֹן
חָלָב מַצּוֹנוּ מֵעֲנִיֵּי אָרֶץ עַד אֲבַדּוֹן
אָכֵן הַחַיִּים וְהַמָּוֶות בְּיָד הַלָּשׁוֹן
טוֹבִים הָיוּ חַלְלֵי חֶרֶב מֵחַלְלֵי רְעָבוֹן
אֵיכְכָה אוּכָל לוֹמָר זֹאת בְּלֹא זַעֲקַת שִׁיבָרוֹן
לֹא אֶשּׁוֹם וְלֹא אֶשְׁקוֹט עַד אֲשֶר אֲרָחֵם
עַד כְּלוֹת חָרוֹן
וְנֹאמַר כֵּן יְהִי רָצוֹן!
A soul starves while I salivate and carve my steak
Apathetic to what I left in my wake
Besmirched in blood, soiled in diarrhea and mud
Blind to the sins that brought on the flood
Couldn’t answer the knock when it came
Catatonic to the cries of the sick and the lame
There’s no one to blame but myself
No need to dig deeply or to delve
Dry and wracked distended and cracked
Dying children and no one gives a frack
Every scream I ignored, it rained and it poured
Closing the window I did snore
Foreclosing their clothes, a dime I then throw
Futzing them over, pain no one knows
There’s no one to blame but myself
No need to dig deeply or to delve
Therefore I scream
To end hunger, I have a dream
Study Notes: This poem takes a page from the Book of Lamentations, which focuses on the human tragedy of exile, concentrating on one tragedy, hunger, in particular (much of the imagery is taken from that book). As an addendum to a blessing after meals I try to remember those who are not blessed with food. Like the Book of Lamentations, my poem is an alphabetic acrostic; unlike the Biblical book, I don’t blame God for the problems. For many years now the world has been producing enough food to feed itself, yet millions continue to die of hunger. Moral philosophers debate how much blame can be assigned to a person who knows about a problem and has the power to do something yet does nothing. It is a very difficult question, because there is so much suffering in the world, and through mass media we are exposed to it more than ever before.
One of the common solutions to this dilemma is to rate problems by degree of proximity. The Rabbis put it this way: “The poor in your city have priority over the poor in another city.” Thus this poem deals specifically with hunger at our doorstep; through hyperbole it compares us to murderers if we don’t deal with it, to officers of Sodom, in fact. Sodom was famous, according to the Rabbis, for not offering hospitality to visitors. The Israelites are compared to officers of Sodom in Isaiah 1, when they opt to offer choice sacrifices to God instead of behaving morally.
The poem constantly distinguishes between the unfortunate and the extraordinarily fortunate middle class of developed countries, i.e., me. For me it is highlighted by the contrast between my ability to fly anywhere I want at a moment’s notice, which squanders enormous resources, and the poor child in Yemen who doesn’t even have enough water to drink. As in many of my prayers, I emphasize that it is within our power to change this. No one can do it for us.
“ברכת המזון | By the Sweat of their Brow, a Humanist Birkon by Dr. Tzemaḥ Yoreh” is shared by Tzemaḥ Yoreh with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.