A Bissel Torah: Pikudei: Oxtail Stew
By: Suri Davis
One of my fond remnants of the days Cedarhurst had William Sonoma, is my 13 quart copper pot. It’s huge. I store it in my basement pantry. I bring it up for soups and stews.
My children and I enjoy oxtail stew on cold winter days. It is hardy and filling comfort food.
It is complex. Many layered flavors, which come together as the 18 hours pass, cooking slow and low, flavors melding into each other, each ingredient dissolving and caramelizing the stew.
Last week we read about the importance of coming together united. Each one of us could say, I am one person, others will come together, what can I contribute to the whole. This is my response:
The salt says: I am two teaspoons, about three grams on a kitchen scale, barely perceptible in a 13 quart pot, and very quickly, I melt away.
Says the bay leaf: Really salt, I am less than an inch, and don’t even register on the kitchen scale, how will my presence impact such a large pot.
Says the garlic: I am just a few cloves, just a few grams myself, how will my presence affect a 13 quart stew.
And that is how each ingredient, barely measurable on a kitchen scale wonder how its presence matters in the stew.
Significantly, Vayakhel, last week’s torah portion discussing unity, is generally connected and read to this week’s torah portion of Pikudei, which discusses the importance of each person being counted. And just as important, there are times, like this year, which is a Jewish leap year, they are read independently.
The twelve tribes which comprise the Jewish nation, each had its own distinct character, as can be seen by Jacob’s deathbed blessing to each tribe, reminding each son about his character, whether good or bad, and its place in the future Jewish nation.
The Jewish nation was born in Egyptian slavery, where they were forced together, united under a common ruler, where they relied on each other for existence. The rabbis compare the Egyptian slavery to a steel refinery, bringing together all the components of steel, and under the heat of 210 years of slavery, the twelve tribes melted into one strong nation. The components came together, each with its own flavor/personality, to contribute to the character of the Jewish nation. It includes the brazen character of the eldest Reuvain, who had the audacity to move his father’s bed from Rachel’s tent, to his own mother, Leah’s tent. It included the warrior brothers, Simon and Levi, who had the audacity to kill the residents of Shchem.
So we say to ourselves often, at a family or community gathering, why should I attend, what will I add to the pot. I am one person, others will come. The answer I have discussed before in my view of a possible interpretation of a Jewish adage: Im ayn ani li, mi li, commonly interpreted as, If I am not for myself, who will be. I have suggested that possibly we might say, if I am not me, who will be me. The G-d who created heaven and earth, light and darkness, water and land, mountains and valleys, made you too. He thought you were an essential element to the world.
We might say to ourselves, that in the scheme of history, we are so finite in time, 70/80/90 years, one person, how will I impact the world? How does salt, such tiny granules contribute to everything we make, and pepper and bay leaves. Each one of us is a flavor which we contribute to the complexity of the world.
What if Thomas Edison was born, we might still be in the dark. Or Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine, or Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin.
Each one of us needs to be counted, and to count. We have to sit with ourselves and ask why G-d thought it was necessary for me to be created in this world, what do I have to give and contribute in the time I have on earth. Maybe that is the purpose of eulogies, to remind us that whatever time a person had on earth, she contributed in her own distinct way.
And in two weeks, we will read about an orphan named Esther, who was asked to sacrifice her life, and her husband for the sake of Jews and Jewry. One woman who changed the course of history, not only by saving the lives of existing Jews, but who gave birth to a son who permitted the Jews to return to Israel to rebuild the Jewish temple there. One person.
Make a difference, making a difference, every day.
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri