By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap the corners of your field, nor should you gather the gleaning of your harvest. And you should not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am Adonai your God.” (Leviticus 19: 9-10)

All three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – command us to feed the hungry and care for the poor and the stranger. If we accept the claim of those on the conservative end of the political spectrum – that the United States is a Christian country – then that means our leaders should follow the Christian precepts laid down by Jesus, who, in the New Testament, performed a miracle by multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish in order to feed 5,000 hungry people. You don’t have to believe in Christianity to note that Jesus, who was Jewish, was following the biblical principle of feeding the hungry. The Jewish and Christian versions of Jesus would have wept to read a recent USA Today headline: “GOP states opting out of summer EBT funds; 9.5M kids denied access to new food aid program.” 

According to the article, there are 12 states – all with Republican governors – who are refusing the aid, calling it “welfare” and saying that is an overreach on the part of the federal government. I would be fine with this, except for one problem: how can you call yourself a practicing Jew, Christian or Muslim if you refuse aid for those who are hungry, unless you use other means to feed them? It doesn’t sound as if they are all successfully doing that because, according to the article, two of those states have the highest rates of food insecurity in the country.

Fortunately, not all Republican governors have opted out of the program. What is interesting is the opposing quotes featured in the article: “Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen has said the program is ‘just another form of welfare ... and it’s not doing our kids any good’ whereas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an Arkansas Republican and former Trump administration official, described it as ‘an important new tool to give Arkansas children the food and nutrition they need.’” I’m not sure how feeding children is a bad thing. Does Pillen think that these children will expect the government to feed them for the rest of their lives? If the state gives them a good education and creates a stable job market, those children will someday be tax paying members of society, able to help others who need aid.

One reason I don’t object to paying taxes is that I want my tax money to feed the needy. That money also goes for paving roads, making sure I have clean water and air, that the food I buy in the store is safe from contamination.... I could go on, but you get the idea. The reason for our laws is to protect us and shelter us. They also work for the greater benefit or our country: remember that the Food Distribution Administration was founded in 1942 because too many men who were malnourished as children during the Great Depression were unfit to serve in the army.

Even if your state has enough funds (which, cynic that I’ve become, I find hard to believe), why not take the extra money that’s available? Feed the hungry. Help the poor. But don’t call yourself a practicing Jew, Christian or Muslim if you are willing to let these children go hungry. 

“When you are asked in the world to come, ‘What was your work?’ and you answer, ‘I fed the hungry,’ you will be told, ‘This is the gate of Adonai, enter into it, you who have fed the hungry.’” – Midrash Psalms 118:17 (as translated by Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger)