Sharing Noah's Pudding

This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim, which means laws. It contains rules for civil society concerning injury, negligence, and business practices. It also regulates behavior between people in society: those at the same levels and those at different levels. Specifically, the Torah prohibits wronging a stranger, a widow, an orphan, or the poor. There are rules that differentiate between behavior that is morally right and behavior that is ethically wrong. We’re taught that it’s wrong to be involved in spreading rumors, lying, showing favoritism, taking bribes or siding with others to do what is wrong. It is morally right to help people, even enemies; to give to those who are less fortunate, materially and emotionally.
It is fitting to speak about Mishpatim tonight, an evening when we welcome a representative of our Muslim brothers and sisters, a member of the Interfaith Dialog Center, which is sponsored by the Turkish Cultural Center of the Republic of Turkey. He has brought us the gift of Noah’s Pudding, a special dessert commemorating God’s protection of Noah and his family at the landing of the ark; and also, God’s rescue of Moses and the Israelites at the Sea of Reeds. It is the Muslim custom to make Noah’s Pudding or Ashura, a dessert comprised of grain, beans, nuts, and dried fruit, sweetened with sugar; and to bring it to neighbors, giving the gift of nourishment, sharing good feelings and love among all people. The constituents in the dessert are a metaphor for multiculturalism: the inclusion of many different foods, stirred and cooked together, reminding us of the many different peoples and religions of the world. Each ingredient adds to the others, enriching the taste and aroma of this confection.
The events that the sharing of Noah’s pudding asks us to remember are two instances of giving: God giving human beings renewed life, love, and liberty through Noah and again after the Exodus from Egypt, through Moses. Psalm 82 says, “you are Godlike beings, all of you: children of the Most High.” In this psalm and in a verse from Mishpatim which says, “you shall be people of holiness to me,” we are asked to model God’s behavior: to imitate God by giving.
It is an outstanding attribute of God that God accepts and receives all people. No one is ever excluded from God’s Presence. And yet, it is an outstanding characteristic of religion that certain people and groups are habitually excluded. If religion is supposed to represent God, how can this be? We are taught, God is near to all who call upon the Eternal in truth. So the exclusion we experience must come from us, and not from God. As children of the Most High, people of potential holiness, there is love in our hearts. But we must also take responsibility for and recognize the hatred that is also there. The hatred comes from within us. It is one of many inner voices that sees the Other: those who are different, and responds by excluding them. We are filled with love and courage, but also with hatred and fear.
Rabbi Arthur Green, in a comment about a passage by the S’fat Emet, remarks that the way to God is through peace. This echoes another teaching by Reb Moshe Lieb of Sassov, who says, “Do you wish to know whether what you are dong is right? Ask yourself whether it brings you closer to others. If it does not, then you are moving in the wrong direction, you are moving away from God.” Through sharing, kindness, acceptance, and giving, we moderate our feelings toward those who are different, learning about them; overcoming our natural timidity and fear, creating bonds of understanding and friendship. The vision we have of a better world is a world of giving: a society in which we make no distinctions between the US and the Them. Then each of us can move toward God and holiness, becoming a doorway through which God’s blessings can pass. Deeds of sharing form a connection between us and God. The spiritual universe is set up so that more for you becomes more for both of us, because we are all part of each other: we are all part of the ONE. Even the smallest actions: the bringing of Noah’s Pudding to us, who are the Other, the stranger; the spirit with which we welcome our Muslim neighbors, creates the flow of God’s blessings to all of us. Then we touch what is deepest in our souls, the inherent Godliness that we share, that of being children of the Most High.