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Fed Up! By Rabbi Yonason Goldson
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Ask any editor or publisher: two kinds of books guarantee success. Cook books and diet books.
In other words, our culture is simultaneously obsessed with eating and with slenderizing, hopelessly fixated on food and convinced that we can eat to our hearts' content without gaining weight.
A classmate in college once remarked candidly, "I could be ten pounds lighter, but I don't want to give up what I need to give up to get there." Such self-awareness is refreshing, but rare. More commonly, we not only want to have our cake and eat it too — we want to eat cake and have it turn into bran muffin before it reaches our digestive system.
The consequences of impulse gratification, however, cannot be simply wished out of existence. The sages of the Talmud found a poignant way of articulating this truism when they observed, "One who eats the fat tail will have to hide in the attic, whereas one who eats cress will rest easy upon the town dunghill."
Once the most coveted and — and costly — part of an ox, the fat tail was a luxury few could afford. As indulgence begets overindulgence, the sages explain that a person who acquires a taste for the fat tail will ultimately exhaust his income and his savings until forced to seek refuge from his creditors in the least accessible — and most uncomfortable — part of his house. In contrast, a person able to content himself with the most humble of foods will always manage to get by, so that even in the most publicly vulnerable of situations he will suffer no anxiety over being hounded for payment.
Nevertheless, like the Holy Grail, the Fountain of Youth, and the Philosopher's Stone, we of Western Culture persist in the irrational pursuit of any magical, mystical recipe that promises to let us indulge our appetites without accumulating the inevitable poundage of that indulgence.
PLEASURE-SEEKERS WITHOUT BORDERS
Perhaps the silver lining in diet- and cook-book craze is that people are still reading books at all. But our obsession with impossible fantasies masquerading as reality is hardly cause for celebration, even when it forces us to read words in a row. Just as fast food and junk food have dulled our appreciation for quality cuisine, intravenous entertainment has murdered our patience for quality literature. Just as we can't be bothered with the subtle stimulations of our palates, we don't want to invest the slightest effort to stimulate our minds.
It's too bad, especially when a smorgasbord of extraordinary writing lines the stacks at every public library. I've tried to get my teenagers to read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, but they find the surrealism of a Holocaust story narrated by Death befuddling, and they lack the gumption to rise to the challenge. I wouldn't even try to suggest that they tackle The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, without a doubt the most elegant and stirring novel I have read in years, as the lack of any evident plot throughout the first half of the book would surely frustrate them to rebellion. I did succeed in convincing my oldest daughter to read The Help, and was gratified that she found Kathryn Stockett's compelling narrative of southern racism as spellbinding as I did. Then again, my daughter doesn't like to cook.
I suppose that inspired literature has always been underappreciated and overlooked. The English poet John Keats died penniless at age 25, with most of his works unpublished or critically thrashed. Herman Melville, although having achieved renown early in his career, was later scorned by the critics and died amidst debt, alcoholism, and rumors of insanity. Few of Emily Dickinson's poems saw publication in her lifetime, and most of those suffered invasive editorial tampering.
But despite all that, there were always great writers who produced great writing that found the approval of popular readers. And today? Books about food — how to eat better, how to eat less, how to eat and not suffer the consequences of eating.
THE CONFLICT OVER CHARACTER
Does a person have the self-control to limit his intake of alcohol (or, more generally, his physical appetites), and does he transform into an entirely different person when the effects of alcohol assert themselves upon his personality? Do financial pressures drive a person to withhold assistance from the desperately needy or resort to unscrupulous practices to increase his fortune? Is a person's composure shattered by affronts to his ego that impel him to lash out at the nearest target? In short, a person of authentic character is one possessing the self-mastery to meet life's challenges without turning aside to travel the road of least resistance.
No man departs from this world with half his cravings satisfied, the sages warn. The secret of good living, therefore, is to cultivate cravings for that which is physically, intellectually, and spiritually healthy. Indeed, against all intuition, when we slow down to savor more nuanced pleasures, our bodies, minds, and spirits respond with an energy that revitalizes the quality of our existence.
So put away the remote control and stop surfing the net. Take some time to stop thinking about eating and start thinking about thinking. Stop worrying about your waistline and start worrying about the flat-lining of your imagination. And when you plan out the diet for your soul, consider that Jewish literature serves up plenty of courses of well-written and compelling works, including the tantalizing delicacies of Rabbi Akiva Tatz, Tziporah Heller, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, Sara Yocheved Rigler, and Rabbi Abraham Twersky. To paraphrase an iconic television advertisement: Try them; you'll like them.
YOU'LL LOVE THIS BOOK
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Comment by clicking here. JWR contributor Rabbi Yonason Goldson teaches at Block Yeshiva High School in St. Louis, MO, where he also writes and lectures. He is author of Dawn to Destiny: Exploring Jewish History and its Hidden Wisdom, an overview of Jewish philosophy and history from Creation through the compilation of the Talmud, now available from Judaica Press. Visit him at http://torahideals.com .
© 2010, Rabbi Yonason Goldson
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