The Formula Shortage – Parshat Emor 2022

Jason Strauss

Nov 1

In addition to inflation, addition to the continued pandemic which throws us into confusion about the appropriate measures to take to keep ourselves and others from getting sick all at the same time, in addition to the bloody and unwarranted war in Ukraine, there is an emergency situation which has been under the radar for some time and is only now getting attention.

As some of you know, I have been somewhat outspoken on social media about the formula shortages plaguing much of the United States. It is apparently even worse in the South but it's pretty bad here too. You cannot find any of the major brands of formula in any local supermarket or pharmacy. People are spending ridiculous amounts of money to buy formula from third parties online, sometimes getting scammed out of hundreds of dollars. Parents are traveling for hours going from store to store, only to have no luck. There are children who are not getting the nutrition they need.

Only to make matters worse, politicians are using this as a political football, rather than doing something about it. Many people online are suggesting nursing, milk banks, or using homemade formulas as the solutions, either unaware or unconcerned about the insensitivity such suggestions show.

Baruch Hashem, both of my children are ok. Meir is almost done and we have what we need because of his flexibility in which types of formula he can tolerate. But many other families are not so lucky. So what do we do? What is our responsibility in this situation? In developing an approach, I think we can look at an unexpected interruption of narrative we find in the Torah reading this morning.

Chapter 23 of ספר ויקרא, or as my teacher Rabbi Yonah Hain put it, פרק כג, is the only place in the Torah where all of the מועדים, including Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, are discussed. They are described in chronological order, with ניסן as the beginning of the year and תשרי as its midpoint. But you may have noticed, while reading these familiar פסוקים, which are read on each of the רגלים, that there are laws inserted into this chapter that initially seem to have nothing to do with the holidays. Right after the verses regarding פסח and the עומר and שבועות, we are suddenly thrown into the laws of agriculture and the portions of the harvest that must be left for the poor:

וּבְקֻצְרְכֶם אֶת־קְצִיר אַרְצְכֶם לֹא־תְכַלֶּה פְּאַת שָׂדְךָ בְּקֻצְרֶךָ וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט לֶעָנִי וְלַגֵּר תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָם אֲנִי ה׳ אֱלֹקיכֶם׃

And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the corner of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am Hashem your G-d.

Professor Nechama Leibowitz noted two questions every careful reader must ask about this פסוק. First of all, why do these laws appear in the middle of a chapter entirely concerned with the Jewish holidays? These laws presumably apply at any time of year. Second, the laws of פאה and לקט not only already appeared in the Torah but were prominently featured in פרשת קדושים, which we only read just last week. Why would the Torah repeat these laws here, especially in this context?

Rashi explains that it appears twice to make the consequences of denying the poor their due that much worse, a violation of two prohibitions. On the other hand, it appears here to equate gifts to the poor with sacrifices brought during the מועדים. Ibn Ezra, Bekhor Shor and others point out that this verse is situated immediately after the holidays of Pesach and Shavuot, which are about the beginning of the harvest of barley and wheat. The Torah saw it as appropriate to review laws relevant to the harvest while discussing the holiday celebrations of that season.

But Ramban says something else, which is quite profound. He points out that although we already know that there is an obligation to leave dropped sheaves or forgotten bundles for the poor and to avoid harvesting the corner of the field, what happens if the harvest is not just for financial gain – what if it is a religious obligation? Part of the מצווה of the קרבן עומר is to harvest sheaves of barley on the second night of Pesach in preparation for the flour offering that would be brought the next day. During that ceremonial harvest, a כהן would do the equivalent of a warm up routine. He would say, "Hey is the Sun down yet?" and everyone would shout, "Yes!" He would say, "Hey should I use this knife to cut down some stalks of barley?" and everyone would enthusiastically respond, "Yes!" He would ask about every detail of the ceremony, get them really excited, and then, after making the first cut, lead them in beginning the first harvest of the season.

In such a context, where harvesting is not only an act of financial responsibility but spiritual fulfillment, one might have thought that the עומר overrides לקט and פאה, that service of G-d can take precedence over these technical requirements of leaving parts of the field for the poor. Says Ramban, that is why the Torah repeats the laws here – to tell us that the עומר, not matter how exciting, no matter the religious fervor, no matter the joy it causes, does not come before the מתנות עניים.

Rav Aharon Lichtenstein points out that the Torah does something similar in פרשת קדושים by juxtaposing other laws that we already know in order to emphasize which is more important. For example, the Torah juxtaposes fear of one's parents with שבת as and in a separate פסוק situates fear of the Temple next to שבת. In both places, חז״ל interpret the Torah to be telling us that despite the requirements to build and respect the Temple, despite the requirement to honor and fear one's parents, שבת takes precedence. Similarly, he says, it is true that we know about לקט and פאה from פרשת קדושים. But if you look at the context there, you'll see that the Torah is positions these obligations and prohibitions together with prohibitions against corruption, fraud, and cruelty.

Says Rav Aharon, perhaps the Torah there is illustrating our values of social justice, of being upright and caring. In פרשת אמור, however, the Torah is not addressing the need to build a society of values. פרק כג is about the מועדי ה׳, about the meeting times with G-d, the times when we are most energized to come close to Hashem. The holidays are structured around the harvest season so that they would be times of gratitude and joy, times when we feel closest to הקב״ה. In our zeal, in our passionate expression of celebration and joy, we might casually forget about those who are not quite as fortunate as us. We're good people, we have absorbed the values of justice and compassion, we would never actively deny the poor what they need. But perhaps we might get too excited, to inward focused, and forget that the world is not equally fair to everyone, that while we celebrate, there are people who are sitting on the floor somewhere wondering where they will find food to give their children.

Imagine the pain of showing up to a field, hoping to find whatever the farmers chose to leave behind, only to see it all gone. That happens not only because of evil people who are hoarding it for profit or out of selfishness but also because many people, in taking what they needed for themselves and their families, didn't think through how their comfort would affect others. That is what the Torah wants to remind us to avoid. We must not ignore how our legitimate focus on ourselves sometimes does not account for how others are affected.

Maybe, if you see a WIC sticker next to a particular brand on sale, if you can afford it, buy the other brand. Let those who qualify for the Women, Infants, and Children Supplemental Nutrition program have one extra can or box to buy. If you do buy formula and you see that the only one available is for children with special dietary restrictions, if you can find the regular kind, maybe leave the specialty versions for the people who need it more than you do. Maybe, if you know someone really struggling to find formula or some other product and you find it, either let them know you found it or even offer to buy it for them.

The values of לקט and פאה do not only apply to farmers. The רבונו של עולם told us:

And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the corner of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the immigrant: I am Hashem your G-d.

That applies even when our "field" is Amazon or Target, a supermarket, or maybe even our pantry. We can all, myself included, do more to ensure that babies and children do not have to go without the nutrition they need.

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