On our sacred calendar, the Jewish people stands perched at the edge of liberation. Passover is only days away. At Pesach time we modern Jews - like 100 generations of our ancestors - seek to cross time and space to internalize the passage from degradation to glory, from bondage to freedom, from abjection to holy dignity, from hauling bricks to receiving the Torah. And for us Jews, that can only mean one thing:
Food.
 

The mitzvot of Pesach are premised on the experiential truth that free people cannot eat like slaves. Slaves gnaw on whatever scraps their masters throw at them. But if you want to be free, then pay minute attention to what you eat. Take responsibility for ridding your kitchen of every crumb of what is improper or forbidden. Celebrate instead what is healthy and sacred.
 

Judaism should proudly admit the claim of its despisers, that it is "a religion of pots and pans." What enemies of Judaism saw as baroque nonsense, to Jews seemed like "kishutei kallah," or the bride's jewelry, the very emblem of beauty and grace. In Bible times, through the details of the sacrificial system, then later in the precision of kashrut, as well as the system of blessings and the agricultural mitzvot that ensured the feeding of the poor, Judaism cultivates intense awareness of the miracle of food. Imagine! You can take some of the world's plants and animals, raise them, put them in your mouth, and grow strong and healthy. Indeed, you cannot live without them! And you can share life with others, in the words of Isaiah: "bringing your soul out to the hungry."
 

But you can abuse this miracle too. You can raise plants and animals in destructive or cruel ways. You can eat in ways that make yourself sick. And you can hoard food, while others starve.
 

The religion of pots and pans ideally should prevent us from taking food thoughtlessly. It should promote awareness of the sources and processing that brings us our food. Probably the American Jewish community is more attentive to the ritual kashrut of its food (still very important!) than to its ecological goodness. At Ansche Chesed this year, we can even that proportion a little.

Along with the Jewish environmental group Hazon www.hazon.org, an advocacy group called Just Food www.justfood.org, and a Long Island organic farm named Garden of Eve Farm www.GardenofEveFarm.com, Ansche Chesed will sponsor the first ever Jewish CSA, or community sponsored agriculture project this year, called Tuv Ha'aretz, or "the best of the earth."

Through Tuv Ha'aretz, we hope to advance the idea that what is the best from the earth is also what is best for the earth and all of us who live here. Tuv Ha'aretz will enable residents in our neighborhood to eat healthy food, will provide organic produce at less cost than in a typical market, and will help local farmers in their work to produce sustainable agriculture.

Here is how it will work: Every Wednesday afternoon from mid-June to mid-November, the Garden of Eve farmers will deliver a shipment of just-picked vegetables and herbs to Ansche Chesed. Then, on Wednesday evening, members of the CSA will visit the West End Avenue lobby to pick up their weekly share - in time to enjoy on Shabbat! Typically, there will be about seven- to-10 different vegetables in a weekly share, providing about a week's worth of vegetables for two to three people.

How do you join the CSA? People pre-pay for a season- long share of Garden of Eve's crop. (Garden of Eve grows 70 varieties of vegetables, 20 varieties of herbs, and 15 varieties of flowers, so different choices will be available throughout the season.) Ansche Chesed members will pay a reduced price of $400 for the entire period of June to November, compared to $450 for non- members. (It may be possible to pair up with people who want to buy a half-share and split the amount.) Moreover, for lower income families, we will provide a limited number of subsidized, reduced-price shares. And conversely, for those who would like to symbolically fulfill the mitzvah of peah by leaving the corners of their fields for those who need extra help, we will offer the opportunity to make an additional contribution and subsidize those other shares. Between Ansche Chesed and Hazon, we need to enlist at least 40 families to buy shares. Members, non-members, Jews, non-Jews - everyone is invited!

CSA members also will have opportunities to learn more about organic farming, healthy cooking (with demonstrations) and Torah (with study opportunities). We will schedule visits to Garden of Eve Farm, including strawberry picking in July, a garlic festival in August and - especially exciting for a Jewish CSA - we hope to plan a visit to coincide with Sukkot in the fall. We think it will be a profound experience for us urbanites to go to the country and pick our food at the time of our harvest festival.

Tuv Ha'aretz should remind us of how much energy it takes to bring food to the city from distant factory farms. As the novelist Barbara Kingsolver wrote in her book Small Wonder: "Americans have a taste for food that's been seeded, fertilized, harvested, processed, and packaged in grossly energy-expensive ways and then shipped, often refrigerated, for so many miles it might as well be green cheese from the moon." The typical American eats vegetables grown more than 1,300 miles from her home! But the Garden of Eve is only 80 miles from the city.

Maybe the price sounds high, but the $450 share-price works out to be about as much as you would pay in that time for conventional (non-organic) produce in a supermarket. In effect, with Tuv Ha'aretz you will get organic, local produce, grown without pesticides, minimally packaged and transported with limited energy resources for the same price you would pay for produce grown in Texas or California or Mexico or Chile, drenched in pesticides, wrapped in plastic and hauled in refrigerated trucks across great distances.

Please keep a lookout for more information on the program. On Sunday, May 9 we will have an informational breakfast meeting on the program. Please join us!

This summer and fall, we have an opportunity to improve our ecological food choices. It is not that conventional produce is treyf, or forbidden. We live in the same modern, urban world and most of us will continue to buy fruits and vegetables at our local markets. But is conventional produce the best we can do? Is it the Tuv Ha'aretz? Probably not. We hope that this year Ansche Chesed can help its members eat like free people, enjoying Tuv Ha'Aretz, the very best of the land, proud to follow the religion of pots and pans.

The job of the executive director in a synagogue covers lots of ground, but essentially it's this: I'm here to help you shape Ansche Chesed according to your collective vision. And the visions you've been sharing are very beautiful, and make me proud to work among you.

If we haven't met yet, look for me next time you're in the synagogue. And do call when you have something to share; in order to help, I need to know what's needed, and for that information, I need all of you to keep me informed.

I look forward to a long and happy collaboration. A zissen Pesach to you.

Randi Jaffe

Second Night Community Seder
Tuesday, April 6 at 7:45pm
Rabbi Kalmanofsky will lead a second-night seder for all ages.
 

Feeding the Hungry
As in past years, we are collecting non-perishable packaged foods for the food pantry run by the West Side Campaign Against Hunger. Food should be brought by Monday morning, April 5. Monetary contributions are also welcome: checks may be made out to the Ansche Chesed Rabbi's Discretionary Fund or made payable directly to the West Side Campaign Against Hunger.
 

Yom HaAtzma'ut, Israel Independence Day
Plans are underway for a community event to celebrate the 56th anniversary of the State of Israel. Please refer to the upcoming weekly announcements for details.

Outings Group Hike Sunday, April 18 Palisades Interstate Park: Northern Section - a moderate 6+ mile (4 hours) hike with great views and a couple of modest hills (hiking boots required). Bring hiking boots, lunch, water, daypack, hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, money, etc. Co-sponsored with the Mosaic Outdoor Mountain Club of Greater New York. Cost is $10 ($5 AC/MOMC members). Limited to 30 people. Telephone reservations required by 6:00pm Wednesday, April 14 (please note that Monday and Tuesday, April 12 and 13 are the last two days of Passover). Contact Michael (212/678-7881 before 9:00pm) to reserve. Rain cancels. Car-pooling.

Talk With Your Family About the Holocaust
Thursday, April 15, 7-8:30pm
Join other parents to consider how to explain to kids, from an educational and developmental perspective, what most adults can never understand. Facilitated by Gary Pretsfeld, Head of Upper Elementary Division & Interim Head of Middle School at Solomon Schechter of Manhattan, and Dr. Henry Kronengold, school psychologist at Solomon Schechter. Suggested donation $5/family. The gym will be open.

Family Home Hospitality Lunch
Shabbat, May 1
Home hospitality lunch for families with kids. Contact Lisa Gersten, davidlisa@mindspring.com or Lauren Kurland, lauren.kurland@anschechesed.org

Young Judaea Youth Group
Sunday, April 11, 4-6pm and Tuesday, April 27, 5:45-7pm
For 3rd-5th grades. RSVP to Noah Wilker at 212.451.6278 or nwilker@youngjudaea.org

Condolences to:
Marshall Berman on the death of his aunt, Ida Gordon.
Rabbi Sheldon Dorph on the death of his mother, Hannah Dorph.
Regina Stein on the death of her mother.
Rabbi Iscah Waldman on the death of her father, Rabbi Nahum Waldman.
Peter Silverman on the death of his mother, Anne Silverman.

Toda Rabba to:
Lisa Gersten for coordinating the home hospitality Shabbat dinner for families on February 27.
Israel Fridman for donating a portable sound system.
Stephen Gross for sponsoring March's seudah shlishit.
Deborah Pastor, Marisol Ledesma, Sylvia Ortiz, and Erik DeJesus for help in sorting Passover candy for the Hebrew School fundraiser.

KIDDUSH FUND
Jerry & Barrie Raik
Sylvia Rosenberg
 

LESTER SHRINER FUND
Herta Shriner in honor of Jacob Sher's Bar Mitzvah
Sylvia Weber in memory of her father, Norton Harry Lang
 

PRAYERBOOK FUND
Marjorie Hort in memory of her mother, Jessie M. Cohen
Ernest & Heidi Kahn in memory of his nephew, Roger Justin Weiss
 

RABBI'S DISCRETIONARY FUND
Rabbi Melissa Crespy & Lawrence Kaufman
Liege Motta & Elias Bilboul