Adina Roth – Head of Jewish Life

On Bananas and Blessings

I mentioned before that my parents were a mix of traditional Jews and meditators. This made for interesting rituals around our (vegetarian) mealtimes. Sometimes we would have a short meditation before meals and other times, usually on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, we would make kiddush, hamotzi and Birkat Hamazon. At school, students sometimes resist the recitation of Birkat Hamazon. This past week in assembly I challenged them, suggesting that we are fortunate to be in a school that takes time out of our goal-oriented cycles for intangible values, like gratitude.

Many years ago, while studying English at university in Johannesburg, I was a tutor for a student who did not speak English as his first language. Wandi had received a poor high-school education. He spoke many African languages but he struggled with English. My task was to read his essays and assist with a little bit of language and English turn of phrase.

Wandi was an amazing student, he loved every little piece of information I shared with him.

At the end of the year, he achieved a good grade and we went out to lunch to celebrate. I still remember what Wandi ordered because it wasn’t on my usual order list – a crab salad! As Wandi ate, he opened up to me about his year. He had rented a room where he had been scammed, the landlord had taken his rent and thrown him out. He found another room at the back of a house and was charged a ridiculous rental fee. Wandi was dirt poor. Every day he had the equivalent of about $3.00 for food. With this money, he would buy a bunch of bananas from a street vendor. Every day for a year Wandi told me that this was his subsistence, he ate a few bananas for breakfast and a few bananas for dinner. After listening to Wandi’s story, I said to him, ‘Wandi, it all sounds so hard and so terrible, why did you not share this with me before?’ The thing that shocked me most was how Wandi survived on bananas for the year. I remember his words to me, ‘Adina, that was nothing, it was just about keeping my tummy full.’ Our tradition, like many traditions understands that not every season is a season of plenty, not every time is a time when the fridge is full and not every person is born into the good fortune of plenty food and easy access. Ours is a tradition that says, always be grateful and express that gratitude, especially in our seasons of plenty.

I often think about the saying ‘there but for the grace of God, go I.’ If it weren’t for the grace of God, or plain good luck, one’s fate could have been reversed – I could have been born into a very poor family and struggled my whole life. Yet, in our world of plenty and privilege, it is hard for students to connect to this truth and to feel grateful.  

Our blessings before and after meals are not some outmoded religious practice, nor does God need our expressions of gratitude. We humans desperately need the practice of gratitude. At its best Judaism refines and hones our characters. When we sing, ‘Baruch atah Adonai, al ha’aretz ve’al hamazon, thank you God for this earth and this food’ we are practising a form of gratitude, presence and a humility that crafts us into mensches and propels us towards Tikkun Olam. Our spiritual practices are integral to our activism.

Like many students, as a child I probably didn’t always relish the obligatory prayers. The appreciation happened when I got older. Meeting Wandi was a gamechanger. These days, I’m glad I know Birkat Hamazon. Often when I join the students for Birkat, I think of  Wandi and those bananas. Sometimes I wish Wandi was with us. He’d sing so loud.

Shabbat Shalom