It all starts with love!
Tainted Chocolate
According to the US Department of Labor, most of the cocoa we consume is produced in countries using child labor: Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghinea, Ghana, Nigeria.
These child workers labor for long, punishing hours, using dangerous tools and
facing frequent exposure to dangerous pesticides as they travel great distances in
the grueling heat. And of course no education leaving not much hope for a future
out of poverty. By international labor laws this is illegal.
In Ivory Coast (supplier of 40% of the worlds cocoa), there are 109,000 child laborers, 10,000 of whom are forced laborers—slaves, who work without pay and are
subject to beatings and abuse. All major cocoa companies buy cocoa from farms
using children, and reap profits off the backs of these kids.
In the contemporary documentary "The Dark Side of Chocolate," the filmmakers document one such slave, a 12 year old girl from Segou, Mali, named Maryam. Maryam's parents were quite poor, so they sent her to Ivory Coast to make money to send back home to her family. She was sent by bus 270 miles to the south, to Zegoua, on the border with the Ivory Coast, with an escort. Her escort was really a trafficker, and she had really been sold into slavery without her or her family knowing- the going price is 230 euros, all of which goes to the smugglers. When she showed up there she had open sores on her knees and legs. If she had not been intercepted she would have been handed over to be smuggled by motorcycle, across dirt roads, into Ivory Coast, to work for no pay, never to attend school, in a country whose language she didn’t know.
--Rabbi David Siff, https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/31669
For more information on slavery and human trafficking, visit: http://www.antislavery.org/ www.freetheslaves.net www.polarisproject.org
For more information on child labor, visit: www.ilo.orgl. http://laborrights.org/child-and-forced-labor
You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is needy and urgently depends on it; else he will cry to the LORD against you and you will incur guilt.
הַשּׂוֹכֵר אֶת הַפּוֹעֵל לַעֲשׂוֹת עִמּוֹ בְּתֶבֶן וּבְקַשׁ, וְאָמַר לוֹ תֶּן לִי שְׂכָרִי, וְאָמַר לוֹ טֹל מַה שֶּׁעָשִׂיתָ בִּשְׂכָרֶךָ, אֵין שׁוֹמְעִין לוֹ. מִשֶּׁקִּבֵּל עָלָיו וְאָמַר לוֹ הֵילָךְ שְׂכָרְךָ וַאֲנִי אֶטֹּל אֶת שֶׁלִּי, אֵין שׁוֹמְעִין לוֹ.
If one hires a worker to work with him/her with straw and hay, and then the worker says, “Give me my wages” and the employer says, “take what you have done (namely, the straw and hay) as your wages,” we do not listen [to the employer]. [Translation by Rabbi Jill Jacobs]
כל הכובש שכר שכיר כאילו נוטל נפשו ממנו.
Whoever withholds an employee’s wages, it is as though he has taken the person’s life from her. [Translation by Hillel. Edited for gender neutrality]
1. On what grounds can we equate withholding wages with taking a life?
2. Is taking a person's life equivalent to murder? What is the meaning of this phrase here?
לוּלָב הַגָּזוּל וְהַיָּבֵשׁ, פָּסוּל. שֶׁל אֲשֵׁרָה וְשֶׁל עִיר הַנִּדַּחַת, פָּסוּל. נִקְטַם רֹאשׁוֹ, נִפְרְצוּ עָלָיו, פָּסוּל. נִפְרְדוּ עָלָיו, כָּשֵׁר. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, יֶאֶגְדֶנּוּ מִלְמָעְלָה. צִנֵּי הַר הַבַּרְזֶל, כְּשֵׁרוֹת. לוּלָב שֶׁיֶּשׁ בּוֹ שְׁלשָׁה טְפָחִים כְּדֵי לְנַעְנֵעַ בּוֹ, כָּשֵׁר:
A stolen or a dried up lulav is invalid. One [that came] from an asherah tree or from a condemned city is invalid. If its top was broken off or its leaves were detached, it is invalid. If its leaves are spread apart it is valid. Rabbi Judah says he should tie it at the top. The thorny palms of the iron mountain are valid. A lulav which is three handbreadths in length, long enough to wave, is valid.
(א) שלא להנות מתקרבת עבודה זרה - שלא נדביק שום דבר מעבודה זרה עם ממוננו וברשותנו להנות בו, ועל זה נאמר (דברים ז כו) ולא תביא תועבה אל ביתך וגו'...
(ו) ומן הנכלל במצוה זו, שלא ידביק האדם אל ממונו שחננו האל בצדק ממון אחר שהוא של גזל, או חמס או מרבית, או מכל דבר מכער, שכל זה בכלל משמשי עבודה זרה הוא
1. Not to derive benefit from any utensils which serve idolatry--that we should not attach anything idolatrous with our money or in our possession to benefit from it. On this it was said "Do not bring an abomination into your house." (Deut. 7:26)
6. Included in this commandment is that a person should not connect to the money that God has graced him rightfully, money that was stolen from another, or extorted or interest, or anything unseemly, all of which are included in "implements of idolatry."
The Sefer ha-Chinuch (Hebrew: ספר החינוך, "Book of Education"), often simply "the Chinuch" is a work which systematically discusses the 613 commandments of the Torah. It was published anonymously in 13th-century Spain, possibly by Rabbi Aharon Halevi.
How does the Sefer Chinnuch understand idolatry?
According to the Sefer Chinnuch, could you justify buying something produced unethically?
What contemporary labor practices do you think would fall under his prohibition?
According to the Sefer Chinnuch, what difference does it make if we don't purchase items produced unethically? What do you think is the motivation for the prohibition?
Based on this text, can chocolate produced with slaves be considered "kosher"? Given that chocolate is produced from multiple sources, how much slave-produced content would render it unkosher?
FAIR TRADE
“Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade organizations, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.” Definition from FINE, an international association of Fair Trade networks.
Fair Trade principles include: • Fair price
• Fair labor conditions
• Direct trade
• Democratic and transparent organizations • Community development
• Environmental sustainability
For more information, visit
www.fairtradefederation.org, www.fairtraderesourcenetwork.org
Martin Buber: From I-It to I-Thou (You)
When I confront a human being as my You and speak the basic word I-You to him, then he is no thing among things nor does he consist of things. He is no longer He or She, limited by other He's and She's, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition that can be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighborless and seamless, he is You and fills the firmament. Not as if there were nothing but he; but everything else lives in his light. Even as a melody is not composed of tones, nor a verse of words, nor a statue of lines - one must pull and tear to turn a unity into a multiplicity - so it is with the human being to whom I say You. I can abstract from him the color of his hair or the color of his speech or the color of his graciousness; I have to do this again and again; but immediately he is no longer You. [Walter Kaufmann translation]
1. What does it mean to encounter another human being as You? Are all of these encounters equal?
2. What makes it difficult to do this - particularly with people who are different than us in race, class, nationality, religion, etc.?
“God demands justice and compassion of us. He condemns murder and killing of innocent people above all. How can I pray when I have on my conscience the awareness that I am co-responsible for the death of innocent people. In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible if they do not speak up and act out against inaction.”
-Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
--Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarey Kodesh, Boca Raton, FL