The Parve Baker

Mas’ei

You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I Myself abide, for I the Lord abide among the Israelite people.
- Numbers 35:33-34

The idea of God’s dwelling in the world first appears early in the Book of Genesis in the narrative of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Soon after, the account of the Cain’s slaying of his brother Abel establishes the relationship between the killing of one human being by another and violation of the earth counter to God’s wishes:

The Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I know not; Am I my brother’s keeper?”And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand; When you till the ground, it shall not henceforth yield to you her strength; a fugitive and a wanderer shall you be in the earth.And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”(Gen. 4:9-13)

Once the Israelites settle in the land, their responsibility is no longer individual, but collective. The punishment increases commensurately, as the prophet Isaiah detects in the conditions of his time:

The earth is withered, scorched;
The world languishes, it is scorched;
Both sky and earth languish.
For the earth was polluted
Under its inhabitants;
Because they transgressed teachings,
Violated laws,
Broke the ancient covenant. (23:4-5)

What is “the ancient covenant“? It is the words spoken by God to Noah after the flood: Whoever sheds the blood of a human being, by a human being shall his blood be shed; for in His image did God make humankind.(Gen 9:6)

In a recent essay, “Building a World in Which God Would be Happy to Live,” Rabbi David Ellenson observes that “[at] the very heart of our tradition is the notion that there is a holiness in the world and that we are responsible, accountable to God, for having such holiness realized…The notion of covenant reminds us that human beings are capable of “greatness,” but not in the sense of power and aggrandizement. Rather, we are capable of displaying care and compassion to one another, and we need one another if the world is to be a better place” (2007, p.36).

Where is God today? That depends on what you believe about the Holy One. What is certain is that Judaism compels us to build a world in which God would be happy to live. Let us direct our thoughts, hearts, and hands in this direction whenever we bake and in whatever we do.