Shouldn't You Be a Food-Faith-Fanatic?

You could say I owe my salvation to tuna fish. Or maybe it was  lamb and rice.

I suppose you will want an explanation.

Okay, I will give it. And in the process I hope to convert you to becoming like me, a food-faith-fanatic. .

I first stumbled across the bread of life in the early 1960’s. Fittingly, this happened in the cafeteria of Manhattan School of Music. It was actually bread of life and tuna fish, because it was there that I gathered with some fellow students for lunch, which for me was coffee and a tuna sandwich, and a discussion about the Gospel of John. 

The leader of the Bible study, a fellow student named Andrea, invited me to hang out with others of her friends on Sunday evenings. That included a meal at the Paradise Restaurant, a good name for this Greek place, because really, their lamb, their rice, their dolmades and baklava were heavenly. 

There too we had spiritual conversations. And sometimes we gathered in the cafeteria of the nearby New York Times building, as well as at a College and Careers meeting we held at someone’s home. Food, glorious food . . . and the bread of life. 

I don’t think you’ll deny that relationships light up over a meal. Stories are shared, and conversation fills the air. 

In my synagogue, B.P. (Before the Pandemic), after a good service in the shul, we would gather in another room for a great Oneg Shabbat. Food again. 

And that’s where everything got processed and assimilated. We all connected and the holy relational magic happened. Every week. 

This is one of the reasons why I am devoting Interfaithfulness resources to CHAI, the CHavurah Action Initiative. These chavurot always include sitting around a table, eating food, and also sharing the bread of life. 

Just this past week I had a meeting with a synagogue that is going to be beta-testing this kind of small group approach to making the Body of Messiah, the local gathering of believers, stronger. 

And I am working on a book all about this, Show Me The Way To Go Home. 

Yeshua said we cannot really live on bread alone, but also on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Two kinds of bread. The bread of a meal, and the bread of the Word. 

For millennia these two have gone together. They still do. 

Join me in becoming a food-faith-fanatic. 

To find out more about how you and your friends can get back to the program, contact us at CHAI@interfaithfulness.org

L’chaim!