Bread, Trees and Democracy

Why do we not have bread growing on trees? I would even settle for a breadplant, if that was possible. Our blessing says ‘hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz’ - “who brings out bread from the earth”. But as we all know, bread does not grow on trees, cereal does, and it needs a helping hand to become the staple that so many rely on.

It is only when human hands are involved, in a partnership with the earth and the elements that bread can be made. Or simply said - if we do not get involved our lunch will only be a promise in the field.  

And so it is with democracy as well, on a neighbourhood or borough level, and even nationally. Though politics at the best of times is challenging, and at the worst seems an alien unwelcome space, it isn’t the only way of doing democracy, or of affecting change. From the hyper-local. like campaigning for a crossing or a change to bus times to make it safer for children to go to school, to the larger national issues of convincing Tale & Lyle Sugars, the nation's largest sugar corporation, to pay the Real Living Wage, involvement and partnerships is what makes the bread rise.