Saying Grace in the Third World

Saying grace would be an act of the greatest importance. To be able to eat and drink is a
possibility as extraordinary, as miraculous, as the crossing of the Red Sea. We do not
recognize the miracle this represents because we live in a Europe which, for the moment,
has plenty of everything, and not in a Third World country, and because our memory is
short. There they understand that to be able to satisfy ones hunger is the marvel of
marvels. To return to a stage of indigence in Europe, despite all the progress of civilization,
is a most natural possibility for us, as the war years and the concentration camps have
shown. In fact, the route which takes bread from the earth in which it grows to the mouth
which eats it is one of the most perilous. It is to cross the Red Sea. An old Midrash,
conceived in this spirit, teaches: Each drop of the rain which is to water your furrows is led
by 10,000 angels so that it may reach its destination. Nothing is as difficult as being able
to feed oneself! So that the verse You will eat and be full and you will bless
(Deuteronomy 8:10) is not pious verbiage but the recognition of a daily miracle and of the
gratitude it must produce in our souls.