The Rabbi and His Famous Friends: Invite you to their table. Food for Thought, Character and Soul

From President Lincoln's favorite almond vanilla cake, Rosalynn Carter's cheese rings, and a red, white, and blue raspberry pie to die for, the recipes have a decidedly American feel, but when you add a Mediterranean style suffed leg of lamb and Jewish favorites such as mandelbrot, a hard almond cookie, you get an eclectic and altogether international flare. 

Rabbi Posner's "extraordinary ccokbook not only offers recipes to provide nourishment for the body, his highly imaginative ethical dialogues put forth many worthy ideas, ideals, and role models to give his readers food for thought as well. Building upon an honored Jewish practice, his book extends the principle of showing ethical virtues across both space and time." In a time of social and ideological polarization "reconnecting 'food talk' and 'soul talk' might just be the right recipe within the reach of us all to make the world a better place. - Rabbi Barry Kogan, Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Religious Thought, Hebrew Union College - JIR.

 

Rabbi Posner has compiled a delightful collection of imaginary dinner parties with guests ranging from Mother Theresa and Oprah, to Gandhi and Mr. Rogers. These dinner discussions, that reminded me of Plato's Dialogues, center on themes of kindness, moral courage, justice, forgiveness and compassion. Conversation and the sharing of information becomes a metaphor for food. As a good meal sustains our bodies, the above attributes are ingredients in the sustenance of our soul, our character. Although it is not expected that Hillary Clinton and the Biblical Joseph would share a slice of pie, or that Lincoln and Mandela would share Rosalynn Carter's cheese ring, Rabbi Posner makes it all seem quite easy to imagine. The idea is that the same basic ingredients have been mixed together in different times and places, and in different cultures, to create richly diverse dishes and flavours. Likewise, the attributes of kindness, compassion and forgiveness combine in each of our lives, whoever we are, to create our own unique recipe. It calls us to pay closer attention to history, to the news, and to our own conversations and life experiences to make dishes better. John Bishop, Assistant County Librarian, Mendocino California County Library The table is set, guests are in route, and dinner will soon be served. "Can you come?" asks Rabbi Posner. The invitation is real. The colorful book cover issues his invitation: "Food for Thought, Character and Soul - Recipes and Blessings Included." Curious as to why I am invited, I flip a few pages to see what's cooking and who else is coming? I discover that I will have the honor of dining with, to name a few, Abraham Lincoln, the Prophet Amos, Jimmy Carter, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mister Rogers, and Albert Schweitzer, and the good rabbi is actually cooking some of their favorite foods-Nelson Mandela's Baboti, Mr. Roger's Filipino Spinach Egg Rolls, and Mary Todd Lincoln's Vanilla Almond cake. Tempted, I read further ..". this cookbook is unique---the first to link food, ethics, and character with famous personalities---a kind of character ethical cookbook." .... The heart and soul of the book are the dinner conversations addressing the nature of compassion, forgiveness, righteousness, kindness, moral courage, justice, and empathy. Off I went to the first dinner where I listened intently to the lively discussion and came away feeling that the dialogue and the meal somehow connected and nourished souls wherever they were - including mine - a form of soul talk -the title of the first chapter. There are almost 300 footnotes based on the biographies, autobiographies and personal interviews from which he created the dialogue. Each discussion provided food for thought with some subjects requiring longer digestion periods than others. The chapter on Moral Courage with Mahatma Gandhi, Anwar Sadat, Senator George Norris and Dr. Sam Oliner is one example. All recipes were prepared by the rabbi with input from his friend Chef Rollo Storey. They introduce foods from many parts of the world and time periods--South Africa, India, Thailand, Israel, and even Kentucky. ... I am grateful for the rabbi's invitation to dinner, one I might have missed if not for the artfully illustrated cover and illustrations done by Dick Sommers. I am particularly grateful that I got to enjoy the final dinner, where Rabbi Posner draws all the famous friends back for a discussion of empathy. I hated to say good-bye when I was just beginning to more fully appreciate how ethical virtues and good food sustain us as individuals, society and community. However, I realize I am left with a full plate of food for thought, character and soul.... and I know those who read his book will be spiritually and ethically sustained as well. *Wanda Dodson writes a food related column for the Somerset (Kentucky) Commonwealth Journal where portions of this column were published, August 18, 2013.