I was visiting Philadelphia and kept to my routine. In the morning, I walked to Dunkin to get my regular–an iced tea–despite the fact that it was freezing outside. I added in a double-sausage, egg, and cheese croissant. Perhaps needless to say, that is not a part of my regular order. While waiting on line, I was actually debating: do I just order an egg and cheese, kosher-style food? (It isn’t considered fully kosher by those who require a rabbinic certification.) Or: should I go with sausage but no cheese so as not to transverse the “do not mix milk with meat” commandment? Or: because it was for the homeless man I had passed who looked like the cold had penetrated his bones, and perhaps hunger had as well though that was harder to see, I purchased the double-sausage and egg croissant and gave it to him hot off the griddle, well, microwave.

As I was walking, I began to think about how nowhere in the Torah are we commanded not to own non-kosher food…unlike regarding Passover’s rules. We cannot own chametz during the seven days of Passover per Exodus 12:19: “No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days.” It makes me think that there is an underlying message as to why owning non-kosher is not prohibited (though the rabbis later largely prohibit it per halachah). Perhaps it is because then we can purchase double-sausage, egg and cheese croissants for people experiencing homelessness.

That brings me to the soup aisle of the grocery store. Our Purim collection is based on Esther 9:12 “the same days on which the Jews enjoyed relief from their foes and the same month which had been transformed for them from one of grief and mourning to one of festive joy. They were to observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking, and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor.” Specifically, the gifts are to include prepared foods so as to make it easier for those in need. That is why Temple is collecting soup this year.

Given my recent Dunkin’ experience, in the soup aisle I sought the meatiest, most filling, and warming soup I could find. Steak bits? Bring them on! Chicken soup? Bring it on! My donation is in the lobby waiting to be joined by others as we seek to collect at least 150 soup cans and openers to parallel the 150 day-long feast that Ahasuerus hosted in the beginning of the Book of Esther.

Let us live our values and share them with others, remembering that the literal translation of kosher is “fit/proper.” Let us do the proper thing and be generous as we give nutritious, warming, filling cans of soup to our neighbors in need.