Behind the Scenes on Labor Day

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, September 3, 2005

A friend of mine, also a rabbi, told me about an experience he had playing a rabbi in a movie. He was only in one scene and in that one only briefly. Someone had died and the main character was attending the funeral. They wanted a shot of a rabbi leading the service.

What really amazed him in being part of this movie was how many people were involved in his one scene. He expected to come to the set and find the actors, the director and a couple of camera people. Instead he saw that behind the scenes, and totally invisible in the movie, there were over a hundred people, busy completing the tasks that enabled the movie to be made. Since they were not in the frame of the camera, they did not receive our attention, but their work was essential.

I was thinking about that inclusion and exclusion in connection with Labor Day. Last night we spoke a little bit about public employees, teachers and other school personnel, nurses and other medical workers, firefighters and police officers, and how much they contribute to the safety and wellbeing of our communities. This morning I’d like to shine a light on the other invisible contributors to the good lives we enjoy.

Everything we eat and everything we buy, connects us to a long chain of other people who are involved in the production of the end product we see in front of us. The clothes on the rack, the mango in our supermarket, is in the frame of the movie- but behind the scenes there are 100’s of people, invisible in everyday life.

Tom Beaudoin a professor at Santa Clara University and the the author of Consuming Faith: Integrating Who We Are With What We Buy, spoke last year to a gathering of clergy. He talked about his personal journey which began when he saw pictures of workers harvesting coffee on the web. He decided he wanted to know more about the people who made the things he bought. He took out all his favorite foods and his favorite clothes and decided he would track down where they were made and under what conditions. He discovered that it was hard to get this information. His sports coat which was made in Toronto was made under Canada’s fairly strict labor laws, but other things that he consumed began their voyage to his door from the other ends of the earth. When he offered to travel to South America at his own expense to see those who were harvesting the foods he would later eat- he was discouraged by corporate headquarters.

Learning more about the food he ate and the clothes he wore, Tom developed a strong sense of relationship to all those who were part of the chain from harvest to his doorstep. He writes. “They had done their part by making the clothes. Now what was my part?”

Ben you have spoken to us about mastering the impulse towards selfishness and Kate you have talked with us about tzedakah. Perhaps the search for justice in our society goes beyond charitable giving. To be a rodef tzedkah, one who seeks justice, we must look critically at all the relationships in our lives, including those outside the frame of the camera. As Labor Day approaches, let us consider this year, our responsibility to all those to whom we are connected by sharing the fruits of their labor.