Shalom and thank you for your question! You are concerned about your nutrition and also would like to attend Synagogue, including the Kiddush after Sabbath services I assume, or other community get-togethers. A simple requirement with multifaceted solutions.
There is most definitely a mitzvah to watch our health, as it says in Deuteronomy 4:15 “And you shall surely guard your souls…” and in other places in the Torah as well. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson, quotes Maimonides often as teaching that guarding our health is “going in the ways of G-d.” For some people this may mean staying off white flour, for others staying off any flour at all, and for others it means staying off bran, for example some people with Krohn’s disorder. For still others it means using artificial sweeteners while eating moderate amounts of all foods. Since the needs are so varied, community organizations find it difficult to cater to them, or there is a lack of awareness, or a bit of both. For this reason I would suggest the following plan of action.
First try open communication with the one or those in charge of organizing the food at community get-togethers. You can explain that you and many others would prefer to consume wholegrain products. If they say that there’s not enough budget or not enough interest, which boils down to the same thing, you can either offer to contribute, or purchase the wholegrain yourself for the community, if said community is small, or simply bring your own for yourself. If you are in an area where there is no eiruv on Shabbat, this will involve bringing your supply to the shul before the Sabbath. An eiruv means boundary, it is a means of keeping the injunction of not carrying on the Sabbath from a private to a public area or vice versa. There are many details involved in this law and you can ask your community Rabbi if there is an eiruv in your community. If there is, you can bring your Challah with you on Shabbat, if not, you can arrange for a place to put it before Shabbat and label it as private so that it won’t get mixed up with the other types of Challah. If the issue is that you are paying for a meal that includes Challah and thus do not want to pay for Challah that you don’t want to eat, you can request a discount if you have to bring your own. If you ask politely and respectfully, I hope that whoever is responsible for the food arrangements will be amenable.
On a scale of one to ten, what is more important, belonging to a community that shares your ULTIMATE spiritual goals, or being in a user-friendly environment that caters to your health needs, if you can satisfy those needs in another way?
What I am trying to say, is that it is definitely possible to attend synagogue, and watch your health, while realizing that different people have different priorities, and getting along in unity and good spirits is the highest priority.
Two days ago was the anniversary of the day the Jewish people arrived and camped at the foot of Mount Sinai, after having miraculously been led out of Egyptian slavery. The classic commentator Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, explains that the encampment was ‘as one person with one heart.’ It was not as if the Jews did not have differences of opinion, but the experience of receiving the Torah was an experience that elevated them – us really because our souls were there – above any regular concerns. Every year on the festival of Shavuot we receive the Torah anew, and every festival brings a new spiritual light to the world. May you and all of us merit to be good receptacles for that light, through the efforts at unity and keeping the rest of the commandments of the Torah in joy and gladness of heart!
