“I know of many homes where respect is given even to a loaf of bread.
Bread is not thrown out.
I have seen people who, when a loaf of bread falls to the ground, they kiss it.
Because bread is something special, and you treat it with respect.
Bread is human livelihood, and so it should be treated with more than just respect.
In Israel, for example, if any bread remains, they won’t throw it into the garbage.
Throwing it in the garbage would be to show disrespect.
Some countries create a huge amount of garbage, and part of the reason why is that they don’t care for things.
When you look at most so-called primitive cultures, they see everything as a living entity and they have respect for everything.
But now we are cultured and cultivated, and we care for nothing.
It is the peak of being sophisticated.”
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From “The Whole World is Filled with Divinity”, an interview with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in Parabola, August 2007