Fiji Water at Billboard’s Women in Music Awards. Image by Getty Images/Bennett Raglin/Stringer

By PJ Grisar January 8, 2019

Well before our people sighted the tropic climes of Fiji, plumbed its waters for bottling and produced a photo-bombing icon, we were debating the nature of selling H20.

As reported earlier, Fiji Water’s shifty business practices ought not be forgotten, but what does scripture have to say about them?

To learn the answer, the Forward went down the hall to speak with Hazon, The Jewish Lab for Sustainability. Their Director of Education, Elan Margulies, pointed us in the direction of a verse from Lamentations 5:4:

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“We must pay to drink our own water, Obtain our own kindling at a price.”

Rashi’s commentary explicates the line further:

“We pay to drink our own water. Since we were afraid to draw water from the river because of the enemies, we bought [water] from them with money.”

In this passage and its interpretation, we see the tragedy of commoditizing something as essential as water following the destruction of Jerusalem. Safe, clean water is posited as a human right – not something we should have to pay for. Maybe if Jewish bottled water tycoons paid attention on Tisha B’Av we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

To be fair, Fiji Water’s filtration initiatives and carbon footprint offset policies do seem to advance this philosophy somewhat. A-Listers like those seen at Sunday night’s Golden Globe’s can keep paying for their water if it suits them, though maybe their concern should be wildfires (see Lamentations 1:13).

As for Fiji Water girl, she swears she wasn’t thinking evil thoughts on the red carpet.

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture intern. He can be reached at [email protected].

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount