Ki Tavo
A good friend and colleague of mine, Rabbi Calvin Dox-DaCosta once shared with me his philosophy on pancakes. Pancakes are one of his favourite foods to cook and eat, but a strange and persistent part of making them is that the first pancake is always not-quite-so-great. The pan’s heat hasn’t yet reached equilibrium and the first round of batter also cools down the pan further, causing the pancake to absorb more of the oil, leading to splotchy, uneven cooking. For someone new to making pancakes, that first one may be discouraging and it would be easy to want to quit or just go get pancakes at a diner. But our Torah portion this week teaches us that the first pancake is an important part of our learning and growth.
Parashat Ki Tavo from the book of Deuteronomy describes the process by which the Israelites would take the bikkurim, the first fruits of each plant in their field, and bring them to the Temple as an offering of thanks to God. Upon bringing the produce to the Temple to present to the priest, the offerer is to recite the story of the Israelites being brought from slavery in Egypt to freedom in a land flowing in milk and honey. Because of all that, they conclude:
Parashat Ki Tavo from the book of Deuteronomy describes the process by which the Israelites would take the bikkurim, the first fruits of each plant in their field, and bring them to the Temple as an offering of thanks to God. Upon bringing the produce to the Temple to present to the priest, the offerer is to recite the story of the Israelites being brought from slavery in Egypt to freedom in a land flowing in milk and honey. Because of all that, they conclude:
וְעַתָּ֗ה הִנֵּ֤ה הֵבֵ֙אתִי֙ אֶת־רֵאשִׁית֙ פְּרִ֣י הָאֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־נָתַ֥תָּה לִּ֖י יְיָ
And so I now bring the first fruits of the soil that You, O Adonai have given me.
-Deuteronomy 26:10
And so I now bring the first fruits of the soil that You, O Adonai have given me.
-Deuteronomy 26:10
An important piece of this, for us, is that we are not asked to bring our best fruits, our ripest peaches or our most gargantuan zucchini, but the first issue of our soil. This produce may not be the best, but the Torah tells us that these first fruits are a worthy and wanted offering to God, regardless of quality.
Anyone who has tried or made anything knows that you don’t start out as an expert and that your first work will not be the best. Every great artist’s masterpiece is preceded by years of struggle and failure. Every musician hits the wrong notes before they hit the right ones. And no perfectly fluffy and wonderful pancake, golden from edge to edge, can exist without the earnest effort exemplified by our first splotchy pancake. It is all to easy to quit when the first fruits of our labour are not as good as we would want them to be, but building any new skill, talent, or hobby requires making it through that disappointment
Indeed, to be disappointed would be missing the point of what the Torah is trying to tell us. There is something sacred about those first fruits because when we offer them sincerely and find support and encouragement to carry on, we can ensure that they will not be our last fruits. Everyone has to start somewhere and that first pancake is simply the first step on a journey of learning. And let’s be honest, the first pancake tastes just as good as the others anyway.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Michael Weiss