This week's Torah portion opens with an elaborate scene as part of Moses' discourse to the people as they are about to enter the Promised Land. When the time comes that you enter the land of Israel, says Moses, you shall create a grand ceremony of bringing your first fruits to the priests in the Temple. Each person goes to the priests in charge and declares "V'higadtati - I acknowledge that I have entered the land of Israel" and this offering is my testimony to you and my sacrifice to God. The priest accepts it and then the individual goes on with a passage familiar to us from the Passover haggadah: "My father was a wandering Aramean... He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. We cried to the Lord, the God of our Fathers, and the Lord heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery and our oppression. The Lord freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me ." (Deuteronomy 26:5-10)
Notice what happens here. We arrive in Israel and the ceremony that is held is not one of singing and dancing of our fortune, but is one that sends us back to the lowest moment of our history, which then brings us to this moment of bringing the very first fruits that God gave to us back to God. The Torah then follows up: "V'samachta bchol hatov - rejoice in the good" and share with Levite and stranger all bounty that God has given you.
It is fascinating and surprising to think that in this moment of great accomplishment and exhilaration, two things are highlighted - one to recount the terrible things that have happened, and second, the command to rejoice in the good and share its bounty with the Levite and the stranger.
At the heart of this, I believe, is a profound lesson that the Torah is trying to teach us about the relationship between gratitude and generosity, two ideals that don't always come naturally.
Taking our fortune for granted is too easy. How easy it might have been for the people to enter the land and forget from whence and where they had come. Staring them in the eyes is the greatest fulfillment of their lives (especially after 40 years of wandering in the desert) and how easy it could have been to claim it as their own, to do as they wished and without acknowledgement of the generosity shown them to get there. And this would likely have led to the destruction of the land and of one another.
At the same time, the words 'thank you' alone are often not sufficient. We've all felt it - whether the one trying to say it or the one receiving it - sometimes those two words just don't convey the real message of what we need to communicate. As John F. Kennedy once said: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
And, so the lesson of this story is that the ultimate way we express gratitude is by showing generosity and compassion in sharing that very fortune with others. So, the first fruits are brought to the priests in acknowledgement of our own need, the generosity we experience, and the ability to pay it forward by sharing our fortune with the Levites and the strangers. Like our ancestor of old, we too are invited to return to the moments that were and are difficult, to access the gratitude towards God and others that comes from helping us move through those difficulties. And as we do so, we live up to the highest aspirations when we can say thank you by showing compassion and generosity towards others.
Shabbat shalom.