First and Foremost

Parshas Ki Savo

You shall take of every fruit of the ground produced by the land that Hashem your G-d is giving you. You must place it in a basket, and go to the site that G-d will choose (Devarim 26:2)

The Torah commands us to take the first fruits and bring them to the Kohen as a thanksgiving offering to Hashem. Elsewhere we are enjoined to dedicate all our firsts to Hashem – the first shearings of the wool, the first of the dough, the firstborn of man and animal, etc. Why did the Torah not command us to offer the best of our produce and not the first?

The importance of the first lies in the fact that it is the root and foundation of all that follows. The foundation of a building must be totally free of imperfections. A hairline crack in the foundation endangers the entire building, whereas that same crack in the fourth floor would not be significant. Similarly, with respect to everything having to do with holiness, the beginning must be holy and pure if holiness and purity is to emanate from it. Any imperfection in the root will manifest itself a hundredfold in what grows out of it. Therefore, we dedicate all firsts to Hashem to firmly establish the foundation and root of all that follows.

The sages (Yerushalmi Chagigah) blame Elisha ben Avuya’s tragic departure from the path of Torah on an incident that occurred on the day of his bris. The great Sages of Jerusalem were discussing Torah at his bris with such intensity that a fire descended from the heavens and surrounded them. When Elisha’s father saw this, he announced that he would devote his son to Torah so that he would also be able to work such wonders. His father’s distorted motivation left its mark on his brilliant son, when later in life Elisha came to distorted conclusions on the basis of various incidents he witnessed. He saw a child fall to his death while fulfilling his father’s command to send away the mother bird before taking her eggs. Since the Torah specifically promises length of days for honoring one’s parents and sending away the mother bird, he concluded there is neither justice nor a judge. R’ Yaakov, however, saw that reward for mitzvos is not in this world but rather in the next.

Thus did the wisest of men say (Koheles 7:8) (normally translated as, “The end of the matter is greater than the beginning” but can be understood) “A good end emanates from the beginning.”
(Rabbi Zev Leff)