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| The Israelites bring their First Fruits |
Making
Transitions
All
of us experience change throughout our lives.
Some of us experience it so often that we might say, “Change is the only
constant in my life.” If that describes
you, you know what I’m talking about.
Some change is unwelcome. Some change is sought. We seek change that improves our
situation. We seek change that may bring
us happiness. We seek change which
represents the fulfilment of our very dreams.
So we often welcome change. At
least intellectually. Because change is
difficult emotionally. Change must be negotiated. It must be managed. In our Torah reading this week, we get some good
insight into how we can manage change.
I like to refer to the process of
change, as transition. When we move to a
new condition, we tend to focus on the desired result of the change. But the
key to finding success in making the change is often in the transition. Everyone in this room has been through several
of these transitions. When we left our
parents’ home and forged a life on our own.
And when we were married, joining our life to that of someone else.
Some of us have been through many more
such transitions. Perhaps we went
through a divorce and then a re-married.
There you have two more. The
transition to parent. When your last
child left home, you went through a transition to ‘empty nester.’ If you moved from one country to another, you
went through a transition known as ‘migration.’
And if you changed careers in mid-life.
And if you retired. All of these
are important emotional milestones, and each one of us will go through many of
them throughout our lives.
When we make transitions, we must find
a way to put the past behind us, without forgetting it.
When we marry we must make room in our life routines to account for the
presence of another. Even if that other
has already been an important part of one’s life before. Being married – or in a permanent partnership
– is quite different from dating or from sharing quarters. It is essential to leave our previous status
behind. That’s the theory behind
bachelor parties or their female equivalent, the ‘hens party.’ They mark the passing of one status just as
the wedding nuptials mark the beginning of another. There are ceremonies for other
transitions. Some do not have a fixed
ritual, although some people when going through them, try to craft something
appropriate.
In this morning’s Torah reading, from
the 26th chapter of Deuteronomy, we read about the procedure for bringing
the first fruits to the Temple. This
ceremony will take place when the people Israel has settled in the land they will
occupy and subdue. When they will have
produced their first crop. They are
being told in advance to take the basket of first fruits to the priest and
declare:
My ancestor was a wandering
Aramean. He went to Egypt with a
small number of men and lived there as an immigrant, and it was there that he
became a great, powerful, and populous nation.
The Egyptians were cruel to us, making us suffer and imposing harsh
slavery on us. We cried out to God, Lord
of our ancestors, and God heard our voice, seeing our suffering, our harsh labour, and our distress. God then brought us out of Egypt with a
strong hand and an outstretched arm with great visions and with signs and miracles. He brought us to this land, giving us this
land flowing with milk and honey. I am
now bringing the first fruit of the land that God has given me.
This
procedure helps in managing the transition from slave, to wanderer in the
wilderness, to landholder. It does it in
three ways.
First, and
most obvious the declaration gives honour to God. God assigned the land to the Israelites. Even though they must conquer it, it is God
who will give them the inspiration for the successful fight for the land. Then it is God who gives them a successful
first crop – or not. So the declaration
first of all gives honour to the One responsible for bringing Israel to this result.
We similarly
acknowledge God’s role when we accompany a milestone by saying Birkat
Shehecheyanu. Where we thank God for
“keeping us alive, and sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this
season.” We say these words, because iff
we really mean them, they help us put things in perspective.
Second, the
recounting of our history provides another important perspective. How can we appreciate our freedom and the
plenty with which we’ve been blessed, if we forget our origins? So the Israelite recounts those origins. Then he’ll more likely appreciate his current
prosperity.
All the
politics about immigration aside, I think that we can all agree that new
immigrants provide an important perspective for our society. Even for those who went through considerable
hardship in your countries of origin, it is difficult to communicate that in a
way that will make it real. But the
presence of immigrants, who have reached this land at great hardship, and who
then work very hard to succeed once they arrive, sends an important message to
young native-born Australians. Life here
has been too easy, and too prosperous, for too long. I’m guessing that the typical Australian
adolescent or young adult today has no real concept of how she has been blessed
by being born here in this country. But
if they get to know young immigrants their age – really know them – then
they can experience this transition vicariously. That’s why Clara and I always encouraged our
children to make friends whose families were recently moved to our
country. It benefited them to have that
perspective, and of course it benefitted the immigrant children to have friends
who were more established. The
experience of immigration helps one to keep an important perspective about
one’s freedom and prosperity. When one
hasn’t experienced it, they can at least listen to others’ narratives.
The final
lesson that I draw from the procedure of bringing the first fruits, comes from its
timing. One does it only after having
worked the land successfully, and having brought forth the land’s plenty, and
the offering comes from the land’s plenty. Only at this point is the transition to being
a free people in one’s own land complete.
When one coaxes a crop out of the land.
How many
times have we seen a land conquered, whether from outside or from within? We live in an era where revolution is a
frequent occurrence. How many times,
after a violent overthrow of an existing government, do the rebels or conquerors
celebrate wildly? By firing guns into
the air. By wild shouting and dancing. Perhaps by looting the property of the former
masters. Or even killing them in
gruesome rituals calculated to establish dominance?
Then, the
new regime quickly ran the country into the ground. They were great at overthrowing, but they
could not govern. This is in part
because those who plan revolutions seldom plan for afterward. They tend to be starry-eyed utopians. If we
can get rid of the tyrant, everything will be all right.
This brings
to mind the recent, so-called Arab spring.
Egypt’s former strongman, Mubarak was not a good ruler. He was what we call a ‘cleptocrat.’ His entire programme of governance was about
enriching himself, his family, and his cronies.
He deserved to be overthrown. But
the people immediately let themselves be duped into putting the Islamic
Brotherhood in power. The Brotherhood’s
slogan is, one man, one vote, one
time. Okay, it isn’t really. But democracy is totally anathema to Islamists. Their goal is a theocracy based on Sharia
law. This is no secret. And yet, the Egyptian people, finally able to
breathe freely, immediately elected the Brotherhood into power. Similar results happened in Libya. And will happen in Syria. Because it’s all about the passion of the
overthrow. Not the nuts-and-bolts of
life afterwards.
Our reading’s
implication is: it isn’t ‘yours’ until you make it work. And there’s great wisdom in that. You don’t make a country work by lynching the
former ruler. You make it work by coaxing
something good out of the land.
This was the
lesson for the ancient Israelites. Give
the honour due God. Remember your
past. And make the land work. Only when you do these things, will you be
able to live successfully in this land. As
for the ancient Israelites, so too for us.
Our situation is obviously quite different. But the lessons that were important for them,
will profit us. Shabbat shalom.
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