Naomi is married to a goal-oriented individual. Due to his overloaded schedule, they rarely spend quality time with each other.
One day, Naomi phoned her husband. An important client had called. She had taken the initiative and scheduled a meeting for 8:00 that evening at an elegant restaurant.
Naomi’s husband thanked her and assured her that he would rearrange his schedule to make the meeting.
By 7:55 Naomi’s husband was seated in a quiet corner of the restaurant. By 7:57 PM, he had instructed the waiter to come to the table as soon as his guest arrives. At a minute to 8:00, he clicked off his cell phone.
A few moments later, to his utter astonishment, Naomi entered the restaurant. Purposefully, she made her way to his table and gracefully sat down.
His perplexed expression briefly turned to annoyance, then to anger, but finally settled on admiration as it dawned on him that his wife was the “important client who had been trying to meet him for a long time.”
“It will be, when you come into the land which G‑d gives you for an inheritance . . . that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, and you shall put it into a basket and go to the place that your G‑d will choose to have His Name dwell there. You shall come to the kohen who will be serving in those days… “(Deuteronomy 26:1–3)
The bikkurim, the “first fruit” offering, had to be the very best quality, produced in the Holy Land, from the very first fruits to ripen. These fruits were brought to the Holy Temple to express gratitude to G‑d for the opportunity of settling in the Land of Israel and for blessing its produce. (Mishneh Torah, Bikkurim 2:1 and 2:3)
Maimonides explains that “everything that is for the sake of G‑d should be of the best and most beautiful. When one builds a house of prayer, it should be more beautiful than his own dwelling. When one feeds the hungry, he should feed him of the best and sweetest of his table. Whenever one designates something for a holy purpose, he should sanctify the finest of his possessions, as it is written (Leviticus 3:16), ‘The choicest to G‑d.’”
In devoting the “first-ripened fruits” of our life to G‑d, we are in effect saying:Here is the focus of my existence. Quantitatively, this may represent but a small part of what I am; but the purpose of everything I do is to enable this portion of spirit to rise above my matter-clogged life.
Bikkurim teaches us to establish priorities. In the myriad responsibilities of the “daily grind,” it reminds us to give precedence—and devote our strongest, freshest resources—to the people and values that we most cherish.
Have we neglected to schedule quality time with our spouses, to reignite the spark that originally attracted us to each other?
Do we allocate time for our children at the end of our day, after we’ve been depleted of energy or initiative to adequately relate to the issues of their lives?
Are we so occupied with pursuing material success that we leave but a few crumbs of energy to nourish our spiritual growth? Do we connect with our Creator in only a few rushed moments of distracted prayers, to assuage our guilt before tackling the “real” tasks of our day?
Step back and prioritize—the first and best of your fruit, time, energy, and resources, must be devoted to G‑d. Realize what’s important in your life and schedule that first. Recognize who you most cherish, and connect regularly with those individuals.
Don’t allow your life to become so entangled with trivialities that you forget the main purpose of why you’re here.
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