Currently we are in the Hebrew month of Elul—which is a time to spiritually prepare ourselves for the upcoming High Holy Days. During this time, we consider from where we’ve come, and where we want to go. How will we renew our relationships? How will we grow over the coming year?

This week’s parasha, Ki Tavo, offers an important teaching for our personal growth. Specifically, how we can increase our knowledge and awareness of the world. Ki Tavo begins with the well-known words of the bikkurim (first-fruits) ceremony. Even if you have never participated in such a ritual, and I imagine you haven’t since it’s been discontinued since the destruction of the second Temple, the words are familiar. “Arami oved avi” the Torah says, “My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and stayed there…”

That’s right! Passover! These words are now recited during our Passover Seder. Commentators disagree as to how exactly they got there, but some speculate it is because they were so widely known by Jews of the time.

Though the Mishna teaches that many of the prayers we say can be said in any language, it requires this prayer to be said in Hebrew. The Mishna continues to report that Jewish farmers were required to say these words on their own when they brought their first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem. If they couldn’t say it on their own, they repeated the words after someone else. Now here’s the real interesting part: The farmers who couldn’t recite these words on their own stopped bringing their first fruits to the Temple because they were embarrassed by their lack of knowledge. So, the Mishna tells us, the rabbis changed the ritual so that everyone had to repeat the words after someone else.

This is just one of a number of examples in our texts of halakha (Jewish law) being sensitive to people’s feelings. Two other examples should suffice: On Tu B’av, often known as the Jewish Valentine’s Day, all the girls would borrow white dresses to wear as they danced in the fields in hopes of meeting their future husband. This ensured that no one girl’s dress was fancier than any other’s. Additionally, we bury our deceased in a plain pine casket. This was enacted so the poor didn’t feel inferior because they couldn’t afford a more elaborate casket.

Jewish tradition is a source of empowerment, not embarrassment. We as rabbis and Jewish educators need to do the best we can to make this true. However, the onus is not just on us. It is on every Jewish learner as well. Elsewhere in the Mishna, in Pirke Avot, our great teacher Hillel taught: “One who is embarrassed doesn’t learn, and one who is impatient cannot teach.” We all must be patient with those who don’t know; otherwise we might make them scared to learn. On the other hand, we can’t be embarrassed about what we don’t know. We must be willing to learn, ask questions, and seek out teachers to continue on our Jewish journeys. We each need guidance to help us find direction in our spiritual lives.

This is one of the goals of this season. As we approach the High Holy Days and consider how we want to learn and grow as people, let us learn from the bikkurim. With each bit of growth, with every little accomplishment, we enrich ourselves. We are blessed with many wonderful Jewish resources in our community. May we not be embarrassed to reach out to them, and may the partnerships that develop between teachers and learners lead to much growth for all of us in the year ahead. .