“The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of Hashem your G-d. (Devarim 26:4)

The Mishnah in Bikurim (3:8) tells us that the rich people brought their first fruits in baskets woven from gold and silver, while the poor people brought their first fruits in baskets woven from willow trees. The Mishnah adds that the baskets of the rich people were returned to them, but the baskets of the poor people were kept and given to the kohanim. Chazal tell us (Bava Kamma 92a) that from here comes the expression: “poverty follows the poor”. Proverbs are wonderful, but we still must understand why this is so and how this is fair.

On a simple level, one may explain that a basket woven from willows is not worth very much – it is more or less disposable and might be similar to someone who willingly gives up his 30 agurot deposit, rather than return a bottle to the store. Whereas the basket of the rich person is made out of valuable materials and is a large loss to him, and therefore it must be returned to him.

Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dunner (1913-2007) says that this explanation is insufficient. A gold basket has the same proportional value to a multi-billionaire as the wicker basket has to the poor person. So, we still can question why the Torah treats a rich man’s and a poor man’s baskets differently? Rabbi Dunner answers based on the Malbim, who explains that the poor person doesn’t even have money to buy a wicker basket, and therefore uses the leftover aravos from his lulav to fashion his basket. He can’t afford to hire someone to weave the basket for him, so he is forced to weave the basket himself. This basket – which the poor person wove with his blood, sweat, and tears, and with a strong desire to fulfill the mitzvah – itself becomes as an offering brought to Hashem. Therefore, the Kohanim keep it. Whereas the rich person can just walk into a store and purchase a golden basket off the shelf, without imbuing the basket with any effort or love.

In all mitzvos that we do, we must realize that there is a price versus value equation. A quick fix versus doing it oneself. For example, Is it preferable to

  • Buy pre-made wicks and pre-measured oil for a Chanukah menorah, or to actually roll the wicks from cotton balls – just as the chasidishe Rebbes do?
  • Buy a box of matzos off the shelf, or go to the factory and be involved in the baking oneself?
  • Buy an esrog out of the box stamped with a reliable hechsher, or go on a scavenger hunt in the marketplace until one finds the perfect esrog?

I once heard a psak from Rav Elyashiv along the lines of this idea. A man went searching for his lulav and esrog and ended up with only average specimens. On Sukkos day, the person next to him in shul had a beautiful set of daled minim. The first man asked Rav Elyashiv, “What is the proper thing for me to do? To make a brocho on my own daled minim, or to ‘borrow’ my neighbor’s beautiful set and make a brocho on it?” (In a normal case without an option of a more beautiful set, the Mishnah Berurah rules it is preferable to make a brocho on one’s own set.) Rav Elyashiv responded that the primary hiddur is to use something that you yourself toiled to make or find.

Some people start a teshuva process in the month of Elul and the yetzer hara tells them, “Why bother!? How much teshuva do you think you will really be able to accomplish?!” To this we respond, “It is the exertion that goes into it, which in itself can be a korbon leratzon laHashem – a wanted offering to Hashem.” Whatever you do during Elul, put all of your effort into it.