A good end emanates from the beginning.
This d’var Torah comes from the book Outlooks and Insights, by Rabbi Zev Leff.
In Ki Savo 26:2, we are told to bring our first fruits to the Kohen who is going to offer it up to Hashem for us. In several other places in the Torah we are told of bringing all our first fruits to Hashem; first wool shearings, first piece of dough (challah), the firstborn son, and the firstborn animals. The question is, why are we always commanded on our firsts, why not our bests? That would seem more fitting for offering up to Hashem.
The truth is, the first is a very important part of our lives. The first is always the root, the foundation of what will follow. In our lives, which are all kadosh, holy, we need to have holy and pure beginnings to be sure the results are holy. Here are a few examples of how important foundations are:
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When building a building, the first stage is laying the foundation. This foundation must be perfect, a single small crack could mean extreme danger to the building. But if that crack was on a higher floor it wouldn’t be such a problem. We see from this that “Any flaw in the root will manifest itself a HUNDRED FOLD in what grows out of it.”
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On Chanukah, why did the miracle necessitate us finding pure oil when halacha (Jewish law) states that impure oil may be used for a community’s mitzvah? A: Chanukah was a rededication of the Beis Hamikdash and the Menorah; as it was a new beginning, only pure oil was proper.
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During the Aseret Yemei Teshuva (the 10 days of repentance between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) there is a custom for people to be stricter on themselves in their middot, take up new mitzvot they never did or needed to refine, intensify their davening, etc. The question is, do we think we can fool Hashem by taking up all these new stringencies that we usually don’t follow, just so we can be sure to have a favorable judgment when Yom Kippur comes?
No, the significance of these new acts that one takes upon himself lies in what Rosh Hashana is, the beginning of the year, and each of the ten Penitential days that follow also must be treated as new beginnings. So these acts are not merely for show, they are to lay the foundation for the whole upcoming year. Even if the year is not filled with practicing such quality ways of living as these, “the foundation will give it strength.”