what are Teakkurim?

17 tevet 5781

 

i needed to make sure the name for this blog was properly fitting. it needed to be an accurate reflection of myself and what i want this blog to be.

 

this is one of the big things that holds up the weird stories i write. i want every character‘s name to be dense with layered metaphors and allusions and to have layers upon layers of hidden meanings. when i cant think of a good name i get stuck in my tracks. it's silly. thankfully, my blog writing is a little less uptight. 

 

nevertheless, the name i chose for this blog had to fit that criteria. it had to be layered. it had to be jewish. and it had to have a cheesy tea pun in it. well readers, i am proud to say that i accomplished my mission.

 

teakkurim. where does ‘teakkurim’ come from? 

 

the first part comes from the word ‘tea.’ ahhhhh. 'tea' is the American English word for the British English word for the Chinese word ‘Tu/Te,’ which means ‘bitter herb.’ ‘Tu/Te’ is one of the many Chinese regional names for drinks made from the Caemlia Sinensis leaf. 'Tu/Te',' to be precise, is from the Amoy dialect.

 

‘kkurim’ comes from the Hebrew word ‘bikkurim.’ ‘the choicest of the fruits (bikkurei) of your soil you shall bring to the house of hashem.’ the bikkurim are offerings or sacrifices made from one’s ‘first fruits.’ this is traditionally done in spring with fruit, livestock, or grains. 

 

i strongly connect with this ancestral practice but in a more modern fashion. whether this is because my family comes from the ‘preistly line’ or because i am drawn to tangible rituals involving physical elements. i do not know. there are many kinds of offerings in the Jewish tradition besides fruit, animals, and grain. there are meal offerings of cakes mixed from flour and oil. there are incense offerings made from specific recipes whose certainty is unknown but many rabbis have speculated about what that recipes are (there are passages in the Talmud with the lists of the plants, there proportions, and how to to prepare them).

 

this past year i have made incense offerings, meal offerings, fruit offerings, and medicine offerings from tinctures i made. sometimes they are related to a particular jewish holiday and sometimes i do it for a personal reason when i need to have a personal connection. none of this would be approved of by ‘traditional’ or ‘rabbinic Judaism.’

 

one of the reasons i love pouring tea is because i like making something beautiful and nourishing for someone. it is one of the same reason i love cooking. i enjoy making offerings for people. i like pouring tea and i like saving the rinses and thinking of them as offerings. i like saying ‘brachot’ (prayers) over my tea. that is why i sometimes sign my blog posts with ‘atzei besamim.’ it is a phrase that comes from the jewish prayer one recites upon ‘fragrant trees.’

 

there is also the Chinese tradition of ‘tribute tea.’ this is the first and choicest tea picked and given to the emperor. this in itself is a form of ‘bikkurim’ or ‘first fruit offerings.’ the big difference here is that this tea is offered to a human who reigns in an exploitive hierarchy. to an anti-monarchist like me, i like to think of my offerings as something different.

 

‘ain lanu melech. we have no king*’

 

(*the real phrase from Jewish liturgy is ‘ain lanu melech attah. we have no king but you [god],’ but hey, rabbis would quote out of context all the time)

 

more 'about me' posts

by Reuven Rubin

xoxo,

atzei besamim