I grew up in Iowa surrounded by the potential of food. Endless rows of corn and soybean fields stretched farther than the eye could see. One of our favorite family activities was simply driving to admire the beauty of the possibility planted in the earth. There was something holy about those fields, even before harvest. They reminded me that nourishment begins long before something reaches our table.

In this week’s Torah portion, Shelach L’cha, the spies are sent into the land to determine whether it is “good” land — whether it can sustain the future of the people. And yet, so much of the response is rooted in fear and pessimism. Our people see obstacles, and we struggle to see possibility. We cannot yet imagine that enormous clusters of grapes might one day become sweet wine shared around sacred tables. We see the land only for what it is in that moment, not for what it can become.

There is something deeply Jewish about understanding the potential hidden within food and within the earth itself. Judaism asks us not only to appreciate the final product, but also the sacred process in between. In the blessing of Hamotzi, we thank God “hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz” – for bringing forth bread from the earth. Of course, bread does not literally emerge from the ground fully formed. Wheat grows from the earth, but we harvest it, grind it, knead it, shape it, and bake it. The blessing honors not only the gift of the land, but also the sacred human effort that transforms possibility into nourishment.

This Friday night, our Shabbos Chefs Society will prepare a Pride Shabbat dinner featuring the natural colors of the rainbow, deep pinks from beets, vibrant greens from spinach, colors drawn directly from the earth itself. As we celebrate Pride Month, we also celebrate the holiness of becoming: the beauty that emerges when we honor both who we and others are and what we and others are capable of becoming.

Shelach L’cha reminds us that holiness lives not only in the land, but in the courage to see possibility within it. And perhaps our sacred task is to become partners in that transformation; tending the earth, tending one another, and helping that potential, become a blessing.