Parshat Ki Tavo

Parshat Ki Tavo 

The Parsha begins when you come to The Land which Hashem gives you ...

The Ohr HaChayim starts off saying that there is a special innate

Simcha in settling the Land of Eretz Yisrael.

The Mishna in Bikkurim magnificently describes the drama of the

bringing of these first fruits, the massive march to Jerusalem of

farmers from all over Israel with the choicest fruit and grain of

their labors in their hands, the decorated marketplaces of our Holy

City crowned by the magnificent fruits, and the speech-song of each

individual farmer as he stood in front of the Temple altar with the

offering he handed to the priest. What an impressive demonstration of

fealty to the Master of the Universe, who is hereby recognized as the

Provider of all produce and the Sustainer of all sustenance.

But Hashem's bounty was not the purpose of bringing the first fruits.

The clear emphasis here is the arrival of the Israelites to the Land

of Israel – after having been enslaved and afflicted by the Egyptians,

and after the Almighty heard their prayers and took them from Egypt to

Israel with great miracles and wonders. Eating the fruits of our own

land emphasizes the evils of slavery when we could not produce our own

food and the inalienable rights of Jews (as well as all humans) to

freedom and the independence to provide for their own needs.

From this perspective I can understand why the first fruits are only

to be brought from the seven species which are unique and bring praise

to the Land of Israel (Deut. 8), and why only an individual who owns a

portion of the Land of Israel and on whose portion the fruits actually

grew is obligated to perform the command of the first fruits (Mishna,

Bikkurim 1:1–3). This commandment is all about God’s gift of the land

of Israel to the Jews; that is why we find that in the eleven verses

of the first fruits speech-song, the noun “land (eretz),” appears no

fewer than five times, and the verb “gift (matan)” (by Hashem), no

fewer than seven times!

To further cement the inextricable relationship between the first

fruits and the Land of Israel, Rabbi Elĥanan Samet (in his masterful

biblical commentary) cites a comment by Rabbi Menaĥem Ziemba, Hashem

Yinkom Damo (Ĥiddushim, siman 50) in the name of the Holy Ari, that

the commandment to bring the first fruits is a repair, a tikkun, for

the Sin of the Scouts. Perhaps that is why the Mishna links the

command of the first fruits specifically to the fig, grape, and

pomegranate (“If an individual goes into his field and sees a fig, a

grape-cluster and/or a pomegranate which has/have ripened, he must tie

them with a cord and state that these are to be first fruits” –

Bikkurim 3:1), precisely the three fruits which the scouts took back

with them (Num. 13:23).

And the Bible relates to the scouts on their reconnaissance mission

with the very same language that God commands the Israelite concerning

the first fruits: Moses tells the scouts, “And you shall take from the

fruits of the land” (13:20), “We came to the land…and it is even

flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit” (13:27), and – in

remarkably parallel fashion – Hashem commands the Israelites, “And you

shall take from the first of all the fruits of the land” (Deut. 26:2),

“Because I have come to the land” (26:3), “And He gave to us this land

flowing with milk and honey” (26:9). In effect, Hashem is saying that

we must bring precisely those first fruits from that very special land

which the scouts rejected, or at least lacked the faith to conquer and

settle.

Fulfilling the command of the first fruits is in effect a gesture of

“repentance” for the Sin of the Scouts & in similar fashion, all of us

privileged to return to Israel after 2000 years of exile are similarly

repenting for the sin of the Chet HaMeraglim!

בברכת התורה והארץ‎

שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם

B'Birchat Hatorah V'Haaretz

Shabbat Shalom