Parashas Ki Savo
20 Elul 5768
September 20, 2008
Daf Yomi: Gitin 71
Guest Author:
Rabbi Chaim Frazer
Associate Member, Young Israel Council of Rabbis
At last, at long last, the great day is at hand. Centuries before, Avraham Avinu and HaShem entered into the Brit Bein HaBetarim, in which HaShem assured Avraham that his descendants would in fact inherit Eretz Yisrael, and they would be HaShem's chosen nation forever.
But Avraham Avinu worried for his heirs and pleaded with HaShem for reassurance that should the Jewish people betray their mission of Avodat Shammayim, they could still return to HaShem, and would not be discarded into the nothingness suffered by other ancient nations and civilizations.
The best known version of their dialog, Taanit 28b and Megillah 31b, specifies bringing Korbanot or learning about Korbanot (not Tefillah, see Orach Chaim 48) as the means of reconciliation.
But the first Midrash Tanchuma to Ki Tavo stuns us. Bringing Bikkurim to the Beit HaMikdash replaces Korbanot; learning about Bikkurim replaces learning about Korbanot. As the Talmud itself might ask, “Why does one Master specify Korbanot and their Limmud, and why does the other Master specify Bikkurim and their Limmud?”
Sin always corrupts, but the sin that can lead to destruction of the Beit HaMikdash and the exile of Am Yisrael is very unique, akin to the type of sin that can lead to the destruction of the world as a whole: rampant idolatry, or divisiveness (even violence) so great that society cannot function with even a semblance of peace and concord.
We are familiar with Korbanot as reconciling us with HaShem following the idolatry in the first Beit HaMikdash. Bikkurim need more explanation. Our Parasha begins, “And it will be when you [singular] come into the land which the L-rd your G-d gives you as an inheritance [nachalah], and you take possession of it [v'rishtah] and you dwell in it...” Then you [singular] shall take in a basket your first fruits “which the L-rd your G-d gives you, to the place which HaShem shall select to cause His Name to dwell [i.e., the Beit HaMikdash] and you shall come to the Priest in those days and say to him ‘I declared today to the L-rd your [the Priest's] G-d that I came into the land that the L-rd swore to our Fathers to give to us.’” The Priest then takes the basket and places it “before the altar of the L-rd your [singular] G-d.”
“The L-rd your G-d gives you the land.” You must forge a personal awareness of and relationship with the G-d who continuously gives you the Land in every generation, even throughout Exiles. You take your first fruits, for which you have longed, and dedicate yourself to Him through bringing them to the Beit HaMikdash where the Priest places them before G-d's altar. And you demonstrate that you came into the land (and enjoy its bounty) not through your own merit or strength, but through G-d's faithfulness in fulfilling the promise that He made first to Avraham Avinu, and then repeated to all successive generations - those which preceded you and those which shall follow you.
For some, this is made even clearer through the “Mikra Bikkurim,” the story of our history that male landowners explicitly recite beginning with an “Arami's” attempt to destroy us totally (identified by our Sages as Lavan), through Pharaoh's effort to annihilate us in Egypt, through our liberation from Egypt, until the present day when HaShem brought us to the Land of Israel to give it to us eternally.
The point is clear: our inheritance of Eretz Yisrael comes not through our own strength and might, but through G-d's graciousness to us. And our prosperity - there or elsewhere - comes solely through Him.
What happens when a person looks to himself as the source of his own success? He becomes proud, even arrogant, and prone to anger - traits which the Rambam (Hilkhot Deot 2:3) links to idolatry and self -worship. A society filled with such people becomes a snake pit of seething conflicts until it resembles the “Sinat Chinam,” the “causeless hatred” which led to the destruction of the world in the Flood, save for Noach and his family, and to the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash.
To understand fully Bikkurim's social, even national, dimensions, we need to look at the last verse in “Mikra Bikkurim” and examine how our Sages understood it in Massechet Bikkurim (Mishna and Talmud Yerushalmi 2:4).
“And you [singular] shall rejoice [“v'samachta”] in all the good that the L-rd your G-d gave you and your house: you, and the Levi, and the Ger who are in your midst.” From this our Sages learn that when a person brings Bikkurim from his location to the Beit HaMikdash, he does so with a retinue of family, friends, and well-wishers who turn the event into a private Aliyat HaRegel. And when they reach Jerusalem, they are met by residents of the city, including workers taking time off from their work, in the procession of joy to the Beit HaMikdash.
When did this happen? Essentially from Shavuot to Sukkot, as each land-owner's produce ripened, he and his cavalcade would ascend to Jerusalem. There was a constant presence of new arrivals, lending a festive air to the entire summer - a fact accentuated by Eretz Yisrael's micro-climates, which assured that ripening would occur throughout the entire period.
Following the Bikkurim ceremony in the Beit HaMikdash, our Sages tell us that three elements of a regular Yom Tov applied: a Korban Shelamim, a Shir sung by the Leviim, and Linah-staying overnight in Jerusalem on the night following the Korban. So all sectors of Am Yisrael shared in the special joy: the Kohanim (who received their portions of the Korbanot), the Leviim (who performed a liturgical Psalm of rejoicing), and regular Yisraelim and Gerim (who, with the Leviim, could also share in the Korban). And they didn't just celebrate and run. They stayed over to let the joy in each other saturate them.
What better way to reverse any potential deleterious hint of enmity from Sinat Chinam?
And when do we as a family, perhaps even as a Kehillah, remember the lesson of Bikkurim? Every Pesach, in the Haggadah, as we all (not just male landowners) recite “Arami Oved Avi...,” an Aramaen (Lavan) destroys my father. And we describe our persecution in Egypt, HaShem's liberating us from it, and His bringing us to the inheritance and prosperity in Eretz Yisrael that He promised to our Avot.
When we internalize and realize in our daily lives the impact of Bikkurim, we dwell in the splendor heralded by the first two verses of Handcraft Ki Tavo: “Arise, shine forth, for your [Am Yisrael's] light shines, and the honor of HaShem illuminates you! For behold, darkness covers the earth and pitch-blackness the nations, and upon you HaShem bursts with light and His honor is displayed upon you.”
Our personal joy in Avodat Shammayim radiates out to all of Klal Yisrael and to all of G-d's creation, transforming both.
Shabbat Shalom.
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