Ki Tavo
At the outset of this week’s parshah, the Jewish people are commanded to do the following positive commandment: “…when you enter the land that Hashem, your God, gives you as an inheritance…that you shall take of the first of every fruit of the ground that you bring in from your Land that Hashem, your God, gives you…” (Deuteronomy 26:1).
What, in essence, was the purpose and goal of this mitzvah? The author of Akedat Yitzchak explains: The essence of acknowledging Divine sovereignty lies in man’s gratitude to the Creator as the source of all the good, and his appreciation that man himself is, in no way, responsible for all that the might of his own hand has accomplished. Failure to realize this implies repudiation of the yoke and fear of heaven and all the evil consequences that flow from there. This is indeed the subject of Moses’ address to the people in Deuteronomy 4:25ff. They would forget God’s bounty and imagine that they were the authors of all the benefits they were enjoying in the Promised Land. They were therefore bidden to perform a rite that would act as a constant reminder that the “earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”; that everything was a gift bestowed by Him and He was responsible for all their prosperity, the bringing of the first fruits. Indeed, all such offerings constituted acknowledgement of Divine over lordship. Abravanel, slightly varying his treatment, explains that the purpose of bringing the first fruits was to humble man’s selfish passions. Since the first fruits constitute man’s most treasured possession, God commanded man to subdue his natural instincts and not eat there from, but rather dedicate them to Him on High.
Nechama Leibowitz discusses that the motive behind the ceremony of the dedication of the first fruits is stated in the Torah itself in verses 9 and 10. The celebrant in verse 9 declares: “And He (God) hath brought us into this place…” In exchange for that “bringing” to the Promised Land he gratefully brings his first fruits (v.10): “And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which thou, O Lord, hath given me.” Since man cannot however really reciprocate God’s bounty, for the simple reason that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof or, as stated in 1 Chronicles 29:14: “For all things come of Thee, and of thine own have we given thee”, it is left to man to perform a symbolic act leaving all before the Lord, and make the declaration formulated in our sedra, known as ‘mikra bikkurim’ or Recital of the First-Fruits. The Israelite farmer who brings the first-fruits of his soil does not say: My fathers came to the land which the Lord swore to give to them. Rather, he proclaims in every generation, as long as his people dwells in the Land, whenever he brings its first-fruits, in thanks to the Almighty: “I am come to the Land, which the Lord swore to our fathers to give to them” (26:3). He himself has come unto the land, in the same way as our Pesach Haggadah states: “That in every generation every Jew obligated to see himself as if he had gone out of Egypt…the Holy One blessed be He did not only redeem our fathers, but He redeemed us too, with them.
At the conclusion of the parshah, Moses states that what he was telling B’nei Israel were “the words of the covenant” (28:69). Since we are aware of the covenant at Mount Chorev, why does the Torah have to spell out here that there was such a covenant? Torat Moshe explains that the reason the covenant has to be renewed is that despite the overwhelming experience at Mount Sinai, i.e. Chorev, you have been remiss on many occasions, and have transgressed the covenant. This is not held against you so much, since only now after 40 years have you acquired an understanding heart (29:3). Unfortunately, it took 40 years for you to appreciate all that God has done for you. Only now that you are starting to take possession of your Land, do you commit yourself to God’s covenant in a mature fashion. Having studied the Torah over a period of close to 40 years, you have acquired enough insight, i.e. eyes to see and eyes to hear.
~Devorah Abenhaim
