From:          "Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To:            yhe-parsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject:       PARSHA -49: Parashat Ki Tavo


                   YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
      ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
*********************************************************

                    PARASHAT KI TAVO


            The Mitzva of Bikkurim (25:1-11)
                  By Rav Elchanan Samet
                           

I. SHARED AND UNIQUE ASPECTS OF BIKKURIM

     At  first  glance, it would seem that the mitzva  of
bringing  the  bikkurim  (first  fruits)  to  the  Temple
belongs to the category of mitzvot of "reishit" (first) -
a   category  which  includes  teruma,  terumat  ma'aser,
challa,  the first fleece, the firstborn of animals,  the
redemption  of firstborn children, etc. The  commentators
who  offer  reasons for the mitzvot - e.g. Rambam  (Moreh
Nevukhim III:39) and Sefer Ha-Chinukh (mitzva 91) - agree
on a common reason for all these mitzvot: the offering of
the  "first" of everything that one has represents  one's
recognition  of the fact that God is Master  of  ALL  our
possessions, and that He is the source of our bounty.

     However, the mitzva of bikkurim (Devarim 25:1-11 and
elsewhere) is unique among the mitzvot of "reishit" owing
to  a  few of its important details, and we must seek  an
understanding  of this particular mitzva  that  addresses
these details:

  i.The  mitzva  of  bringing bikkurim is accompanied  in
     our   parasha  by  another  mitzva,  the   "bikkurim
     declaration."  When bringing the  bikkurim,  one  is
     obligated  to  recite the formulation stipulated  in
     verses 3 and 5-10. The other "first" mitzvot have no
     requirement for any accompanying declaration  (other
     than  the "vidui ma'asrot," recited "at the  end  of
     three years").

  ii.     The first fruits must be brought to the Temple:
     they  are a 'mincha' offering. In fact, Chazal teach
     that  "the  bikkurim  are brought  only  before  the
     Temple  (i.e., when the Temple stands)."  The  other
     "first"  mitzvot applying to the individual have  no
     such  connection with the Temple. (Although  ma'aser
     sheni  and the firstborn of pure animals are brought
     to  Jerusalem, the obligation of this mitzva is  not
     cancelled in the absence of the Temple.)

  iii.    The  obligation  of  bikkurim  applies  to  the
     "seven  species"  of Eretz Yisrael (Mishna  Bikkurim
     1:3).  In this it is different from the terumot  and
     ma'asrot  which, by Torah law, apply to grain,  wine
     and oil, and which are extended by rabbinical law to
     include all produce from the land (according to  the
     opinion of most of the Rishonim). The obligation  of
     bikkurim is not extended by Chazal any further  than
     the   seven  species.  The  obligation  of  bringing
     bikkurim  of  the  seven  species  is  not  even  an
     absolute requirement, as is the case in terumot  and
     ma'asrot: bikkurim are brought only from produce  of
     the   choicest   quality  (Mishna,  ibid.;   Rambam,
     Bikkurim 2:3).

  iv.     The  obligation  of bringing the  first  fruits
     applies to the owner of the land in which the fruits
     were  grown. Thus, someone who buys one  tree  in  a
     field  that belongs to someone else does  not  bring
     bikkurim, since the land is not his (Mishna Bikkurim
     1:6).  Similarly, leaseholders and  tenants  do  not
     bring  bikkurim (ibid, mishna 2). The other  "first"
     mitzvot pertaining to agricultural produce apply  to
     fruit that grows in Eretz Yisrael, no matter who the
     land belongs to.

II. BIKKURIM AS THANKS FOR THE LAND, NOT THE FRUIT

      The explanation for the uniqueness of the mitzva of
bikkurim  should  naturally be  sought  in  the  bikkurim
declaration  which  accompanies  their  presentation.  We
would  expect  to  find,  in this declaration,  words  of
thanks  to God for the fruits which have ripened and  for
God's  mercy in providing rain. But, in fact, the  bearer
of   the   bikkurim  thanks  God  for  His   mercies   as
demonstrated in the history of Am Yisrael, from the  time
of  the  forefathers until the inheritance of  the  land.
What is the connection between this historical review and
the bringing of bikkurim?

      Martin Buber, in his article "Bikkurim" (in  "Darko
shel   Mikra,"   pp.   82-87),   provides   a   beautiful
explanation, part of which we shall quote here:

   "Gifts  offered  to the gods from  the  first  of  the
   harvest  are  a familiar phenomenon of all cultures...
   as  are  prayers... thanking the gods for the blessing
   of  the  land...  and asking them to ensure  that  the
   land  remains  fertile.  But of  all  these  types  of
   prayers in the world, I know of only one in which  the
   worshipper praises God for having given him a LAND.
   The  opening already points to this: 'And it shall  be
   when  you come to the land which Hashem your God gives
   you'... Only the beginning of the mitzva speaks to  Am
   Yisrael  (in  the verse quoted above), while  all  the
   other  verbs  ('you shall take, you shall say,'  etc.)
   ...  are quite clearly addressed not to the nation  as
   a  whole but rather to the individual... The condition
   for  the  mitzva is collective, but the obligation  is
   individual. Furthermore, the condition is  a  one-time
   historical  phenomenon, while the  obligation  applies
   on a yearly basis...

   Even  in later generations, the bearer of the bikkurim
   is  not  to say, for example, 'My forefathers came  to
   the  land,'  but rather, 'I have come  to  the  land.'
   Here  the  two  entities addressed by the  Torah,  the
   nation  and  the  individual, come together.  'I  have
   come to the land' means, first and foremost, 'I -  the
   nation  of  Israel  -  have come  to  the  land.'  The
   speaker identifies with Am Yisrael and speaks  in  the
   name of the nation...

   The  speaker does not say merely 'I have come  to  the
   land,' but rather he states that he 'declares' to  God
   that  he  has  come to the land. The  significance  of
   this  is as follows: I testify and identify myself  as
   a  person  who  has come to the land... He  does  this
   because  he  has  to  say, 'Not  only  the  nation  of
   Israel, but also this man who stands here has come  to
   the  land.  I,  the  individual,  identify  myself  as
   someone  who  has come to the land, and from  time  to
   time,  when  I  bring  the  first  of  its  fruits,  I
   recognize  this  fact  anew and  declare  it  anew...'
   Every farmer in every generation of Israel thanks  God
   when  he brings his bikkurim for the land to which  He
   brought HIM."

      Thus we learn that the unique reason for the mitzva
of  bringing  bikkurim is to serve as an opportunity  for
every  owner of land in Israel to thank God for the  gift
of the land - that historical phenomenon which took place
in  the past and which continues and is relived until the
present  moment when the Israelite farmer stands  in  the
Temple, his basket of bikkurim in his arms. Let us  refer
once again to Buber:

   "This  'bringing' of the bikkurim and that  'bringing'
   to  the land are included together in the prayer  with
   a  covert parallel (9-10): 'And He BROUGHT us to  this
   place...  and  now  I HAVE BROUGHT the  first  of  the
   fruits  of the land...' What is expressed here is  the
   mutual interaction between God and His nation. 'I  was
   brought  by  Him  to  this  fertile  land,'  says  the
   farmer,  'and  now  I  am bringing  Him  some  of  its
   fruit.'  This  conveys more than just  gratitude.  The
   entire land is given to the nation by God's hand;  the
   produce  which  the  man who is brought  there  brings
   from  the  ground is likewise from God's blessing  and
   His  actions; one cannot GIVE Him something of it, but
   one  may  BRING  Him something - the choicest  of  the
   first fruits as a symbol and as sanctification."

      The  root  "b-o-a" (to come, to bring) appears  six
times in the parasha of bikkurim, in two groups of three.
The  parallel  between the two groups indicates  the  two
major  movements of the parasha (God bringing man to  the
land,   and  man  bringing  bikkurim  to  God)  and   the
relationship between them.

      But there is another root used in this parasha that
serves  to indicate the unilateral action of God  towards
Israel  -  the root "n-t-n" (to give). God,  Who  BROUGHT
Israel  to  the land, also GIVES it to them. By contrast,
the  root  'n-t-n' is never used in conjunction with  the
bringing  of bikkurim. This verb appears seven  times  in
the  hinting to the reader that this "giving" is the crux
of  the  parasha. As Buber notes, in the first three  and
the  last three appearances of "n-t-n," this word  refers
to  God's gift to Israel, while in the center (the fourth
appearance) we find a strange "giving" - "and  they  [the
Egyptians]  gave  upon us hard labor."  This  incongruous
use  of  "n-t-n" illustrates most tangibly  the  negative
contrast  with  the  Divine giving.   Furthermore,  Buber
continues,

   "God's  great  gift  to Israel is the  land;  this  is
   impressed  in  our  minds with a five-fold  repetition
   [of 'n-t-n']. Finally (25:11), this root is used in  a
   more  general  way  in  order to  leave  no  room  for
   mistake:  'You  shall rejoice in ALL  THE  GOOD  which
   Hashem  your  God has given you' - not only  the  land
   itself  but also its yearly produce comes  as  a  gift
   from God's hand."

III. THE BIKKURIM DECLARATION

     In  verses  5-9, the bearer of the bikkurim  reviews
the  history from the period of the forefathers up  until
the inheritance of the land. This review is characterized
by  the  fact that the bearer of the bikkurim  speaks  of
Israel  in  the  first  person plural:  "They  were  evil
towards  us... and we cried... and He took us out...  and
He  gave us," unlike the declaration in verse 3, in which
he  speaks in the first person singular: "I declare...  I
have  come."  At the conclusion of his historical  review
the  bearer of the bikkurim returns once again, in  verse
10,  to the present, and speaks again in the first person
singular: "And now, behold, I HAVE BROUGHT the  first  of
the fruits of the land which God HAS GIVEN TO ME."

      The  content and structure of the historical speech
in  verses 5-9 is reminiscent of another speech, which we
have  discussed in the past: that of God at the beginning
of parashat Va'era. The similarity between the two is not
coincidental: God's speech represents His undertaking  to
fulfill  that which He promised to the forefathers:  that
their  descendants would be taken out from  the  Egyptian
slavery, that they would be brought to the land and  that
He would give it to them. The speech by the bearer of the
bikkurim   is   the  human  confirmation  made   by   the
descendants,  testifying  to  the  fact  that   God   has
fulfilled His promise to the forefathers: He indeed  took
their descendants out of Egypt, brought them to the  land
and gave it to them.

     Let us analyze the structure of this declaration and
see what we may learn from it. The speech is comprised of
two  equal parts, with verse 7 serving as a central  axis
between them.

PART 1:

  (5)  "My  father was a wandering Aramean, and  he  went
     down  to Egypt and dwelled there few in number,  and
     became there a great, mighty and populous nation.

  (6)   And  the  Egyptians  were  evil  towards  us  and
     afflicted us, and placed upon us hard labor."

PIVOTAL AXIS:

  (7)  "And  we  cried to Hashem, the God of our fathers,
     and  God heard our voices and saw our affliction and
     our labor and our oppression."

PART 2:

  (8)  "And God took us out of Egypt, with a strong  hand
     and  an  outstretched arm and with great terror  and
     with signs and with wonders.

  (9)  And  He brought us to this place and gave us  this
     land, a land flowing with milk and honey."
    
      What  distinguishes each half from the  other?  The
answer  is quite obvious: the first half describes  HUMAN
ACTION  -  God is not mentioned in this half. The  second
half  describes  DIVINE ACTION: the  exodus  from  Egypt,
God's  leading of Israel "to this place," and His  giving
it to them.

      What  is  the meaning of the absence of God's  name
from  the  first  half  of  the speech?  The  first  half
describes the historical events as being of the  type  in
which God's presence is hidden, where even Israel do  not
perceive His hand. The descent of Ya'akov and his  family
to  Egypt and what happens there to his descendants, both
for  the  good (the miraculous multiplicity) and for  the
bad  (slavery and affliction), represent the  realization
of  God's  decree as made explicit in the "brit bein  ha-
betarim,"  but God did not reveal Himself to  His  nation
throughout that long period.

      This break comes to a halt in the "central axis" of
the speech: the turning point takes place when Israel are
at  their lowest point: "And we cried to Hashem, the  God
of  our  fathers." In the wake of Bnei Yisrael's  cry  to
God,  "God  heard our voices and saw our affliction."  In
the   central  axis  of  the  speech  we  see  a   mutual
relationship  being established between God  and  Israel:
the  "hester panim" (hiding of God's face) is  over,  but
the   execution  of  the  necessary  action  is  not  yet
described here. It is only in the second half that  God's
awesome historical act is revealed, redeeming His  nation
from  Egypt  and  bringing  them  to  the  land  for   an
inheritance.  Thus the central axis of  verse  7  is  the
outgrowth  of  verse 6 in the first  half  -  it  is  the
affliction  and hard labor that give rise to the  cry  to
God  -  and this in turn is the cause of verse 8  in  the
second  half  -  when  God hears the  cry  and  sees  the
affliction,  that  gives rise to His  historical  action:
"And God took us out of Egypt..."

      There is a clear contrasting chiastic structure  in
this  speech, of the form A-B-C-B-A. Verse  5  opens  the
speech  with the wanderings of the forefathers in  Canaan
and  their descent to Egypt; verse 9 concludes the speech
with  their descendants being brought from Egypt back  to
Canaan.   Verse   6   describes  the   Egyptians'   cruel
mistreatment  of  the Israelites; verse 8,  in  contrast,
describes God's removal of His people from Egypt and  his
punishment of their oppressors.

      The  background to the entire speech is undoubtedly
the brit bein ha-betarim which God made with Avraham (the
"covenant  between the pieces," Bereishit ch. 15).  There
are clear linguistic and thematic connections between the
two.  The  significance of the "bikkurim declaration"  is
therefore  recognition  and gratitude  for  God's  having
fulfilled  the covenant He made with Avraham.  Therefore,
the  section  of  the Pesach Haggada which  expounds  the
"bikkurim declaration" is preceded by the following:

   "Blessed  is  He  who  keeps His  promise  to  Israel,
   Blessed  be  He. For the Holy One calculated  what  He
   would  do in the end, as He said to Avraham our father
   in the brit bein ha-betarim..."

IV. THE SPECIAL CONNECTION BETWEEN BIKKURIM AND THE
LAND

      Why was it specifically bikkurim, of all the "first
gifts," that were chosen to serve as the vehicle for  our
gratitude  to God for the gift of the land? The  bikkurim
combine two qualities which are not found together in the
other "first" gifts brought from the produce of the land,
and it is these qualities that make this mitzva special.

     Firstly,  the  bikkurim are brought from  the  seven
species  which  are the epitome of the  praise  of  Eretz
Yisrael. Secondly, the farmer has a special affection  of
the  fruits that are the first to ripen; he awaits  their
appearance  with  great  excitement.   Yishayahu   (28:4)
describes the anticipation:

   "Like  the  first ripe fig before summer  which,  when
   one  sees  it, he swallows it up while it is still  in
   his hand."

But  the Israelite farmer does not treat his first fruit,
the joy of his heart, in this way:

   "A  person goes down to his field and sees a fig  that
   has  ripened, a cluster of grapes that has ripened  or
   a  pomegranate  that has ripened - he  ties  a  thread
   around  them  and says, 'Behold, these are bikkurim!'"
   (Mishna Bikkurim 3:1)

      The  bikkurim of the seven species with which Eretz
Yisrael  is  blessed  are therefore the  essence  of  the
praise  and beauty of the land, and bringing them to  the
Temple  as  a  'mincha' offering to  God  expresses  most
appropriately our gratitude to Him for having given us  a
beautiful  land  that  gives forth its  fruit  with  such
generosity.

      This  answers the third question we  asked  at  the
outset:  Why  do  we bring bikkurim only from  the  seven
species? In light of this, we can also explain that other
laws that are unique to the mitzva of bikkurim:

      1)  The  "bikkurim declaration" is meant to clarify
the  special reason for the mitzva of bringing  bikkurim,
which is unlike the reason for the other "first" mitzvot.

      2)  The  crux  of  the reason  for  the  mitzva  of
bikkurim, which is an expression of gratitude to God  for
the  gift  of  the  land, lies not in the  fact  that  it
represents one of the twenty-four gifts given to the  koh
but  rather in the fact that it is a 'MINCHA' TO GOD  Who
gives  the land. The kohanim consume the bikkurim in  the
same  way  as  they  have the merit  of  consuming  other
offerings  brought to the Temple. For  this  reason,  the
mitzva  depends  on  the existence  of  the  Temple.  The
destruction of the Temple was a (temporary) disruption of
God's  gift of the land to Israel. When this halt occurs,
the mitzva of bikkurim cannot continue.

     4) Even when Israel dwell in the land and the Temple
stands, the obligation of bringing bikkurim applies  only
to the person who brings them from his own portion of the
land. Ownership of the fruits is not in itself sufficient
reason  for the obligation; the owner of the fruit  needs
to  be a partner in Israel's inheritance of the land.  If
the  fruits grew on land which was not his own, then they
do not provide sufficient basis for his gratitude for the
gift of the land.

(Translated by Kaeren Fish)

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