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Parshat Vayikra
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו 

Uniting with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land 

"כל חלב לה'"

"Praise O Jerusalem HaShem, Laud Your God O Zion. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates and has blessed your children in your midst. Who has put peace in your borders, the choicest ('helev') of wheat He shall satisfy you.” (Psukei dezimra)

Our People are called “the children of Zion”, for, as we have explained before, Zion, dominion of the Holy Presence, gives 'birth' to our People, enlightening our souls with the light of God. Thus, 'peace' - 'Shalom', considered a name of God, rests in our borders, for all are united in the Godly light shining from Truly One. In this reality the 'choicest of wheat' of our Holy Land satisfies us, for it has absorbed the Godly light of the Holy Land, and can therefore truly give our souls satisfaction. Just as HaShem provides us with the choicest, so too are we supposed to elevate the choicest of what we have towards HaShem.

An example of this concept is in this week's parsha which commands us to bring the choicest  fats of the sacrifices - 'helev' - to HaShem upon the altar. The term 'helev' in general refers to the choicest, and is exactly the same term used in the term 'the choicest of wheat' above. Indeed, as befitting the fore-mentioned contemplation on the produce/wheat of the Holy Land, we are, in-turn, commanded to give the choicest produce when separating Truma. So Rambam rules, that one is to give the choicest/good-looking produce as truma to the Kohen, unless the Kohen is not present in which case one is to take from the most long-lasting part of the produce (so it can survive to be brought to the Kohen eventually). However, in today's reality, when truma is respectfully put aside and not to the Kohen (for numbers of reasons), the Shulhan Aruch rules that it is not necessary to separate the choicest for truma. Nevertheless, the Shulhan Aruch goes on to say that one should still separate the choicest for Maaser to the Levi, for maaser is still given today to the Levite. Just as there are levels of superiority in the fruits of the Land, this Land itself also ranks as superior over all other lands.

On the verse, “and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan of Egypt” our Sages remark that this verse comes to tell that Hebron was choicest even more than Zoan of Egypt by seven levels/'years'. Maharal explains that this comes to teach that not only Hebron, but also the entire Land of Israel which contains Hebron, has 'a superior Godly level' in parallel to its 'physical' superiority described in the verse. This is Hebron, the Beacon of the Land of Israel, one of the choicest of cities. 

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #112:

“One month, my bank account was under overdraft, and my credit card was in danger of bouncing the very next day. Desperately, I contacted my work to pay me early, so this would not happen. However, just then I was notified that I just 'happened' to receive a tax-return, covering my deficit and amounting to more than a 1000 NIS more than my monthly salary.” (R.M)

Sources: Rambam Trumot 5, 1, Maharal Gur Aryeh Bamidbar 13, 22

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