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Parshat Ki Tavo
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Uniting with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

כי תבא אל הארץ

“Father in Heaven! Have mercy upon us... and allow us with Your tremendous kindness to arise quickly to the Land of Israel, and we shall merit to serve You there truly with awe and love...” (Likutei Tfilot I 9)

The true service of God with awe and love is most greatly developed in our Holy Land. It is in this Land that the first fruits, mentioned at the beginning of this week's parsha, are brought to the Temple in which we are commanded to accentuate our awe of HaShem and His Presence in this holy location. It is also with these first fruits of the Holy Land that we are commanded to be happy before God, as it says at the end of the first fruit section, 'and you shall be happy with all the good  that HaShem your God has given you.'

Happiness, as extensively explained by the famous figure of Hebron, the Reshit Hochma, is especially attached to the attribute of love in regard to HaShem. Simply explained, when one loves HaShem one feels a closeness to Him (in contrast to awe where one feels hierarchical distance), causing one to notice and be happy with all the Providence HaShem has bestowed upon him and upon the world at large. Awe and love towards God are also accentuated when one contemplates the laws of the Torah.

As such, let us contemplate shortly on some of the detailed laws of the mitzva we have begun to discuss, the First Fruits. Rambam rules in the laws of Bikurim that there four essential components in the bringing of the Bikurim to the Bais HaMikdash. These components are: 1. to offer an animal as a sacrifice via the Kohen with the First Fruits, 2. that the Leviim sing in concurrence of offering the First Fruits, 3. that the First Fruits be lifted up as an offering by their owner (presumably an Israelite) and the Kohen together, 4. that the owner of the First Fruits sleep that night in sanctified Jerusalem.

Contemplating the first three components, we clearly see a parallel to the three main groups that comprise the People of Israel: Kohanim, Levites, and Israelites, each one taking its special place in the spiritual 'symphony' surrounding the First Fruit offering. If so, what does the fourth component have to do with all this? In the past we have shown how the three groups of Israel parallel our three fathers, the Kohanim parallel Avraham, the Levites - Yitzhak, and the Israelites - Yaakov. Later in this week's parsha the Torah tells us that after all the tribulations of Exile HaShem will yet still remember the covenant with 'Yaakov, with Isaac, with Avraham, and also the Land I shall remember'. This verse ties the Land with the three Fathers in a way that turns the Land into a fourth component in Divine 'memory' so-to-speak. Thus, the fourth component in Bikurim, sleeping in Jerusalem, alludes to this very fourth component of Divine 'memory', the devotion to this holy location, this holy Land, by sleeping the night in this Holy City.

By triggering these four components of Divine 'memory' in the First Fruits our Sages say that indeed Israel will be given the merit to continue settling in this  Land. Of course all these components come together so naturally in Hebron, Beacon of the Land of Israel, City of our Patriarchs, the first Jewish settlement - the 'First Fruits' so to speak of the Land of Israel.   

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #135

"Over a number of shaboses a particular guest to our synagogue promised a sum of 280 NIS to be called up for various aliot to the Torah. One day, I happened to meet this guest, and since I am in charge of collecting donations, I asked him to pay what he had promised. To this he answered that he doesn't have the cash on him, but that he would be willing to pay bills of the synagogue by credit card. I jotted down his details and later told what had happened to my friend from the synagogue committee, who stared at me open-mouthed. Subsequently, he pulled out of his pocket the synagugue's electric bill which stood at exactly 280 NIS." A.G

Sources: Rambam Bikurim 4, 1

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