When you enter the Land that Hashem your G-d gives you…you shall take of the first of every fruit of the ground…and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that Hashem your G-d will choose…[1]
Surprisingly, the Sifrei remarks about this, “Do this mitzvah, for because of it you will enter the Land.” It seems to say that the merit of the mitzvah of bikurim is necessary for the Bnei Yisrael to take possession of Eretz Yisrael. How can that be? The mitzvah did not even begin (as Rashi observes citing the gemara[2]) until after they conquered and divided the Land!
The answer has to do with the eigel hazahav. Before that aveirah, the Bnei Yisrael could have entered the Land on their own merit. After that tragic episode, it was only the merit of the forefathers (and particularly Hashem’s promise to them) that entitled their descendants to possess it.
Who cares whose merit allowed them to get the Land, as long as they got it? Actually, there is a great difference. Ramban[3] points out that the avos were never promised a land of milk and honey! When the Torah speaks in the Maaser Confession[4] of “the ground that You gave us, as You swore to our forefathers,” it does not mean the avos! It means, according to one of his two approaches, our ancestors who left Egypt!
However, this may be begging the question. Why didn’t Hashem promise a land of milk and honey to Avraham Avinu? Why did He wait for a future generation?
Rambam writes in several places[5] that Hashem’s promise of the Land to Avraham’s descendants, as well as all the blessings He tells us about in the first section of tochechah in Bechukosai, are not by way of reward for the performance of mitzvos. Rather, they are support mechanisms, to allow for our proper avodah of Hashem. It is difficult to serve Him properly when we do not have a land and place of our own. Therefore, he gave us the Land of Israel. Moreover, He promised in Bechukosai that if we settled the Land and observed his mitzvos, He would rain other berachos down upon us, so that our distractions from His avodah would be minimalized. All these gifts were given to facilitate our observance, not to reward it.
Yet, even in the best of circumstances, we are forced to spend much of our day attending to various needs. We fall short of the goal of a society maximally involved in avodas Hashem. For this reason, Hashem gave us the shmittah year. We enter the year with all agricultural work closed for business. All people have easy access to whatever grows after the preparations of the year before. Finally, people have an opportunity to spend a considerable amount of time on Torah and avodah!
This is why the Torah points[6] to the lack of observance of shmittah as the cause of all the curses in the tochechah of Bechukosai. Proper observance of shmittah – living a life of Torah-focus, concentration, and diligence – is what justifies Hashem’s original promise of the Land to Avraham! We received the Land only to provide the wherewithal for our full, undistracted avodah.
This also explains why Avraham did not receive the milk-and-honey berachah. He had minimal needs. A land not so blessed would have provided him with all the support he needed to fulfill his holy mission. The generation that left Egypt, however, was far from his level. They wanted – and therefore needed – more abundance to be able to focus on their avodah. Hashem therefore raised the ante, and agreed to support a richer life-style, so long as the people would remember that their major focus had to be on avodah.
Rambam[7] observes that bikurim is a wonderful teaching tool to facilitate taming our desires. After months of very difficult labor, the farmer notices the first fruits that emerge. He takes extraordinary pride in them, and wishes to fully possess and savor them. Instead, the Torah instructs him to take the fruit that gives him so much joy, set off for Yerushalayim, and there give them up in favor of the mitzvah of supporting the kohanim. In other words, avodas Hashem comes first! He tells the kohein, “I have come to the Land that Hashem swore to our avos to give us.”[8] In other words, I have not forgotten that the reason for the original promise of the Land to Avraham – even before the milk-and-honey addition – was not a reward for anything he did. It was meant to allow his descendants to live as ovdei Hashem, understanding that their chief calling in life was not their vocation, but dedicating themselves to His service.
We now understand what the Sifrei meant. The ethos of bikurim, the idea that what Hashem gives us is meant to enable our living a Torah-connected life, is indeed the reason we were allowed to enter and possess the Land.
- Devarim 26:1-2 ↑
- Kiddushin 37b ↑
- Ramban, Devarim 26:15 ↑
- Devarim 26:15 ↑
- See Hilchos Teshuvah 9:1 at length ↑
- Vayikra 26:34 ↑
- Moreh Nevuchim 3:39 ↑
- Devarim 26:3 ↑