Netvort Parshas Ki Savo 5770:   Perennial Fruit
By Rabbi Joshua (constantly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In the beginning of parshas Ki Savo we are presented with the mitzvah of bikkurim, which calls for the farmer in Eretz Yisroel to bring the first fruits of his crop to the Temple and declare a statement of thanks to God for bringing him into the land and giving him Hs produce. There is an interesting passage in the Midrash Tanchuma which says that Moshe looked into the future and saw that the Temple would be destroyed and the mitzvah of bikkurim would be suspended, albeit on a temporary basis until the Temple will be rebuilt.  He therefore instituted that a Jew should pray to God three times a day. Rav Moshe Tzi Neriah, in his work Ner La Amor, cites this midrash and asks how prayer is able to replace bikkurim in the sense of providing the inspiration that bikkurim, when operative, supplied?  What is the connection between these two seemingly disparate institutions?

Rav Neriah answers that when the Torah describes the process of bringing bikkurim and reciting the relevant section of the Torah, the farmer is depicted as reciting it before God, meaning, in God's presence. Through the mitzvah of bikkurim, then, the farmer is given an opportunity to stand before God and speak to Him. This is exactly how Rav Chaim Soloveichik of Brisk, known as Rav Chaim Brisker, describes the process of prayer, as well.  Rav Chaim writes that according to the Rambam in his Mishneh Torah in the section of Laws of Prayer, if a person does not have in mind when saying the shemoneh esreh - the central prayer of our thrice-daily services - that he is standing in the presence of God, he has not fulfilled his obligation, and must say the shemoneh esreh over again.  The essence of prayer, according to Rav Chaim, is speaking to God, and if one recites his prayers without having this in mind he has in effect not prayed at all. Since both bikkurim and prayer are processes that are done in the presence of God, then, one can serve the function of the other.

I would like to add to Rav Neriah's remarks the comments of Rav Yehudah HaLevi in his Kuzari, that the truly pious person, the chasid, sees his entire day as revolving around the time he spends praying to God. The chasid does not simply live his life and take time out three times a day to pray.  Rather, the central focus of his life is his relationship with God, and every time he prays he renews that relationship. That experience sustains the relationship until the next time he prays.  We may add that this is why, according to Rabbi Eliezer Walldman, prayer is called, in connection with Yitzchak (towards the end of parshas Chayei Sarah) 'sicha' - a conversation - because it is really part of a person's ongoing conversation with God. Rabbi Moshe Isserles, in his glosses to the beginning of the section of the Shulchan Aruch - the Jewish code of Law - that deals with the laws of daily living - Orach Chaim - cites the Rambam in the Moreh Ha Nevochim (Guide to the Perplexed) who says that a person should view himself as constantly standing in the presence of God. This is consistent with the Rambam's understanding of prayer as explained by Rav Chaim Brisker and taken as reflective of an ongoing relationship with God, as described by Rav Yehuda Ha Levi.

The process of bringing bikkurim, as well, is indicative of an ongoing relationship with God. The essence of the mitzvah is to give gratitude to Him for all the goodness He has bestowed upon us. The farmer is bidden to read the section of the Torah which recounts Yaakov's descent into Egypt with his sons, the nation's enslavement there and its redemption and entrance into Eretz Yisroel, to the extent  of settling there and producing a crop.  What was the purpose of recapitulating this history of the nation?  I believe that the idea here is that by reviewing the history of the process that eventually led to the growth of the new fruit, the farmer is able to see these events in perspective and realize that many things which happened over the years that seemed, at first, as bad were, in truth, good and worthy of giving gratitude to God. The eventual goal is to realize that God is constantly doing small miracles for us, which is actually what we say three times a day in shemoneh esreh when we thank God for the miracles that He performs for us each day. The very fact that we remain alive, that we are able to breathe, as the rabbis tell us, is the greatest gift of all, and worthy of our constant expression gratitude to God.  This awareness, sparked by the bringing of bikkurim, should inform our daily lives.  When Moshe foresaw the suspension of this mitzvah in the wake of the destruction of the Temple, he instituted prayer three times a day, as a means of maintaining this ongoing awareness of living in God's presence and appreciating all that He does for us on a constant basis.

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