Ki Tavo 1

Thank You:

This week's parsha starts off with the halacha of bekurim (first fruits). The halacha is that each person must bring the first fruit of his crop the the beit hamikdash and give it to the kohen. While doing this the person has to recite a few pasukim (26:5-10). These pasukim have basically nothing at all to do with fruit. These pasukim mention Lavan trying to trick Yaakov, the exile to Mitzriam, our geulah from Mitzriam, our entering of the land, and then finally about fruit from the land that Hashem gave us. Why do we need to mention all of this back story to bringing bekurim? What is even more weird is the fact that these are the pasukim quoted by the Haggadah. What is going on here?

I have previously explained (back on pesach) that Rav Brevda in his sefer Leil Shimurim breaks down the night of Pesach into two categories: 1) the fact that we went from being slaves to Paro to being Hashem's slaves and 2) that we must show hakarat hatov (recognizing the good) to Hashem for all the good He has done for us.

Imagine for a moment that you are a doctor. You have a patient who needs a quadruple bi-pass heart surgery and if it is not performed immediately the patient will die. You begin surgery and something goes wrong you think you are about to lose him but then you do some quick thinking and you fix the problem. After several hours of surgery and a few weeks recuperating the person is back on his feet. All you can think about is the fact that you saved this person's life. If not for you this person would be dead, look how great you are. Let us look at another example. You are a farmer. In the summer you come out and plow your field. After a few days of plowing your field is ready for planting. Now you take a few days and plant all of the seeds. Now there are many months of watering the fields as you wait for it to grow. Finally after almost a year of waiting your field begins to grow. Now who would say is the one who caused the fruit to grow. Most people would you did all the work so therefore you get the credit.

However this is not true. The mitzvah of bikurim is teaching us that as much work as we put in we are not the ones that cause anything to happen. As much effort as we put in all of the results come from Hashem. For this reason we must be thankful to Hashem for giving us everything we have, even if we think we deserve it because of all of the work we did. This is the reason why a person recites all of these pasukim about what Hashem did for us. We are showing Hashem that we realize that everything is from Him and we must thank Him for everything He did for us. This is also the reason why this parsha is read on the night of the seder. Because it shows all of the things that Hashem did for us and it is gives us more to thank Him for on the night of the seder. This may also be the reason why we read this parsha every year so close to the end of the year. It is to remind us that we must think about all of the good that we have had in the last year and we must thank Hashem for all of it.

Nature is Against Us:

When Hashem promised Avraham a son (through Sara) at the Brit Ben HaBitarim Avraham responded that he saw in the stars that he would not have a child with Sara. Hashem told him that Avraham was not like the rest of the nations, Avraham was above the stars. There is a chazal that says that from this moment on the angels were forever constantly against the Jews. The reason was because they were nature and the Jews were against nature. As I have explained earlier (again in the pesach email), when the Jews were in Mitzriam Bilam put a curse on them that they could never leave Mitzriam. Therefore, it was not possible by any natural means for the Jews to leave Mitzriam. This is why Hashem had to remove them with His own hand, because only He could fight against nature. So even though we have survived for thousands of years the angels still hate us for changing nature. Therefore, if there is ever a moment when we fall the angels will try to push nature upon us. The problem is that nature means our total destruction because we do not exist naturally. This is the meaning of the blessings and the curses in this week's parsha. When we follow the Torah Hashem will give us everything we need. He will feed us and protect us. But once we stop following Hashem we are letting the angels get power over us. Once they have that they will try anything they can to destroy us and this is the curses. Many people think that the blessings in this week's parsha are what is supposed to be nature and the curses are the extraordinary. Really it is the exact opposite, our everyday lives in this world is extraordinary and our complete destruction is natural. Therefore, our only way to protect ourselves is through following Hashem's ways.

The Guf's Rebellion:

If we remember back to last week (and the week before) we will remember that the Gra explains that man in the torah represents the neshama and the woman represents the guf. So in this week's parsha (28:56) the pasuk says "The tender and delicate woman among you, who had never tried to set the sole of her foot on the ground, because of delicacy and tenderness, will turn selfish against the husband of her bosom..." This pasuk is talking about one of the many curses in this week's parsha. But I think there may be a deeper meaning to it. I think it is talking about the fact that do to the fact that everyone is evil many bad things will happen to everyone. Even the righteous will stumble. This pasuk means that even the guf that has not touched the ground (gotten any pleasure from this world) will rebel against its neshama and look for pleasure. That the power of tumah will be so strong that the neshama will not be able to control the guf any longer.

Chativa V'Chatima Tova, Have a great Shabbat!