A Sacred Observance to Cure A World of Ills

The Seven Species: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, & dates. Photo: ChatGPT.

by Leonard Grunstein

9/15/2025, 10:16:04 PM

The sacred Biblical rite of Bikurim (First Fruits)[i] is not just a mundane observance. It is infused with spiritual significance.

It begins with the earliest manifestations of what will hopefully be a bountiful harvest. The farmer is commanded to select and pick just some of the best of the early produce of grapes, figs and pomegranates or any of the other remaining types of grain or fruits comprising the Seven Species native to Israel[ii] and bring them to Jerusalem to gift to the Kohen then serving there, as outlined below.

The introductory verse speaks of the time when the Jewish people come to Israel to inherit the land that G-d gave them as their inheritance. They are commanded to posses and develop it. They are then to take some of the first fruits yielded by and harvested from this land that G-d vested in the Jewish people and place it in a basket. This unique commandment does not apply to any land owned outside of Israel.

The farmer is then to take the basket of fruit and bring it to the place of the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) in Jerusalem and go to the Kohen then serving there and loudly declare that day to Hashem, I have come to the land that Hashem swore to our Patriarchs[iii] to vest in us.

The Kohen then takes the fruit basket from his hand and places it before the Holy Altar dedicated to Hashem and the farmer then recites before Hashem, the following:

An Aramean [Lavan] tried to destroy my father [Jacob][iv].

He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great, strong and very populous nation.

The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us.

We cried to G-d, the G-d of our ancestors, and G-d heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression.

G-d freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm and with awesome power, and with miraculous signs and wonders.

And brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil, which you, G-d, have given me.

The farmer then sets down the fruit basket before Hashem and bows low before G-d.

The ceremony concludes and the farmer is commanded to enjoy together with the Levite and Ger in the farmer’s midst, all the bounty that Hashem, our G-d, has bestowed upon him and his household.

It’s a glorious celebration of gratitude to G-d, for the blessings of material bounty received in the physical realm. We not only thank G-d, by recounting the fundamental historical events that brought us to this momentous occasion, we share the material success with others. It is a poignant expression of our essential tradition and mission in life, of integrating the physical and spiritual. By means of this ritual, we, in essence, symbolically elevate the physical to the spiritual.

Implicit in this observance is the recognition that G-d is the source of this bounty[v]. It is suggested that the ceremonial declarations noted above provide an additional insight into the nature of our relationship with G-d. We recite how we went from being free individuals sojourning in Egypt to being enslaved. This caused us to be servants to human masters, disrupting the ideal of being servants only to G-d. We have only one Lord and the concept of intermediary worship is an anathema. Being restored by G-d to our own land, in Israel, and working the land, with our own hands, and being rewarded with the blessings from G-d of a bounteous harvest, is the very essence of our classic Jewish tradition. We are servants of G-d[vi] and not servants to servants[vii].

Rav Menachem Ziemba, a distinguished rabbi, who was murdered by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, provided an amazing insight into the Mitzva of Bikurim[viii]. He posited, based on the mystical teachings of the Arizal[ix], that the performance of the Mitzva of Bikurim was a means for repairing (Tikun) the Sin of the Spies (Meraglim). He explains that the Meraglim defamed the Land of Israel and the Mitzva of Bikurim was given because of love of the Land. He notes that there is a hint to this connection in the Mishna[x]. It provides an example of how the Mitzva is triggered each year, by referencing how the farmer goes down to his field and sees a fig that ripened early, or a grape cluster that ripened early or a pomegranate that ripened early. He notes these are the very three types of fruits that the Meraglim brought back from the Land of Israel. He offers that this was no accident and the intent was to allude to the linkage between Bikurim and the Sin of the Spies.

It is suggested that there are also more nuanced philosophical connections, which help explain why Bikurim represents a quintessential example of our mission to integrate the physical and spiritual. Consider Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter[xi], the first Gerer Rebbe, known as the Chiddushe HaRim[xii], analysis of the goal of the Ten Meraglim. He describes how the Ten Meraglim sought to frustrate everyone leaving the idyllic existence they enjoyed in the wilderness. He notes that life in the wilderness was not so bad. G-d miraculously provided everything they needed, without having to work for it. They received the miraculous manna from heaven as sustenance and ample water by way of Miriam’s miraculous traveling well. They lived a virtually spiritual existence and were able wholly to devote themselves to Torah study. The Ten reasoned how would everyone be able to maintain this elevated level of spirituality once the people had to work hard for a living, as farmers in the new land[xiii]? In essence the Ten had no confidence in the people being able both to work for a living and elevate themselves spiritually, including studying Torah and performing the Mitzvot.

This is so unlike our Sages, who counseled in Ethics of the Fathers[xiv] that excellent is the study of the Torah when combined with a worldly occupation, for toil in them both keeps sin out of one’s mind. However, study of the Torah that is not combined with a worldly occupation, in the end comes to be neglected and becomes the cause of sin. I can’t help but wonder how history might have been changed for the better, had the Ten been inculcated with this lesson, instead of their pretentious bias, before setting out on their tour of and fact-finding mission in Israel.

The Ten Meraglim and most of their generation, who they were able to influence with this philosophy, misapprehended the very nature of our existence on this world and how genuine faith in G-d is manifested. Our mission is both to live a natural life in this world and inculcate it with spirituality. This may sound esoteric; but the Torah provides a guide for how this is accomplished through performance of the commandments.

Faith is demonstrated by a farmer every planting season, when the land is plowed and the seeds are planted. There is no assurance that the seeds will mature into crops and yet a farmer with confidence goes about the task of doing so, as an article of faith. Faith is strengthened by seeing that labor rewarded at harvest time. Yet, even when the results are not as bounteous as the farmer might have hoped for, the planting cycle begins again. That is true faith and similarly, a businessperson embarking on a new venture. Indeed, the copious efforts made by so many to develop and improve this world are based on a most optimistic assumption that they will succeed, which at its heart is a matter of faith. As Einstein noted, there are two ways to live your life; one is as though nothing is a miracle and the other is as though everything is a miracle. He also noted G-d does not play dice with the universe.

How as a practical matter do we imbue the physical aspects of life with spirituality? The Shelah[xv] derives a template based on proximity of the Sin of the Spies to the Mitzvah of Challah, which requires setting aside a piece of the dough to be baked into bread, as a gift to the Kohanim. Making bread is a quintessential act of human creativity. It doesn’t exist in nature. The basic ingredients are natural; wheat, water and yeast. However, the wheat first has to be ground into flour and then combined with water and yeast and kneaded into dough and permitted to rise. It’s then formed into the shapes that will be transformed into bread, once baked. The result, when eaten, nurtures the body. Setting aside a piece of the dough for the Kohanim nurtures the soul. This is the essence of our mission on earth. We live a physical life; but devote a part of it to helping others. It is how we make the ordinary extraordinary. The Sefat Emet[xvi] notes that the requirement to wash hands before eating the bread is another method by which we imbue this process with sanctity. In this regard, it is suggested that the requirement to make a blessing both before and after eating also imbues spirituality into what might otherwise be a mundane aspect of ordinary life.

The Mitzvah of hospitality also takes on a special meaning in this context. As Avot D’Rabbi Natan[xvii] reports, in a world where we no longer have the Holy Temple and sacrifices to offer for atonement, Gemillat Chesed serves this same important function. The Talmud[xviii] expresses a similar concept, by noting so long as the Temple stood, the sacrificial Altar facilitated atonement for the Jewish people. Now, a person’s dining table has taken the place of the Altar in the Holy Temple and it provides atonement through the Mitzvah of feeding the poor[xix] or guests[xx].

Interestingly, the Midrash[xxi] records that Moses foresaw prophetically that the Holy Temple would be destroyed and, as a result, the Bikurim ceremony would lapse. He, therefore, instituted our prayer ritual three times a day in its place. The Midrash goes on the state that prayer is more precious to G-d than all the sacrifices. The Sefat Emet[xxii], citing his grandfather, the Chiddushe HaRim, notes that in our daily prayer, like the Bikurim ritual, we also recount how G-d miraculously took us out of slavery in Egypt, gave us the Torah and vested us with Israel. Daily prayers and these reminders deepen our connection to Hashem, the source of our renewal and material success.

The lessons of the Sin of the Spies are cogent. Life outside of Israel may be expedient; but don’t make the same mistake the Ten Mergalim did in believing an unnatural existence and life outside of Israel was an ideal. Our mission in this world is to combine the physical and spiritual and there is no place more conducive to expressing this ideal in practice than in Israel. Moses so yearned to be there because it’s the only place where all the Mitzvot can be fully performed[xxiii]. Whether we are there now or not, support its existence. The agenda driven need to find fault with it is an anathema and led to the cataclysmic destruction of an entire generation. Let’s not make the same mistake.

Let’s focus our energies on the positive and make the ordinary extraordinary.

—

[i] Deuteronomy 26: 1-11, at the beginning of Parshat Ki Tavo.

[ii] The Seven Species (Sheva Minim) are described in Deuteronomy 8:8 and are comprised of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives that can produce oil and dates that can be processed into honey.

[iii] Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

[iv] This interpretation of the Biblical verse is based on Rashi commentary on Deuteronomy 26:5 and Sifrei Devarim 301.

[v] Sefer HaChinuch, Mitzva 91. Se also, Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, Part III, Section 39.

[vi] Leviticus 25:55.

[vii] BT Bava Kamma 116b and Bava Metzia 10a.

[viii] Chiddushe HaGRM”Z (an acronym, meaning the Gaon, Rav Menachm Ziemba) Siman 50.

[ix] Rabbi Issac Luria, commonly know as the Arizal or the Ari HaKadosh, was a 16th century Kabbalist.

[x] Mishna Bikurim 3:1.

[xi] Chiddushe HaRim on the Torah, Parshat Sh’lach.

[xii] After the title of the work he authored, loosely translated as the Novellae of Harav Yitzchak Meir.

[xiii] See also Sfat Emet on the Torah (Numbers, Sh’lach 10, 14 and 28), by Rav Yehuda Aryeh Leib, the grandson of the Chiddushe HaRim and the next succeeding Gerer Rebbe, who expands on this presentation.

[xiv] Rabban Gamaliel the son of Rabbi Judah Hanasi, in Avot 2:2.

[xv] Shnei Luchot HaBrit, Torah Shebichtav, Sh’lach, Torah Ohr.

[xvi] Sefat Emet on the Torah, Numbers, Sh’lach 10.

[xvii] Avot D’Rabbi Natan 4:5.

[xviii] See Babylonian Talmud, Tractates Brachot (page 55a); Chaggigah (page 27a); and Menachot (page 97a).

[xix] See Maharsha commentary on Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Brachot, page 55a.

[xx] See Rashi and Tosafot commentaries on Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Menachot, at page 97a.

[xxi] Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tavo 1.

[xxii] Sefat Emet on the Torah, Deuteronomy, Ki Tavo, Section 2.

[xxiii] BT Sota 14a.