"You will go to the priest who will be in those days, and say to him, 'I declare today to HaShem your God that I am come to the land that HaShem swore to our fathers to give us.'" (Devarim 26:3)
Imagine. Hundreds of years after the exodus, when the Beit HaMikdash stood, farmers would bring the first fruit of their harvest as offerings. They would stand before the altar, tell the story of their ancestors and how they had became a nation in spite of tremendous hardships, and how HaShem had saved the nation at every turn. Then, with hearts overflowing with gratitude, each person would publicly affirm his individual relationship to the land of his fathers: "I declare today... that I come to this land."
Each individual would acknowledge that, though he had labored intensively in his fields, the resulting fruits were a gift from God, and that his life and those of his ancestors were guided from the beginning by the One Above. The start of his harvest would recall the beginning of his existence as a Jew.
These fruits were brought to the Beit HaMikdash because they were more than mere physical sustenance: they were a Divine gift, no less a gift than redemption from bondage in Egypt, miracles at the sea and even the gift of the land itself. The first fruits of the land of Israel served as a reminder to "rejoice in every good thing HaShem has given you." (Devarim 26:11)
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Rebbetzin Holly Pavlov is the director of She'arim College of Jewish Studies for Women in Jerusalem. She made aliyah in 1983 from Silver Spring, Maryland, where she taught in the Yeshiva of Greater Washington. She is the author of Mirrors of Lives: Reflections of Women in Tanach (Targum, 2000), and the forthcoming Water from the Well: Reflections of a Jew at the End of History (Targum, 2005). She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and children.
Imagine. Hundreds of years after the exodus, when the Beit HaMikdash stood, farmers would bring the first fruit of their harvest as offerings. They would stand before the altar, tell the story of their ancestors and how they had became a nation in spite of tremendous hardships, and how HaShem had saved the nation at every turn. Then, with hearts overflowing with gratitude, each person would publicly affirm his individual relationship to the land of his fathers: "I declare today... that I come to this land."
Each individual would acknowledge that, though he had labored intensively in his fields, the resulting fruits were a gift from God, and that his life and those of his ancestors were guided from the beginning by the One Above. The start of his harvest would recall the beginning of his existence as a Jew.
These fruits were brought to the Beit HaMikdash because they were more than mere physical sustenance: they were a Divine gift, no less a gift than redemption from bondage in Egypt, miracles at the sea and even the gift of the land itself. The first fruits of the land of Israel served as a reminder to "rejoice in every good thing HaShem has given you." (Devarim 26:11)
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Rebbetzin Holly Pavlov is the director of She'arim College of Jewish Studies for Women in Jerusalem. She made aliyah in 1983 from Silver Spring, Maryland, where she taught in the Yeshiva of Greater Washington. She is the author of Mirrors of Lives: Reflections of Women in Tanach (Targum, 2000), and the forthcoming Water from the Well: Reflections of a Jew at the End of History (Targum, 2005). She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and children.