Ki Savo - 1st Portion

Join me as we learn kumish for Sunday paras. That's the first Torah reading of paraso chapter 26 verse1. Last week's Torah reading we con concluded with learning many of the mitzvah. As we mentioned there were 74 mitzvah in last week's Torah reading. This week we continue with some of the mitzvah. Today we begin with the mitzvah of the first fruit. When the Jewish people come into the land of Israel and conquer the land of Israel, they will be obligated to bring from the first fruits to the holy temple and give it to the Cohen and say a confession as we'll read and will be when you enter the land that God your God is giving to you as an inheritance. You must and you will uh and you will inherit it and you must take possession. You will take possession of it and you will settle in it. The very fact that the Torah uses the terminology you will settle in it. Rashi says verse one that teaches us that they only were obligated to bring the first fruit asur which is the mitzvah of bringing the first fruit to the holy temple. Only once they conquered the land of Israel and it was divided then according to all the tribes. What is the process of bringing the first fruits? Verse two. You must take from the first of all these special fruits that you will bring from your land from your earth that God your God gives you. You'll then place them all these fruits in a basket and you'll go to the place that God will choose to rest his name there meaning the holy temple. You didn't bring all the first fruits only from the first fruits teaching us not all fruits are obligated to bring first fruits to the holy temple only from the seven special kinds that the land of Israel was blessed with. How do I know this? Because it says over here uses the word [snorts] and it also says in the other place where we live previously in chapter 8 verse 8 to say to the land that was blessed with wheat, barley and so on in the seven kinds just like over there when it uses the terminology it's referring to the special seven special kinds of fruits that the land of Israel was blessed with. So too here when it comes to the mitzvah of bikur and bringing the first fruit [snorts] which is the and the purpose of bringing it is to show the praise and the specialty of the uniqueness of the land of Israel which that is expressed by the seven special kinds that the land of Israel was blessed with and therefore he's telling us that it's only these seven kinds that you bring from not all of the kinds. Narashi also mentions that previously we said the word z and olive oil meaning this was a special olive oil that the olives had in it. It means it was a unique kind of olives that it grew in the land of Israel that it was able to be saturated and held the oil there so much that it was considered as if it was uh it was bound in it if you want to call it. And it was so good that they were able to uh just squeeze a little bit of it and get beautiful oil from it. And so to the honey that's mentioned in the seven kinds that's talking about honey which comes from dates not honey that comes from bees from the first fruit. How does a person know which were first? So therefore the sages tell us when it tells us about the laws of a person would go at the beginning of once the field once the fruit start to ripen. He would go down to his field and he would see a fig or any fruit that starts to ripen. He would put on it like a rubber band or then they would use some type of grass that was used for tying as a sign and they say, "Oh, this is the first fruit and therefore it would be considered." Verse three and you will come to the will be in those days. heart. You'll tell me I come today. I I've come today. I declare today to God our God because I came to the land. I've come to the land that God has swore to our forefathers to give us what does it mean that in those days you think going that lived a thousand years ago. What is he talking about? Meaning that the cohen regardless whether he's important or not [clears throat] important he is the cohen of that time and therefore he has to be respected and he is the one that you have to bring the to love you'll tell the cohen meaning the reason why you bring it you're showing a concept of reciprocation is an individual who does not show kindness or good for somebody that has done good to him meaning that if somebody was kind to you and you don't reciprocate or you don't acknowledge or appreciate the kindness that was done. That's considered a kafa. And therefore, the Torah tells us that when we come over here, we declare it because we're showing God we appreciate the good that our crop is growing. I announce today. Why today? What does it mean today? Meaning once a year meaning that even if afterwards a person has to bring other the first fruit from his field, he only states the statement once and never again that year. Verse four, the coin will then take the basket from your hand and he will pay and he will place it before the altar of your god. Why does he take it? And over here there was a certain way that they would wave as they would wave all the other sacrifice to uplift it. The Cohen would put his hands underneath the hands of the owners and then he would wave it to all the four directions of the world. Four directions and then up and down. Verse five, you must then raise your voice and declare before God your God that an Araan was the destroyer of our forefathers. We went down to Egypt and we dwelt there and we small number of people that were there. However, now we became great and mighty mighty and populous nation there. Van what does it mean? You will pronounce you have to raise your voice when you say it. Armenian wanted to kill our forefathers because of mentioning the kindness that God has done with the Jewish people. David who is theite that wanted to kill our forefather which is love who came from the place called he wanted to destroy uproot and get rid of who's all when he chased after Jacob our forefather and he wanted to kill him so that would be the entire Jewish nation [snorts] because he intended to do so even though he never actually did it God considers as if he did Because God considers whenever the nations of the world plan and sought and ought to do something against the Jewish people, even though it's a negative intent, God considers as if they did it. And even though by the Jewish people, a negative intent is not considered action. Only a good intent, God brings it to action. However, by the nations of the world, God looks at a negative intent, a negative thought, and looks at it as an action as well. It's not only they love and that wanted to kill us. There were many others that tried to kill us because after that Jacob went down to Egypt and we became slaves in Egypt with a small nation with a small number only 70 people. Verse six, and the Egyptians made our lives difficult, treated us cruy when they afflicted us. And they gave and they imposed upon us hard labor. Verse seven when he cried out to God our God when God heard our voice and he saw our opp toil and our oppression. Verse 8. And God took us out of the land of Egypt with an outstretched with a with a mighty hand with an outstretched arm and with a and with great awe and with signs and with marvels. Verse n. And he brought and he brought us to this place. And he gave us this land, a land that flows with milk and honey. What is this place? That's referring to the holy temple. And he gave us the land. Exactly what it means. He gave us the land, the land of Israel. Verse 10. Behold, I've brought the first of my fruit of the ground of the ground that God has given me and I place it here before God. You will place it before God your God. And then you must prostrate yourself before God your God. means that the owners take it after the cohen lifts it together with the owners of the fruit. The owners then take back the basket and they are the ones that place it on the altar that he holds it with his hand and he holds the fruit in his hand as he makes that declaration that we mentioned previously. He then continues the owners go and pick it up and pull place it back onto the altar. Verse 11. You will rejoice with all the good that God has gi God your God has given you and to your household you and the Levite and the convert to convert who is amongst you from here we know that we only read that the time when a person has the ability to read this declaration about the first fruit can only be a time of rejoicing. When is that time of rejoicing? From until that time is a time of collecting harvest and then gathering the fruit and his wheat and his wine and his oil and therefore a person's rejoicing by the very fact that he has that so much stuff has grown. However, from sukus and onward maybe he is still obligated to bring the fruit but he will not make that declaration and the ley the ley was also obligated to bring first fruit if they planted any type of fruit in their cities they would be obligated to bring the first fruit to the as well however the g maybe he brings but he cannot make the declaration because the convert The convert cannot say that it was to his forefathers because since he is only he is not from and they were not under the rule of being killed by and they were not enslaved in Egypt. So therefore he does not have the obligation to make that declaration. This concludes the first Torah reading of paras kisafi.