פרשת כי תבוא תש"ט - מקרא ביכורים

When you enter After previously saying “when God grants you rest” [25: 19], God now states that there are other commandments which apply before “God grants you rest” — in fact, as soon as you enter the land — namely, first-fruits [: 2 ff], tithes [: 12 ff], the writing of the Torah on stones [27: 2 ff], the building of an altar [27: 5 ff], and the recitation of the blessing and the curse upon the two mountains [27: 12 ff].

זית שמן mentioned as one of these distinguished products is the Agari olive, in which the oil is gathered in one place.

ודבש HONEY is honey of dates (not of bees).

מראשית OF ITS FIRST FRUITS — but not all the first fruits (not even of the seven species mentioned above) but when a man goes into his field and sees for the first time that year a fig that has ripened he binds a piece of straw round it as an indication and says “Lo, this is בכורים" (and it suffices) (Sifrei Devarim 297:7; Mishnah Bikkurim 3:1).

אשר יהיה בימים ההם [AND THOU SHALT GO UNTO THE PRIEST] THAT SHALL BE IN THOSE DAYS — These apparently redundant words suggest: you have none else than the priest who lives in your days (you are only concerned with him) (cf. Sifrei Devarim 298:3; Rosh Hashanah 25b; see also Rashi on Deuteronomy 17:9).

ואל השפט אשר יהיה בימים ההם [AND THOU SHALT COME UNTO THE PRIESTS …] AND UNTO THE JUDGE THAT SHALL BE IN THOSE DAYS — The last apparently redundant words suggest: and even though he is not as eminent as other judges that have been before him, you must obey him — you have none else but the judge that lives in your days (i.e. you are only concerned with him) (Rosh Hashanah 25b).

ואמרת אליו AND SAY UNTO HIM that you are not ungrateful (Sifrei Devarim 299:1).

And thou shalt come unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him: ‘I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the land which the LORD swore unto our fathers to give us.’

Behold, this day thy eyes have seen how the Lord had delivered thee to day into my hand in the cave: and some told me to kill thee: but my eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put out my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord’s anointed.

in that thou lovest thy enemies, and hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared this day, that thou regardest neither princes nor servants: for this day I perceive, that if Avshalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well.

Then he said, I have sinned: yet do me honour now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Yisra᾽el, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God.

It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD thy God hath heard; wherefore make prayer for the remnant that is left.’

And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

ארמי אבד אבי A SYRIAN DESTROYED MY FATHER — He mentions the loving kindness of the Omnipresent saying, ארמי אבד אבי, a Syrian destroyed my father, which means: “Laban wished to exterminate the whole nation” (cf. the Haggadah for Passover) when he pursued Jacob. Because he intended to do it the Omnipresent accounted it unto him as though he had actually done it (and therefore the expression אבד which refers to the past is used), for as far as the nations of the world are concerned the Holy One, blessed be He, accounts unto them intention as an actual deed (cf. Sifrei Devarim 301:3; Onkelos).

you shall reply Apparently the kohanim say something to the effect of, “What is this that you have brought?” — consequently, you shall reply. But the verb can also denote initiating a conversation, as in the first appearance of “Job declared” [Job 3: 2] [cf. comment on Exodus 15: 21]. lost is an intransitive verb. If the Aramean referred to Lavan, then the verb would be in the transitive hif‘il or pi‘el form. Besides, what sense is there to say, “Lavan tried to destroy my forefather, and he went down to Egypt”? Lavan never considered going down to Egypt! The plausible interpretation is that the Aramean refers to Yaaqov, as if Scripture had said, “When my forefather was in Aramea, he was lost” — meaning, he was a pauper, without property. Compare, “give strong drink to him who is lost” [Proverbs 31: 6], where it is immediately followed by, “let him drink, and forget his poverty” [Proverbs 31: 7]. Thus the lost Aramean was my forefather. The intent of this passage is: I did not inherit this land from my forefather, for he was a pauper when he came to Aramea, and he was a stranger in Egypt, where he was few in number. Afterwards, he became a great nation; and you, God , brought us out of slavery, and gave us the good land. Do not object to Yaaqov’s being called an Aramean, since similar apellations can be found. Consider “Yeter the Ishmaelite” [I Chronicles 2: 17], even though he was really an Israelite (for so it is written [II Samuel 17: 25]).

ארמי אובד אבי, as if the Torah had written” my father Avraham was an Aramite, lost, and exiled from his birthplace Aram.” G’d had told him in Genesis 12,1 “go forth for yourself from your homeland, etc.” Later on, Avraham himself relates to Avimelech the king of the Philistines, (Genesis 20,13) that G’d had made him wander, away from his father’s house, etc. The meaning of the word אובד here is similar to תועה, the root Avraham used to describe wandering without specific objective, almost like walking because one is lost. The word occurs clearly in that sense in Psalms 119,176 תעיתי כשה אובד בקש עבדך, “I have strayed like a lost sheep; search for Your servant, etc.!” We also find the word in this connotation in Jeremiah 50,6 עמי רועיהם התעום, “My people were lost sheep; their shepherd led them astray.” In other words, the recital by the farmer goes back to the Jewish people’s origin, the farmer saying: ‘our forefathers came to this land from an alien country and now G’d has given it to us.

ארמי אובד אבי, my father, i.e. Yaakov, who was for a while a wandering lost person without a home of his own, was not at the time able to establish a nation deserving or fit to inherit this land.

And the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage.