One More Time, Again, Again

"There he goes again!" At the risk of some readers saying that, I'd like to take a different angle on a point that has been repeatedly made during the seven years that Torah Tidbits has/have (7 years, and I still don't know whether to treat TT as singular or plural) been around. We started with Parshat Shlach, the primesedra for Aliya-oriented Divrei Torah.

Let me start with the very first SDT (before they were called that) from that first issue of Parshat Shlach 5752. The ARI Z"L says that the mitzva of Bikurim is a tikun (repair) for the Sin of the Spies. Of all the mitzvot that are related to the Land, it is Bikurim that is a dual mitzva - to bring the Bikurim and to makethe Bikurim Declaration. It is a mitzva performed by SPEECH. That makes it a perfect tikun for the sin of MOTZI DIBA RA'A AL HA'ARETZ. The Meraglim brought fruit of the Land of Israel - during the season that the Torah tells us was the time of BIKUREI ANAVIM (the ripening of the grapes) and they make a declaration overthose fruit. They said it was a beautiful land, truly flowing with milk and honey. But... it's a land that eats its inhabitants, etc. It's a nice place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there. In sharp contrast, the Bikurim bringer says, "Baruch HaShem I came to this Land, a land flowing with milk and honey..." And he rejoices with the good he has been blessed with, instead of wails and laments his lot.

Rav Menachem Zemba HY"D (one of the last rabbis in the Warsaw ghetto, he gave rabbinic sanction to the uprising as the proper way to sanctify G-d's Name. A group of Catholics offered to save the remaining rabbis in the ghetto, but R. Zemba refused and remained to fight along side his fellow Jews) drew a parallel betweenBikurim and the Meraglim in the examples of fruits the Mishna uses in teaching us how to take Bikurim. Grapes, figs, pomegranates are the fruits the Meraglim brought back to the people. Those same fruits are the "for instance" that the Mishna uses to illustrate what a person does in his field preparatory to bringing Bikurim.

Many times and very often in our day to day life, each of us - Jews living in or out of Israel - are faced with the Meraglim Challenge. If a Jew bad-mouths Eretz Yisrael, or discourages someone else (or himself) from considering Aliya, etc. then he/she is guilty of the Sin of the Spies. Anyone, on the other hand, who takes that attitude that no matter how difficult, if this is where G-d wants us to be, and He does, then He will help us succeed - this person is a true heir to the spirit of Calev and Yehoshua.

On another point... In several past TTs and various shiurim at the Center, I have referred to G-d's Plan - take the People out of Egypt, give them (us) the Torah, and bring us into Eretz Yisrael. I've seen it as a 1-2-3 process. Gershuni on the Chumash quotes Midrash Rabba from Parshat Lech L'cha, with a different way oflooking at things. G-d had a 1-point plan. Y'tzi'at Mitzrayim is not complete without our receiving the Torah and going into E.Yisrael. Our receiving the Torah is incomplete without E.Y. Eretz Yisrael without Torah, as the saying goes, is like a body without a soul. One would think that the Fourth term of Redemption -V'LAKACHTI (and its twin term - And I will be your G-d) refers to Matan Torah and the commitment at Sinai. Fifth term is Eretz Yisrael. Not accurate. A Jew who lives outside E.Y. is like one who has no G-d. V'lakachti is incomplete without E.Y.

There is more to say. IY"H it will be said. That's it for now.