Torah tidbits

IY"H Soon with the fruit too
The mitzva of Bikurim consists of two components: the bringing of the first fruits to the kohen in the Beit HaMikdash and the recitation of the Bikurim declaration, as set down in the beginning of this week's sedra. The mitzva of Bikurim is applicable only in the time of the Beit HaMikdash.

However... there is a dimension of the mitzva that we can apply in our own time. Bikurim, says the ARI z"l is the TIKUN for the sin of the Meraglim. The Meraglim took beautiful fruits from Eretz Yisrael, showed them to the generation of the Wilderness, and then spoke against the Land and against G-d's Plan for the People of Israel to go there to conquer, settle, and live.

For that sin, the 10 scouts were struck dead. For that sin, the adult male population of that generation (not including Kalev and Yehoshua) were decreed to wander in the Midbar and die out over a 40 year period, before the new generation would be able to cross the Jordan River into Eretz Yisrael.

The bottom line of the sin of the spies is that the Meraglim said: It's a nice place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there. That sin is repeated and compounded by every Jew who says those words. Cheit HaMeraglim is sadly alive and well in our time.

The TIKUN, repair, atonement for that sin is epitomized by every Jew that lives in Eretz Yisrael and feels and says what the Bikurim-bringer says: Baruch HaShem that G-d brought us to this place and gave us this Land.
There is a third component of Bikurim. It comes in the last pasuk of the Bikurim parsha. V'SAMACHTA... and you shall rejoice in all the good that G-d has given you... and not selfishly, but with others, including the less fortunate and the stranger in your midst.

We might not be able to bring the fruits now, but we certainly can and must work on the TIKUN of the sin of the spies, and always be thankful to G-d.


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