When you come into the Land . . .

"When you come into the land which HaShem, 

your G-d, gives you”

Elul 20, 5779/September 20, 2019

"And it will be, when you come into the land which HaShem, your G-d, gives you for an inheritance, and you possess it and settle in it, that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you will bring from your land, which HaShem, your G-d, is giving you. And you shall put them into a basket and go to the place which HaShem, your G-d, will choose to have His Name dwell there.” 

(Deuteronomy 26:1-2)

The beauty and the pageantry of the bringing of the first fruits to the Holy Temple is unsurpassed. It teases our imagination and beckons to us. It is an irresistible invitation for intimacy with haShem. But where are we coming in from when we "come into the land," and where are we going to when we "go to the place which HaShem, your G-d, will choose to have His Name dwell there?

We are coming from exile, we are coming from a wilderness, a harsh and unsympathetic reality, a strange and perilous land that we entered into many, many eons ago. And we are entering into a familiar place, a place we knew well long, long ago, a place where it all began for us.

We are, in effect, returning home. The Holy Temple stands - it lives - it breathes - in the place of the Garden of Eden. It is the place where Adam, the father of all humankind, was formed and breathed life into. It was to this place, the place of the great earthen altar, that G-d first gathered the dust from the four corners of the earth and shaped it into man.

We are, in effect, returning to the scene of the 'crime,' the ultimate crime, the crime that set us upon our long journey. It was in this place that G-d said "No,"and Adam said "Yes," and with Eve, ate from the forbidden fruit, and hid in fear from the consequences. And when G-d said, "Where are you?" and "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" (Genesis 3:9,11) Adam did not own up, did not accept responsibility, but passed along the blame to Eve, who passed it on to the serpent. A breach in trust was created, a breach in faith, a tear in the Divine fabric that binds man to G-d and G-d to man. And so Adam had to leave home and make his way in a harsh and unsympathetic reality, a land of "thorns and thistles" (ibid 3:18) a strange and perilous journey through space and time.

When we do teshuva - when we repent of an error and seek to make amends we are instructed to first admit to our error, then to place ourselves into the same situation in which we first committed our error, but this time to do the right thing, and finally to ask forgiveness from the injured party. The commandment to bring the first fruits is G-d's invitation for us, we, the sons and daughters of Adam, to do just that. G-d wants us back where we belong and has lovingly laid out the path for us to return with honor and with love. We return to G-d His first fruits, the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge which we were forbidden from taking in the first place. We do so in the very place where we first committed the crime, as prescribed by the rules of teshuva, and then we make our confession and, unlike Adam, own up to our crime:

"'I declare this day to HaShem, your G-d, that I have come to the land which HaShem swore to our forefathers to give us'... And you shall call out and say before HaShem, your G-d, 'An Aramean sought to destroy my forefather, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there with a small number of people, and there, he became a great, mighty, and numerous nation... '" (ibid 26:3-5) And so it begins, a description of Israel's journey through a long and torturous exile, concluding with "'And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which you, HaShem, have given to me.' Then, you shall lay it before HaShem, your G-d, and prostrate yourself before HaShem, your G-d Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that HaShem, your G-d, has granted you and your household you, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you." (ibid 26:10-11)

It is done! the estrangement between man and G-d is over and done. G-d has lovingly welcomed us back into the Garden of Eden, the Holy Temple All is forgiven. Man and G-d are united as before.

The commandment of the first fruits is our invitation to relive this moment every year, to participate in the rectification of Adam's crime, to bear our responsibility as essential links in the great chain of humanity. Who needs thorns and thistles when G-d and the Garden of Eden are beckoning? Bring to G-d your first fruits, the very best of who you are and what you have to offer, and put a cosmic smile on G-d's face, on G-d's infinite, endless love for His creation.