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Friday, September 16, 2011

ki savo

The posuk says ובאת אל הכהן אשר יהיה בימים ההם you shall come to the kohen that's in your days.
Rashi says that you only have the kohen that's in your generation however he is.
Ramban asks, we said by the shoftim that you have to go to the rabbis of your generation even though they might not be as great as previous ones, nonetheless, you must listen to them. That makes sense, but to tell me I have to give bikurim to the kohen of my generation seems superfluous. Who else would I give them to if not the kohen of our days?
The דרש דוד explains that the reason why the mitzvah to wipe out Amalek & the mitzvah to bring bikurim are right next to each other, is because the essence of Amalek's sin was אשר קרך בדרך that he happened upon you on the way. Rashi explains קרך-happened, that it comes from a lashon of מקרה - chance. Amalek's motto was that everything happens by chance & nobody is in control.
Bikurim show us the opposite effect . We are commanded to bring the first fruits to the kohen every year, & they have to be brought with great joy & thanks to 'ה for giving us the fruits. Why all the pomp & ceremony for a run of the mill everyday occurrence? You plant seeds, they grow, you have fruit; it's natural.
This is why it's next to Amalek. To dispel the notion that everything happens by chance; that even for a natural everyday occurrence like planting, we come & give gratitude to 'ה, showing that we believe even the smallest things are controlled by Him. There is no such thing as coincidence.
We know the job of the kohen was to teach the people & admonish them for their sins, helping them to grow in the service of 'ה. Maybe what Rashi meant when he said to give them to the kohen of your days, is that even nowadays when we don't have the kohen to teach & guide us, we have to look at everything that happens as a message from 'ה . In the last couple of weeks we have had a hurricane, an earthquake, & the 10th anniversary of 9/11. 'ה is trying to tell us something. I'm sure we can all think of something we could improve on, however, looking at the bikurim themselves, we can learn something. When people brought the bikurim, the wealthy people would bring their fruits on gold platters, & the kohanim would take the fruit & return the platter. The poor people would bring it in wicker baskets & the kohanim would keep the baskets too. Is this an example of the rich get richer & the poor get poorer? Explains ר אהרן בקשט, that the rich brought lots of big nice fruit, when the kohen would take the fruit off the gold platter it still looked like an impressive offering. But the fruits from the poor people weren't so nice, & there wasn't a lot, so taking only the fruit would look like a measly offering. In order for them not to be embarrassed in front of all the other people, the kohen took the fruit in the basket so it would look like they were getting something impressive from them too. Let's take this to heart & see the little things we can do not to hurt or embarrass other people, promoting achdus between one another so we won't need any more messages!

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