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The parshah of Ki Tavo begins: “And it will be, when you come [ki tavo] into the land which Havayah, your God, gives you for an inheritance, and you possess it and settle in it.”[1]
The idea of coming into the land is a subtle allusion to intimate marital relations, which are called bee’ah (בִּיאָה), from the same root as the word “you come” (תָּבוֹא). The relationship between Israel and its beloved land is like the love of a groom for his bride. This love relationship in essence incorporates the other three essential love relationships: love of God, love of Torah and love of the people of Israel.[2]
This same dynamic is seen in the relationship between Israel and Shabbat, which is also referred to as the bride. This allusion made its way into the liturgical song Lecha Dodi, sung on Friday nights to usher in the Shabbat: “Come my beloved [God] let us greet the bride [Shabbat], the countenance of Shabbat we will greet [together].”[3]
The last words of the opening verse of Ki Tavo quoted above, “and settle in it,” further connects the Land of Israel and Shabbat. Firstly, the Hebrew word for “in it” (בָּהּ) is written in the feminine tense, alluding to the Land of Israel as the bride of the Jewish people. The value of this word, bah (בָּהּ), is 7, an allusion to Shabbat also being called “the seventh day.” The word in Hebrew for “settle,” vayashavta (וְיָשַׁבְתָּ), shares the same root as the word Shabbat (שַׁבָּת) and teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה).[4] Here again we see an essential connection between how Israel relates to both the Land of Israel and Shabbat as a bride.
Later in the portion, the Torah describes a renewal of the Divine covenant that would take place in a public ceremony on Mount Grizim and Mount Eival when Israel entered the land.[5] According to some opinions, the location of the renewed covenant was the exact place that God made the first covenant with Abraham. It was then that he initially promised Abraham that the Land of Israel would be his and his children’s inheritance forever. Marriage is referred to as “a covenant.” Thus, entering the Land of Israel and renewing the covenant is similar to renewing the wedding vows between God and Israel, and Israel and the Holy Land.
A Land of Milk and Honey
The well-known phrase describing the Land of Israel as “a land flowing with milk and honey” appears in the portion of Ki Tavo three times.[6] To understand the importance of this phrase, which appears many other times in the Torah,[7] is that the Shema, the cardinal statement of faith in God’s oneness, is written in the portion of Ve’etchanan immediately after a description of the Land of Israel flowing with milk and honey.[8]
The three letters of the word “one” (אֶחָד) are the initials of the three words, “land, milk, honey” (אֶרֶץ חָלָב דְּבַשׁ).[9] When one truly perceives the unity of creation as expressed in the Shema, materiality itself is understood as an integral dimension of Divinity. The focal point of this simple yet profound realization of the unity between the material and the spiritual is most pronounced in the Holy Land.
A Land of Faith
Another description used to refer to the Land of Israel is “the land of tzvi” (אֶרֶץ צְבִי). The word tzvi has two main meanings: deer and freedom. In fact, Ezekiel in particular juxtaposes the Land of Israel being a land flowing with milk of honey and its description as a land of tzvi.[10] One reason the land is compared to a deer is because the numerical value of the word tzvi (צְבִי) is 102, the same as “faith” (אֱמוּנָה). In the alphabetical transformation known as Atbash, where the first letter of the alphabet is exchanged for the last letter, the second for the second last and so forth, tzvi (צְבִי) transforms into Moses (מֹשֶׁה). The Zohar refers to Moses as “the faithful shepherd” (Raya Mehemna). Indeed, Moses began his journey to leading the people of Israel as a shepherd, “Moses was pasturing the flocks of Yitro, his father in law, the chief of Midian, and he led the flocks after the free pasture land, and he came to the mountain of God, to Chorev.”[11] Although Moses did not manage to enter Land of Israel himself, he faithfully shepherded Israel for forty years through the wilderness and brought them to the borders of the land.
A further connection between the Land of Israel and faith is found when Caleb and Joshua—the two spies who argued that the Israelites, with God’s help, could conquer the Land of Israel—declared: “The land we passed through to scout is an exceedingly good land.”[12] The numerical value of the words, “the land is exceedingly good” (טוֹבָה הָאָרֶץ מְאֹד מְאֹד) is 408, or 4 times 102, the value of “faith” (אֱמוּנָה). Thus, the average of each of these four words is itself “faith.”
From the time Abraham first came to the land and God made a covenant with him, the Jewish people have had an ongoing love affair with the land “flowing with milk and honey,” always keeping faith with our deepest belief that this land is not just holy but that we are intrinsically bound to it.
Another reason the Land of Israel is compared to a deer is that when it is skinned, its skin can never again be put back on the deer due to its being so taut. Symbolically, this alludes to the relatively small physical borders of the Land of Israel contain an infinite potential. The borders of the Land of Israel are not political borders, they are borders of ritual—meaning that fields of produce within the borders must be tithed and their produce used to feed the hungry and poor, together with a variety of other commandments. According to the Sages, in the future, these borders will expand so that they encompass the entire world, requiring all of mankind to treat even the weakest members of society with dignity and respect.[13]
Bringing the First Fruits
Parashat Ki Tavo begins with the commandment to bring the first fruits of one’s produce to the Holy Temple: “And it will be when you enter the land that Havayah, your God, gives you as an inheritance … that you shall take of the first of every fruit … and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that Havayah, your God, will choose.”[14] The Sages have taught that when a parashah begins with “And it will be” (וְהָיָה), as Ki Tavo does, it is a sign of great joy.[15]
After bringing the first fruits, in what is described in the Mishnah as an incredibly joyous procession, to the Temple and reciting words of thanks and praise to God, the Torah states: “You shall be glad with all the goodness that Havayah your God has given you.”[16] Later in the portion, the Torah discusses the consequences the Jewish people will face if they do or do not listen to God and follow His commandments. This section is referred to as “the blessings and the curses.” Near the end of the curses the Torah provides a reason for why this sorry state may come to pass: “Because you did not serve Havayah your God with joy and goodness of heart.”[17] Serving God with joy and always looking on the bright side of life is crucial in Jewish thought to maintaining proper observance and a spiritually vibrant and meaningful existence. When we harvest the fruits of our labors, we can relate to our success in one of two ways: we can either attribute our success solely to our own talents and efforts, or by attributing it to God and thanking Him for blessing us with the wisdom and abilities to achieve our goals. The secret of happiness lies in nullifying the ego’s natural tendency to lay claim to all the credit; instead, we must learn to rejoice in the blessings that God gives us. For in truth, when the ego is given free reign, it knows no limit to the glory it feels is its due, and because of this it overreaches, only to eventually be disappointed and frustrated at its inability to ever be fully satisfied.
The commandment of taking the first fruits to the Temple contains a beautiful allusion teaching us how to achieve a joyous frame of mind. In the verse, “and you shall put it [the first fruits] in a basket,” the Hebrew word used for basket is “tene” (טֶנֶא).[18] The numerical value of this word is 60. Since by the rules of gematria (Kabbalistic numerology), an additional number one may be added to the sum to represent the entire word, we find an allusion to the Sages’ law of nullification that approximates a one in sixty mixture as rendering a substance null and void ritually.
The “basket” equaling sixty represents a person’s ability to nullify his or her own lust for honor by bringing the first fruits to God. This notion is also hinted at by the fact that the numerical value of the Hebrew word for “I” (אֲנִי) is 61. These same Hebrew letters when interchanged spell the Hebrew word for “nothingness” (אָיִן).[19] Thus, the one (1) who puts his first fruits in a basket (60) is in effect nullifying his ego, his “I,” in a ratio of 1:60, thus reaching a state of selflessness or nothingness, the secret of true joy.
The Ba’al Shem Tov taught a similar message using the imagery of placing the first fruits—the credit for one’s accomplishments—into the basket. He notes that the three Hebrew letters of the word for “basket” (טֶנֶא) are the initials of the words, “cantillation marks” (טְעָמִים), the notes by which the Torah is chanted, “vowels” (נְקֻדּוֹת), and “letters” (אוֹתִיּוֹת).[20] These are the three elements comprising the Biblical text. Since human beings usually want to take sole credit for their accomplishments, the Torah commanded us to place the first fruits in a basket, a receptacle that reminds us of the Torah, so that we reign in our egos and recognize God as the source of all material and spiritual bounty. The Torah and its commandments constantly remind us of our connection to God, so that we do not lose the proper perspective on this relationship. The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that we should learn to take our thoughts, speech, and action and place them in the letters, vowels, and song of the Torah, which on a practical level means incorporating the wisdom of the Torah in all our endeavors.
The obligation to learn Torah extends beyond learning Torah text and extends to attaining a state of consciousness that allows all of life’s experiences to be filtered through the Torah, as if one was wearing “Torah-colored glasses.” Placing the first fruits of our labors in the basket of Torah is similar to wearing “Torah-colored glasses,” so that all our life experiences are refracted through the lens of Torah. May we all learn to see the world through rectified and selfless “Torah-colored glasses.”
[1]. Deuteronomy 26:1.
[2]. See Sha’arei Ahavah VeRatzon for a deep exploration of these four essential loves and thirteen relationships that come from them. See also The Hebrew Letters, pp. 336-7.
[3]. Composed by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz from Safed.
[4]. VeShavtah Haaretz, pp. 5-10.
[5]. Deuteronomy 27:1-26.
[6]. Ibid. 26:9, 26:15, 27:3
[7]. Exodus 3:8, 3:17, 13:5, 33:3, Leviticus 20:24, Numbers 13:27, 14:8, 16:13, 16:14, Deuteronomy 6:3, 11:9.
[8]. Deuteronomy 6:3-5.
[9]. From a class given by HaRav Ginsburgh on the 16th of Kislev, 2015.
[10]. Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:15.
[11]. Exodus 3:1.
[12]. Numbers 14:7.
[13]. Pesikta Rabbati, Shabbat VeRosh Chodesh 3. For more see Rectifying the State of Israel, ch. 8, note 13.
[14]. Deuteronomy 26:1.
[15]. Bereishit Rabbah 42:3.
[16]. Bikkurim 3:2-4; Deuteronomy 26:11.
[17]. Deuteronomy 28:47. For more on the verse see Yaiyn Yitzchak, Ki Tavo, 17-18.
[18]. Ibid 26:2.
[19]. The Hebrew Letters, p. 233.
[20]. Ba’al Shem Tov on the Torah, Ki Tavo, 2. For a more in-depth treatment of the acronym of the word tene, see Wonders Issue 119, Ki Tavo 5784.
