When YOU Come Into the Land

When you come into the Land which the Lord your God gives you as a heritage, occupying and settling it.                                                              Deuteronomy 26:1

            The introduction to bikurim is an awareness that the Land was given to Israel by the Almighty. This realization must incline the Hebrew farmer to accept his position as God’s junior partner (as some commentaries phrase it, His sharecropper) within the Land.

            Ba’al haTurim comments that “tavo” is an anagram for “avot” (fathers, or more exactly in this context, Forefathers). The Israelite must be cognizant of the fact that we have been given the Land through the merit of our Forefathers.

           My father noted that the verse employs the singular “you” and explained that the Torah’s intention is to stress the personal obligation of each and every Jew to come to the Land. One may not wait to ascend to the Land with all Israel with the coming of Messiah; rather he/she must fulfill the obligation even if he/she is alone in coming up to the Land. As well, one may not say “since others are going up to Israel, I do not need to,” but must realize that aliya is incumbent upon the individual, regardless of how many other Jews are fulfilling the mitzva.

         The use of the word “you” in addition to mentioning the Land as an inheritance, teaches that each generation receives the Land anew from God. Even though the Land was given to Israel by merit of the Forefathers, every generation must feel itself as receiving the Land directly from God.