The Shared Role of Bikurim and Tefilla

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah

This week’s parsha begins with the mitzvah of bikurim, where a Jew takes his first fruits of the season to the beis Hamikdash and makes a detailed declaration before the kohen about the history of Am Yisrael and Hashem’s kindnesses to us, culminating with these very fruits. He then asks Hashem to bless His people, and together with the kohen he raises the fruits and waves them. He then leaves the fruits next to the mizbe’ach as a gift to the kohanim. Lastly, he bows to the ground (as we do in Mussaf of Yom Kippur).

The Mishna (Bikurim 3:3) details the scene in Yerushalayim that accompanied this mitzvah. Farmers brought the fruits in decorative baskets amid joyous song and music. The high officials of the city came to welcome them. All the townspeople stopped what they were doing to greet them. The verses end with the farmer commanded to “rejoice in all the good Hashem has given you.”

It would seem that today, since we are still without the Beis Hamikdash, the mitzvah of bikurim has no place in our lives aside from studying about it. Midrash Tanchuma (1, Ki Savo), however, states:

“Moshe foresaw with ruach hakodesh that the bringing of bikurim would come to an end. He therefore stood up and decreed that the nation pray three times a day.”

According to this Midrash, our three daily tefillos are in place of the bringing of bikurim. These two mitzvos seem utterly dissimilar. How can we understand this?

Harav Gedalia Shor explains that the essence of bikurim is for a farmer to free himself of any sense that it was his hard work on the field that actually produced his crops. Yes, he made diligent hishtadlus, but he is not a genetic engineer; he did not “make” fruits, they came from Hashem. As he stands before the kohen and declares that all he has comes from Hashem, the surroundings of the Beis Hamikdash serve to drive home this message still further. The greatness and majesty of Hashem is palpable; he sees open miracles (Pirkei Avos 5). When the farmer’s recognition of Hashem’s greatness is at its peak, he bows down in expression of his complete subjugation before Him.

In essence, tefilla shares the main characteristics of the mitzvah of bikurim — recognition of Hashem as the Giver of all, and subjugation before Him.

In davening, we are expected to feel that we are standing before the all-powerful

G-d, Master of the universe. When we start Shemoneh Esrei we state this openly, declaring “the great, mighty, and awesome G-d, the supreme G-d, Who … creates everything.”

Next, we ask requests of Hashem. The Mabit (in Beis Elokim, Tefilla, Chapter 2) explains that it seems strange to ask Hashem for our needs. After all, He surely knows what we need, and with greater accuracy than we ourselves! Rather, the purpose of these brachos of the Shemoneh Esrei is to strengthen our awareness that Hashem is the One providing all the things we ask for — knowledge, forgiveness, healing, livelihood, counsel, etc. — and only Hashem can give us them. Acknowledging this gains us favor in Hashem’s eyes.

After beginning Shemoneh Esrei with recognition that we are standing before the all-powerful G-d, and after the middle brachos, which instill the emuna that we are utterly dependent on Him, we bow (in Modim) with complete subjugation before Him. Would that we could reach such exalted states of awareness of Hashem and subjugation to Him each time we daven!

The mitzvah of bikurim also entailed a command to the farmer to rejoice in all that he had. So too, we are expected to feel joy in tefilla (Mishna Berura 1:10).

Joy? How many people feel genuine joy in davening? If we would take a moment to consider what tefilla really is (as described above), we could reach such a level of happiness. Harav Shimshon Pinkus offers an analogy: Imagine if doctors would inform a patient that they are unable to figure out how to help him, but then an expert appears on the scene who may have a treatment. How happy will the patient feel? He’ll feel a rush of hope and optimism, even though he knows full well that this expert may not succeed in curing him. Just being able to present his situation to an expert is a great joy to him. How much more so should we feel this hope and joy if we would truly understand that Hashem is the ultimate expert, He knows exactly how to help us, and is the only One who can help us! Each tefilla should be a new dose of optimism and joy that we are receiving the best possible treatment for all our needs.

When people came to the Chazon Ish asking his counsel, he would advise them that tefilla helps more than anything else, and they should be mis’chazeik in the belief that Hashem does everything, and that every situation is designed by Him with perfect precision.

Although the Chazon Ish is remembered for giving complex instructions to surgeons, he would often tell people who were sick: “Nu, Hashem wants you to daven better.”

“The more emuna and bitachon you infuse into your tefillos,” he would say, “the more they will help you and the more you will see Hashem’s hashgacha.”

May we elevate ourselves in every tefilla!