{"id":51672,"date":"2019-03-19T23:28:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T21:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=51672"},"modified":"2022-10-11T15:43:59","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:43:59","slug":"ki-tavo-first-fruits-where-what-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ki-tavo-first-fruits-where-what-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Ki Tavo\u2019 – First Fruits: Where, What, Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[368,369],"acf":{"old_id":"51672","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46171,"related_cahpter":"179","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"My father was a fugitive, and I have entered the Land","content":"

\u201cWhen you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish His name. You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him: I acknowledge this day before the Lord your God that I have entered the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to assign us\u201d (Deut. 26:1\u20133). The word \u201cyou\u201d here is in the second person singular for all the verbs, implying that each man, as an individual, had to bring the first fruits of his produce to the priest. The priest then took the basket, the symbol of gratitude to God, and laid it down on the altar of the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did each farmer individually have to bring his first fruits to the Temple to be distributed among the priests in Jerusalem rather than giving them directly to the priest in his own community? Which kinds of produce were brought as <\/span>bikurim<\/span><\/i>? What was the real purpose of having the farmers repeat the ceremony each year?<\/span><\/p>\n

Avner Moriah visualizes the <\/span>bikurim<\/span><\/i> ritual in a minimalistic manner, figuring the farmer and the priest on one side of the picture and the first fruits on the altar on the other. <\/span><\/p>\n

The artist\u2019s depictions of the first fruits<\/span> reflect the tradition of the <\/span>bikurim <\/span><\/i>being selected from the seven unique kinds of produce named in the promise we read in <\/span>Parashat Ekev<\/span><\/i> in connection with God bringing the Israelites to the Promised Land: \u201ca land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey\u201d (Deut. 8:8). <\/span><\/p>\n

Under the altar we see jugs of olive oil amid clusters of grapes, and on the top there are three baskets, one each of pomegranates, figs, and dates, as well as a sheaf of wheat and another of barley. <\/span><\/p>\n

Repeating the <\/span>bikurim<\/span><\/i> ritual every year in the Temple, \u201cwhere the Lord your God will choose to establish His name,\u201d rather than giving their first fruits to their community priests helped the farmers to see themselves as part of the generation that God brought to the Promised Land. Moreover, it was an opportunity to worship the one God in a way that differed markedly from the Canaanite rituals in which the first fruits were offered to please their many local gods. Each year the Israelite farmer recited the following words: \u201cMy father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt\u2026\u201d (Deut. 26:5), after which he declared his faith in the God of Israel: \u201cWherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You O Lord have given me\u201d (Deut. 26:10). <\/span><\/p>\n

Artwork by: Avner Moriah, by courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/p>\n

Text by: Dr. Shulamit Laderman, PhD in Art History, publications on Jewish and Christian influences on biblical interpretive illustration.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the entire weekly portion series, please visit:<\/span> https:\/\/avnermoriahprints.com\/collections\/parasha<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":51673,"id":51673,"title":"50 Ki tavo","filename":"50-Ki-tavo.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ki-tavo-first-fruits-where-what-why\/50-ki-tavo\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"50-ki-tavo","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51672,"date":"2019-03-19 21:28:24","modified":"2019-03-19 21:28:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2001,"height":2500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo-240x300.jpg","medium-width":240,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo-768x960.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":960,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo-820x1024.jpg","large-width":820,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo.jpg","1536x1536-width":1229,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo.jpg","2048x2048-width":1639,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo-960x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":960,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/50-Ki-tavo-336x420.jpg","home_baner-width":336,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Ki Tavo' - 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