At the beginning of this week’s parsha we are charged with the mitzvah of Bikkurim which is to bring our first ripened fruits of the land to the Beit HaMikdash (the Holy Temple). At the Beit Hamikdash with the basket of fruits in our hands we are told:

וּבָאתָ אֶל־הַכֹּהֵן אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם וְאָמַרְתָּ אֵלָיו הִגַּדְתִּי הַיּוֹם לַד' אֱלֹקיךָ כִּי־בָאתִי אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע ד' לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ לָתֶת לָנוּ׃

You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, ‘I acknowledge this day before your God, Hashem, that I have entered the land that Hashem swore to our fathers to assign us’ (26:3)

After giving thanks for the land, the Kohen takes the basket, places it next to the Altar, and then again we are told to make another declaration which seems to include the first one.

You shall then recite as follows before your God, Hashem: ‘My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. We cried to Hashem, the God of our ancestors, and Hashem heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. Hashem freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents, bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, Hashem, have given me.’ You shall leave it before your God, Hashem and bow low before your God, Hashem. (26:5-11)

In this declaration we thank Hashem for saving our ancestors, giving us the land of Israel, and for the fruits we have been blessed with.

What then is the purpose of the first declaration if we will mention the land in the second one?

Rabbi Moshe Sofer (1762-1839), known as the Chatam Sofer, teaches us a very important principle. When we thank Hashem for giving us the land of Israel we are primarily not thanking Him for a beautiful, fertile country. We are thanking Him for being given the Holy Land. Even if it would be a desolate and barren land that nothing could grow in, we would still be thanking Him for taking us out of Egypt and making us his treasured nation by giving us the Torah and Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel), the Holy Land, to live in.

This is because as Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi (1075-1141) in his famous work ”The Kuzari” writes that the Jewish people can be compared to exquisite vines that thrive on a certain mountain. "This treasured nation could never attain their spiritual excellence anywhere else, just as this vineyard cannot thrive but on this mountain."

Now the truth is that the Holy Land is a “land flowing with milk and honey” and therefore in addition to thanking Hashem for the land, we also have to thank Him for the blessing of its produce.

Therefore, before we give the fruits to the Kohen and thank Hashem for them, we first make a separate declaration just about the land. Note how in the first declaration (verse 3) we mention the land of Israel only as, "the land that Hashem swore to our fathers to assign us," while in the second declaration (verse 9) the land is mentioned as "bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." The first declaration is to make clear that we thank Hashem for the land of Israel for what it essentially is independent of its fruits-the Holy Land, where we truly thrive as Hashem’s chosen people.

Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak