The enchanting fragrance of the blossoming countryside accompanied the farmer Eliezer as he strolled slowly along the rows of trees. He inspected the buds for signs of the first fruit. Small green figs swayed in the breeze. Eliezer reached into his pocket, pulled out a red ribbon, and tied it around the fruit.
"Wonderful!" he exclaimed. "Now I won't have any trouble finding and picking those figs when they're ripe. Then I'll take them to Jerusalem.".
Eliezer was preparing to fulfill the mitzvah of Bikkurim. He was going to take those fruits to the Temple and give them to the Kohen.
Let's imagine we are Eliezer for a moment. We are farmers, working hard from early morning until sunset. We endure the scorching summers and the cold, rainy seasons. We dig, plow, plant, weed, water, prune, and tend to our crops. Sometimes, a storm causes the entire harvest to be lost. Other times, animals nibble at our plants. Imagine how happy we are when the first fruits appear. Like Eliezer, we are eager to pick them and bring them home or sell them at the market.
But the Torah commands us to bring the first fruits to the Temple and give them to the Kohen even before we have any benefit from them. Doesn't that sound harsh and difficult? How would you feel if you had to give away something new of yours before you even had the chance to use it?
However, when the farmer remembers that everything he has comes from God, it's not so difficult. When he brings the fruit to the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple, he realizes that it was God who made it grow and that everything in the world belongs to Him.
In the Temple, the bikurim were not burned on the Altar, like other offerings. Instead, they were eaten by the Kohanim. Even so, God considered the eating of these fruits as special and holy as the sacrifices offered on the Altar.
The Torah calls us "a nation of Kohanim." When we live our lives in a holy way, like the Kohanim, then everything we do, even eating our food, can be as holy as praying and studying Torah.
Extracted from Please tell me what the Rebbe says.