This week's section is titled "Ki Tavo," meaning "When You Come." The Torah explains, among other things, the mitzvah of Bikkurim, the first fruits. This refers to the commandment to bring the first fruits of the field, the fruits of the Land of Israel, to Jerusalem during the Temple period. With the words Ki Tavo, the Torah explains that this mitzvah (and all those where a similar expression is written) applies from the moment the Jewish people conquer the Land of Israel and settle there.
Some time ago, while studying with a boy preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, we discussed what a mitzvah is. The boy suggested the idea that a mitzvah is "something good." While this isn't entirely wrong, since God, being absolute Good, wouldn't command us to do something negative, that isn't the definition of a mitzvah.
There are two aspects to a commandment: on the one hand, the more superficial meaning, where a commandment is simply a divine mandate for us to do something or not to do something, such as the mitzvah of respecting one's father and mother, which consists of doing something, or the mitzvah of not stealing, which consists of refraining from doing something. Here, in turn, there are three components: the issuer of the commandment, God; the commandment, the mitzvah; and the one who obeys it, us.
But there is a deeper aspect to the Mitzvot: the word Mitzvah is related to the Aramaic word Tzavta, which means union. A Mitzvah is a channel of union between God and man.
This channel of union, in turn, consists of a practical action, whose objective is to unite the physical body with God (such as placing a Mezuzah) and, in addition, a spiritual teaching, whose objective is to enrich the soul and reveal Divinity in that action.
Today we cannot fulfill the Mitzvah of Bikurim, so the practical action of the Mitzvah does not apply, but we can enrich our lives with the teaching contained in the Mitzvah.
Bikurim expresses the idea of constant gratitude to God for what we have, beginning with life itself, and extending to imbuing our entire environment with that feeling of gratitude. But not only that, just as in the time of the Temple, the first fruits were taken to Jerusalem, in the same way, the first fruits of humankind are those that must be "taken," that is, offered to God.
One can imagine a farmer working hard on his land, plowing, sowing, watering, spraying, waiting for the rains, then harvesting and processing the grain to obtain a little bread. A process that takes about a year... and the first thing that grows, he dedicates to God. This symbolizes a very deep level of faith and gratitude, acknowledging that God is truly the one who sustains all of His Creation. The same applies to each person's service to God; the first fruits, for example, the first thing a person does upon waking is to thank God, the first activity of the day is prayer and/or study. Later there will be time for work, distractions, and so on.
Just as with the mitzvah of Bikkurim, the Torah says that God blesses the Jewish people on the land He gave us, so may it be, through the dedication of our first and best moments of the day to God, that He may bless us with His full, open, and holy hand, so that we may have a year filled with sweetness and joy.