Parshas Ki Savo - Stop, Drop, and “Four Score and Seven Years Ago...”

Parshas Ki Savo

Stop, Drop, and “Four Score and Seven Years Ago...”

By: Daniel Listhaus

וְהָיָה כִּי תָבוֹא אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר הֹ' אֱלֹקיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה וִירִשְׁתָּהּ וְיָשַׁבְתָּ בָּהּ: וְלָקַחְתָּ מֵרֵאשִׁית כָּל פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר תָּבִיא מֵאַרְצְךָ אֲשֶׁר ה' אֱלֹקיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ וְשַׂמְתָּ בַטֶּנֶא וְהָלַכְתָּ אֶל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר הֹ' אֱלֹקיךָ לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ שָׁם

“It will be when you enter the land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it, and dwell in it, that you shall take the first of every fruit of the ground that you bring in from your land that Hashem, your G-d gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that Hashem, your G-d, will choose, to make His Name rest there.”

-Ki Savo 26:1-2

The parsha starts off with a rather unusual process. After dwelling in Eretz Yisroel, one must bring his bikkurim (first fruits) to the kohen. The Torah¹ relates that each person comes before the kohen and says, “I declare today to Hashem, your G-d, that I have come to the land that Hashem swore to our forefathers to give us.” The kohen then places the basket of bikkurim before the mizbeach Hashem (altar of Hashem) and the individual then continues with a whole Gettysburg address:

“An Aramaean² would have destroyed my father, and he descended to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation – great, strong, and numerous. The Egyptians mistreated and afflicted us, and placed hard work upon us. Then we cried out to Hashem, the G-d of our forefathers, and Hashem heard our voice and saw our affliction, our travails, and our oppression. Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, with great awesomeness, and with signs and with wonders. He brought us to this place, and He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold! I have brought the first fruit of the ground that you have given me, Hashem!”³

There are a couple of intriguing aspects to this procedure. First, these passukim (verses) sound like something that should be part of the Pesach seder⁴, not something that should be said when bringing first fruits to the kohen. What is the connection between the bringing of the new fruits and recalling a history of all that Hashem has done for us?

Furthermore, why does the kohen have to suffer through this so many times just to get a basket of fruit? Let each man say it for himself in his field when he is gathering the fruits into the basket. Why does this speech have to be said in front of someone else?

Perhaps we could come to better understand all of this if we recognize a common fault in human nature. As humans, we are susceptible to fall victim to what is called Hindsight Bias. The concept of Hindsight Bias is the idea that there is a tendency for humans to view a known outcome as having been the most probable outcome since the onset. In other words, people often look back at a series of events and see the order and cause-and-effect relationship which exists between past events, and subsequently think about how predictable the outcome was all along. In 1975, Baruch Fischoff set off to demonstrate this idea with the following study. Fischoff gathered a group of students and provided a historical case which they were unaware of. Some of these groups he told what the real historical outcomes were, while others he did not. For example, he told them about the Anglo-Nepalese War - a fight which took place in the early 1800's between the British and the Gurkhas. He then gave them a few choices of possible outcomes and asked them what they thought was the consequence of that particular war. The results he found were that most of those to whom he had told the real outcome, said that they would have indeed assumed that to be the most likely outcome. However, those who he had not told did not guess the real outcome any more than any of the other choices.

We live in a world of cause-and-effect; the actions we do seem to create real consequences. Imagine the following: You invest a tremendous effort going through school, go through the strains of finding a job, finally get a job, and work hard. Then, your first pay-check comes and you hold it up high, saying, “Yeah! Now I could go spend some of the money that I made!” One could get so caught up thinking that since he had to work hard to see the desired consequence, he must have been in control from the onset. The Torah⁵ though warns against this reasoning, as it says, “...And your heart will grow haughty and you will forget Hashem your G-d... and you will say in your heart: My power and the might of my hand have wrought this wealth for me. Then you shall remember Hashem your G-d, for it is He who gives you the strength to amass wealth....” We cannot allow ourselves to be swallowed by this haughtiness. Rather, we must stop and think about the fact that it is not really us who causes things to happen, it is really all through the yad Hashem (hand of Hashem).

We often get stuck in this aspect of the Hindsight Bias in that we could look back at events which really only occurred because Hashem worked them out for us. Yet, we fail to see Hashem as part of our lives and instead attribute the past to the most probable series of outcomes.

There is a story told about an atheist who was late to an important appointment. Upon reaching the parking lot to the office complex, he noticed that all the parking spaces were full. In desperation, he said, “Please G-d let there be an extra space for me so I could make it in time for my meeting.” At that moment, a car pulled out of a space right in front. The man pulled into the spot and finished his first and last prayer saying, “Never mind, I found one.”

A person who does not want to recognize Hashem as part of his life will indeed never see Him. However, it is our job to realize that Hashem is not merely the borei (creator) of the world, but also the manhig (director).⁶ Hashem plays a personal role in each of our lives, and it is our job to acknowledge this. Thinking otherwise constitutes a misuse of the middah (trait) of gaivah (haughtiness) and is comparable to worshiping ourselves, instead of Hashem. This is why a ba'al gaivah is considered to be doing avodah zarah⁷.

Perhaps this is exactly the purpose of the long monologue the Torah commands us to say when we bring bikkurim. We enter into Eretz Yisroel, fight battles, and work hard on our land. When we finally get to the point of benefiting from the fruits of our labor, there are two approaches we could take. One perspective is to look back with a false sense of hindsight and say how everything that occurred was in fact the most probable outcome to have happened. However, this approach is full of sheker (falseness). Instead, the view we must adopt is one of realizing Hashem's integral role in our everyday lives. Each person must take his first fruits and stop to think, “How did I get to this point of being able to benefit from my fruits?” We must go back and remind ourselves how it was all through the guidance of Hashem which got us to where we now stand.⁸

This is the first step. Stop and think who it really is controlling the world as a whole, and each and every person's individual life. However, as we see from the parsha of bikkurim, to just stop and think is not enough, we must actually verbalize our thoughts and say it to the kohen. Why is this necessary?

Rashi⁹ comments that when the Torah commands each person to say the aforementioned speech to the kohen, the reason for it is to show that you are not unappreciative. This Rashi is pretty vague but is based on a Sifrei¹⁰ that the reason we must actually say this speech in front of an individual, is because that is the only real way to express appreciation. The Hebrew word for 'thanks' is hoda'ah,which is also the same word for 'admit'¹¹. This is not a coincidence. When one thanks someone else, one is essentially admitting that he needed their help and depended on them. Therefore, a true expression of thanks only comes by humbling oneself – by admitting his feelings to another person. Therefore, upon bringing the bikkurim, in order to demonstrate that the feeling of appreciation to Hashem is real, each person must speak out his thanks to Hashem's representative, the kohen.¹²

This concept that a true hoda'ah must be done verbally, is something that used to be relevant on a daily basis. Before the mass-production of siddurim, the role of the chazzan was slightly different than it is now. Members of a shul would listen carefully to every word the chazzan recited, and it would be as if he had said the tefillos himself. This works through the principle of shome'ah k'oneh (hearing is like answering). This principle allows one to listen and have in mind to be yotzei (fulfill one's obligation) with someone else doing so. However, despite the many areas we use this rule, when it comes to the paragraph of modim (“we thank you...”) in shemoneh esreh, it is not enough for one to merely listen to the words of the chazzan. Instead, each and every individual must recite his own personal modim.

This is the lesson of the parsha – we must take a moment to stop, and drop any illusions that we may have that we are actually in control of our lives and determine the outcomes of our actions. Then, it is time to roll out the script and verbalize an admittance of thanks to Hashem, because, as Rashi says, that is the only way to really show that you have an appreciation for all that He does for you.

1Devarim 26:3

2The mainstream understanding follows Rashi's opinion (26:5) that this refers to Lavan. See Rashbam there who holds it refers to Avraham's father Terach.

3Devarim 26:5-10

4Which they are (in the Maggid section).

5Devarim 8:14-18

6See the thirteenth Ani Ma'amin (Thirteen Principles of Faith).

7Orchos Tzadikkim: Sha'ar HaGaivah

8See also Sifsei Chachomim (Devarim 26:3)

9Devarim 26:3

10Sifrei 299-301

11This is why Jews are called “Yehudim” (which comes from the same root: hoda'ah) because it is our job to constantly recognize, thank, and admit to our dependency on Hashem. In fact, our day starts with this theme every morning, as we say, “Modeh ani l'fanecha” - “I give thanks/admit before you...”.

12Chizkuni (Devarim 26:4)