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We have now been in seminary for a number of weeks, and we are finally getting comfortable in our surroundings. We are able to navigate our way around Jerusalem and the Beit Midrash.

In this week's Parsha, Ki Tavo, we read about Bnei Yisrael’s arrival and subsequent success in the agriculture realm in the Land of Israel. The Torah tells us, when you come to the land of Israel and you plant your crops and harvest them you have an obligation to fulfill. This obligation or mitzvah is known as Bikkurim. Once they have achieved success in their fields they are told to bring the first fruits (bikkurim) to Jerusalem. 

The Rambam explains that the purpose of this mitzvah  is to teach you to be generous with your wealth. The reason this is so important for the fledgling nation is because they should always remember where they came from as a people (slavery in Egypt) and appreciate how far they have come and realize that they need to give back. This year we have a year of freedom and selfish time to ourselves but we need to remember our obligation to give as well. This is an opportunity that Midreshet Amit gives us,  time to give is built into our schedule with our interaction with the Beit Hayeled children.

The Akedat Yitzchak adds that this mitzvah is there to teach us that we are only partners in this process of growing the fruit . Bnei Yisrael had the potential to forget Hashem's involvement in their success because of their own hard work. We remember that we are partners with our parents in this year of growth as well and we did not arrive here on our own. According to the Abarbanel by giving up the first of the fruits, we humble ourselves to become unselfish by not keeping the best of our crop for our own use. When we give our time to our Beit Hayeled kids we learn to not be selfish, we learn about ourselves and we gain through this process. These are things we can only learn here at Midreshet Amit in our journey this year in the Land of Israel.