The Purpose of Life
“At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of God,’ and all the nations will gather there in Jerusalem, in the name of God. They will not follow the desires of their evil heart.” (Jeremiah 3:18)
Our Parashah this week is Ki Tavo which means “when you come.” The main themes of this portion consist of God’s instructions to Israel revealing their purpose or occupation once they enter and take possession of the land. The first theme is the offerings of the first fruits (Bikkurim). It is beautiful to see that one of the central themes of the Torah is that the production of the land requires a series of activities implying human effort, such as cultivating the land, working it to select the best produce, and finally going to the place that the Eternal chooses (Jerusalem) to make a declaration of gratitude for what the Eternal has done for us.
Second, the portion speaks about the tithes for the Levites and the poor.
Third, it speaks about how the blessings and curses should be proclaimed on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, which are connected to the Parashah Reeh. Moses appears on the scene reminding Israel of their identity, that they are God’s Chosen People, and that they, Israel have also chosen the Eternal.
Fourth, the part containing the Tochecha (rebukes) lists the blessings first. This is followed by the consequences of not obeying the Torah’s commandments, manifested by illness, hunger, poverty, pain, human suffering and exile while we are alive. It concludes by declaring that after 40 years, Israel had achieved a “heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.”
I would like to focus on the first part of the portion concerning the Bikkurim, the agricultural offering that they were to bring to the place that the LORD would choose. This offering, according to our sages, referred to the fruits of the earth mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:7-8: “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land (Eretz Tova), a land of streams, of fountains and deep springs that issue from its hills and from its mountains; a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees and pomegranates; a land yielding oil and honey.” However, I think the Torah is broader in its meaning, and in my understanding, “all the fruits of the ground” (kol pri ha’adamah), go beyond the limits of these seven types of harvest mentioned in Deut. 8.
From this, we can draw the first lesson, “If we are to limit something, let it not be gratitude.” In gratitude “there is no ceiling” or there is no “enough.” Gratitude is a spiritual and emotional expression that must be physically manifested in this world – it must be visible, palpable, and perceptible through smell, sound, or sight. There is no “gratitude” that remains solely “within oneself.” When giving thanks, it must be public and perceived not only by the one who receives the gratitude but by everyone around.
In this sense, giving thanks is a voluntary act, with intention and purpose. Now, why do we bring physical things to God? Does God eat? Does He have human needs? Why not give to the poor, the widow and orphan? I think that is why later it speaks of presenting tithes to the Levites and to the poor, to distinguish that what is for God is not for men and that one does not preclude the other.
Second lesson: when receiving something from the Eternal, we should not sit back and do nothing; it is very clear that human effort, in the form of work, must be part of the blessing. Today the world believes that blessing means receiving money and fame for free, without deserving it, which is good, but it is superfluous and vain. However, the value of work and effort together with discipline is a pillar of the Torah and in fact, feeling useful is one of the purposes of life. Devarim says that when God gives us the inheritance of the land, we will have to follow certain orders such as possessing it (ridding it of its former “tenants”), living in it (building houses), taking (choosing) the first fruits, gathering the fruits of the land, putting them in a basket, and going (traveling) to the place that the Eternal chooses (Jerusalem) to make a declaration. All of these verbs in chapter 26 require certain ingredients: “Willpower, movement, and effort.” There is a saying in our nation: “What costs little, is little appreciated.” For this reason, God blesses us through our efforts, so that we can appreciate what He gives us.
In my country and in all of Latin America, the worst evil that we have suffered for a long time is welfare, that is, we have become accustomed to thinking that we need subsidies and aid from local or foreign governments to get ahead. This type of thinking has destroyed our nations, because it does not motivate people to go out day after day to earn their daily bread, to reinvent themselves, to look for opportunities, to think and work for themselves. Israel never received welfare, rather the founders of the nation worked hard to get water and food, and this effort allowed them to develop in areas that they never imagined, to the point that today in the middle of the desert, Israel is self-sustaining in water, energy, food, technology, medicine, etc. So, every time things get difficult for you, every time you feel tired and harassed because things are not easy, be thankful, it is for your own good. I tell my children: cook, make your bed, do your homework, move, learn this or that, etc. And it’s because I want to put the DNA of effort and discipline into them.
Third lesson, why does God omit the name of Jerusalem in the Torah? Where do we get that Jerusalem is the place that God has chosen to dwell? Psalm 76:2 says, “Shalem became His dwelling place, and Zion, His shelter.”; Psalm 132:13 says, “For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it as His throne.”; 2 Chronicles 6:7 says, “But then I chose Jerusalem for My name to dwell there, and I chose David to rule over My people Israel.” There is no doubt that the place where God chose to erect a physical dwelling in those times was Jerusalem. Maimonides explains that the Torah does not clearly mention this in order to prevent other nations from fighting to occupy it thus making it difficult for the Jews to establish themselves there.
This leads me to think that the Torah protects us at all times, even by not clearly revealing certain things. We must act in the same way. We must not reveal everything we know to everyone, since we do not know the real intentions of others. We must not rush to see God’s promises fulfilled in our time. Do you know how much time passed between the revelation that God would have a place to live and the construction of the first temple? Approximately 480 years. That is to say, we often receive words from the Eternal through people, or we believe in the words of the Torah and make them our own, but we really must not lose heart when time passes and we do not see fulfilled what the Eternal has told us. Abraham was told that he would be a great nation, but between that divine revelation and the exodus from Egypt when we see Israel for the first time developing as a nation, 720 years had passed.
The fourth lesson: In the Mishnah, tractate Masechet Bikkurim explains how the first fruits were transported to the Temple in Jerusalem. It says: “All the villagers of the region would gather in the main village and sleep in the streets. In the morning, they would call out to the leader, saying: Come, and we will go up to Zion, to the House of our God!” Then the group would set out. Before them went an ox; its horns were covered with gold, and its head adorned with an olive garland, and before them went the men who played and showed the way to Jerusalem. When they arrived at the Holy City, each man would decorate his basket with his first fruits, and the high dignitaries would come out to meet them and say: Welcome, brothers! The flutes led them to the Temple, and there each one carried his first fruits on his shoulder and placed them before the altar, pronouncing the words of chapter 26 verse 5 to the middle of verse 10. Even the king had to carry his first fruits, like every other Jew.” When we read the interpretation of this ceremony and procedure, it is beautiful, say the sages: “This offering meant the recognition of the divine order in nature and of the existence of the Supreme Being, to whom the first fruits were consecrated as a sign of gratitude. The horns of the ox were covered with gold, which meant that work leads the people to prosperity and only prosperity based on work is true. The ox carried on its head the branch of the olive tree: The olive tree is the symbol of the light of wisdom and science, that is, that prosperity should not lead us only to fictitious material progress, but to a true advance in the order of the spirit.”
I found this description so beautiful because it agrees with what I spoke about previously – we are grateful for who we recognize. The value of work leads us to prosperity, but work without wisdom and knowledge is in vain, because what is the use of gaining the whole world if we do not cultivate the soul? I love the idea that before the ox, there were flute players playing to direct the people on the road to Jerusalem, that is, their final resting place was Jerusalem. This picture is the summary of each life that God has placed on earth, in which with a little effort, knowledge and wisdom we will achieve prosperity, but this is not our goal, our end is to go to Jerusalem. So, what would it mean to go to Jerusalem?
Jerusalem, according to Bereshit began as the city Salem שלם, the root of the word being Shalom (peace שָׁלוֹם), and this was the place where a king with the title of Melchizedek (king of justice) reigned, and who according to tradition was Shem, Noah’s son. Then, it appears for the first time in the Tanach with the name of Jerusalem in the book of Joshua chapter 10, relating that a king with the title of Adoni-tzedek (LORD of justice) reigned in that place, however, this apparently good king was a king whom God decided to destroy, and in this episode, the miracle occurs where the sun and the moon stop, and where it says “Because God fought for Israel. Neither before nor after has there been a day like this in which God acted according to the words spoken by someone else. “
Etymologically, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia and other scholars, we are taught that there are many meanings to the word Jerusalem, such as: “Abode of peace”, “Abode founded on security”, “foundation of peace”, “possession of peace” (Yireh-Shalom), “house of peace” (Yeru-Shalem), “seeing peace” (Ira-Shalem).
So, where am I going with all this? A very simple teaching is that Jerusalem is not just a physical place on earth, widely recognized as the capital of the State of Israel, or part of a phrase that we recite on Rosh Hashanah: “Next year in Jerusalem”; there is much more to it than that. Rabbi Shaul teaches us that there is a spiritual Jerusalem which comes from God (as we read in the book to the Galatians). In fact, the idea of building a Temple was that it would be a point of connection between Hashamayim (the Heavens – God) and Earth where the Presence of the One would manifest itself. And then, Yochanan describes a vision recounted in the book of Revelation chapter 21 where he sees a renewed world and Jerusalem to celebrate the wedding between the Eternal and his People, which is the revelation of Sinai.
We can spend our lives working, achieving triumphs, making a name for ourselves, acquiring wisdom and knowledge, spreading the seed of gratitude and honoring God with our offerings, but all this is temporary; our goal is to stand before making a declaration in the place of our final dwelling, in the Presence of the Most High, in the place, as we read at the beginning, where all nations will gather before the Divine Throne to worship, to honor, and not live according to our deceitful heart, but with a renewed heart. We can live in a state of Shalom! Yes! In a state of peace where I continue to dwell safely under the shadow of the Most High.
My prayer for this Shabbat is that we find the path to our Eternal Jerusalem, that we can recognize that we could not have existed if we had obeyed the voice of the Aramaean who wanted to destroy us, and that what we are and have achieved as fruit until today, is thanks to the good Hand of the Eternal.
Shabbat Shalom
Mauricio Quintero