Ki Tavo 5773

“You shall rejoice with all the good that the L-rd, your G-d, has granted you and your household…” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 26:11)

This verse, near the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, immediately follows instructions for bikkurim, which requires that we bring the first fruits of our field to the Temple in Jerusalem as an expression of gratitude to G-d.

Why, immediately following a bountiful harvest, such a great accomplishment, would people have to be commanded to be happy?

Rabbis Yisroel and Osher Anshel Jungreis in their book Torah for Your Table explain that Torah understands human nature, which never allows a person to be satisfied or content with what he has. Instead, people compare themselves and their attainments to those of others. We become jealous and think we should have more. Our jealousy mars our joy.

Write the Rabbis Jungreis: “To overcome these negative feelings, the Torah commands us to appreciate that whatever we have has been given to us by G-d [Who] knows what we require for our well-being….If we absorb this basic principle, if we bear in mind that it is G-d Who is in charge, that it is He Who provides us with all our needs, then we will be blessed with simchas hachayim [a life of happiness].”

As parents, we can only be as happy as our unhappiest child. When our children are content, we usually are, too.  If we want our children to be happy and well adjusted, we must train them to focus on what they have, rather than what they do not have, and teach them to express gratitude for what they have. There will always be someone whom they perceive to be wealthier, more intelligent, or more attractive. We must show our children how to find happiness and contentment in all the good that G-d has provided them individually and personally, starting with the simple gift of life which cannot be taken for granted.

Ki Tavo 5772

This week’s parsha begins with the mitzvah (commandment) of bikkurim, offering the first fruits to thank G-d for the Land of Israel and its produce. “And it will be, when you come into the land which the L-rd your G-d gives you for an inheritance, and you possess and settle in it, that you shall take of the first fruit of the ground, which you will bring from your land, which the L-rd your G-d is giving you…Then you shall rejoice with all the good that the L-rd your G-d has granted you and your household.”

Rashi notes that the law of bikkurim took effect 14 years after the people entered the land, only after the land was conquered (seven years) and divided (another seven years).  Why the wait?

Writes Rabbi Yossy Goldman on chabad.com: “In order to be able to fully experience the joy of his own blessings in life, a Jew needs to know that his brothers and sisters have been blessed as well.  As long as one Jew knew that there were others who had not yet been settled in their land, he could not be fully content. Since simcha, genuine joy, was a necessary component of the mitzvah of bikkurim, it could only be fulfilled when everyone had been satisfied…One Jew’s satisfaction is not complete when he knows that his brother has not yet been taken care of.”

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld writes: “We have to be joyous to truly feel G-d’s presence…We can attain a truly lasting joy by making ourselves complete...Ultimately, our rabbis teach us that we make ourselves complete by helping others…We cannot expect to be complete in our service of G-d unless we are sensitive to others. And more than that, the more we work on helping others…the closer we will become to G-d and the more joyous our prayer will be.”

As parents, we must show our children that we serve G-d with joy. If we show we are happy to help others and to perform mitzvot, our children will grow up knowing that avodat Hashem, doing what G-d asks us to do, is the formula for true and lasting happiness. Our children need to see that we have a relationship with G-d and that we do good and perform mitzvot because we love, and are grateful, to G-d.