Bamidbar

Rashi (Shelach 15,39) quotes the Midrash Tanchuma, “The eyes and the heart are the sinful spies of the body….The eye sees, the heart desires, and the body commits the sin”. If the chain of sin begins with the eyes, why does the Torah mention the heart first: “Do not explore after your heart and after your eyes”? HaRav Yitzchak Luria (1534-1572), the Ari z”l (an acronym for Elohi Rabbi Yitzchak, the G-dly Rabbi Yitzchak) teaches that the mitzvah of Bikurim, the bringing of the first fruits to the Bais HaMikdash, is a catharsis for the sin of the Meraglim, Spies (“lturei Torah” in the name of HaGaon Rav Menachem Zemba zt”l). In what way is the mitzvah of Bikurim a remedy for slandering the Land of Israel?

The Gemara in Avodah Zarah 28b teaches that one may desecrate the Shabbos for the treatment of an eye ailment for “the eyesight is connected to the heart muscles”, implying a physical connection between the eye and the heart. Tosfos, however, explains the Gemara differently. “The perception of the eye is contingent on the understanding of the heart.” In other words, we do not see things as they are, we see things as we are, depending on our heart’s bias. King Shlomo echoes the same idea in Koheles (1,16), “And my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge”, for, indeed, it is the heart that qualifies what we see (Koheles Rabbah). Dovid HaMelech, too, (Tehillim 115,5) describes the idols and their worshippers as “having eyes, but cannot see”, for they are blinded by their pagan hearts. The Gemara in Shabbos (105b) refers to the Yetzer Hora as a foreign god, making those whose hearts are tainted by the Yetzer Hora as blind as the idol worshippers themselves. We can now understand why the Torah instructs us not to explore after our heart and after our eyes. Indeed it is the heart, by virtue of its bias and loyalty to the Yetzer Hora, that compromises what we see. Our first concern, therefore, must be the purification of our hearts.

Let us attempt to understand the correlation between Bikurim and the Spies. The Commentators explain that although the Spies technically did not lie, their sin was their failure to see the true nature of the Land of Israel. In the words of Rashi (13,2), “The evil spies saw but they could not perceive the true lesson”. Upon witnessing mass funerals, they reported that “the land devours its inhabitants (13,32)”. The Spies failed to understand that it was the custom of the Canaanim to delay burial until the demise of a righteous personality. They believed that the souls of the masses would find peace through the soul of the righteous personality, if they buried them simultaneously. When the Meraglim entered the land, Iyov had just passed away, triggering the mass funerals, as per the Cannanite custom (Likutei HaAri z”l). The visual perception of the Meraglim was tainted by the bias of their hearts. Their subconscious did not want the people to settle in the land. This was either because they knew that they would be replaced as the leaders upon entering the land (Zohar) or they were afraid to leave the spiritual oasis of the desert and begin living a physical mundane existence in the Land (Likutei Torah) or because they loved their Rebbi, Moshe, and knew that his demise was contingent upon their entering the Land (Rav Yisroel of Kotznitz, Avodas Yisroel). We can now understand the healing effect of the mitzvah of Bikurim. The Mishna in Bikurim (3,1) describes how the fruit becomes Bikurim. “A person enters his field, and sees a first ripe fig…he ties it with a ‘gemi’ (i.e. a blade of grass) and declares: “This is for the mitzvah of Bikurim”. The Rebbe, Rav Moshe Leib of Sassov zt”l explains that “gemi” (comprised of the Hebrew letters: gimmel, mem, and yud) is an acronym for Gedolim Maasei Hashem - Great are the works of Hashem. The farmer sees the first fruit and instead of allowing his heart to influence him to see his own personal prowess and accomplishment, sees the great Hand of Providence. This, indeed, is the diametric opposite of the Meraglim, that failed to see the Hand of Hashem but were swayed after the bias of their hearts.

May we all be zocheh to tie a “gemi” upon everything we see and experience and be comforted by the loving Hand of Divine Providence and not by the wild and false allure of the bias of our hearts.