Wholly entrance into the land

B"H

Dvarim (Deut) Ch. 26:1 reads:
והיה כי תבוא אל הארץ אשר ה' אלקיך נתן לך נחלה וירשתה וישבת בה

Loosely translated:
And it shall come to pass when you enter the land which the L-rd your G-d gives you as inheritance and you shall inherit it and dwell in it....

Rashi comments on the sentence:
והיה כי תבוא וגו' וירשתה וישבת בה: מגיד שלא נתחייבו בבכורים עד שכבשו את הארץ וחלקוה

Loosely translated:
When you come etc... and you shall inherit it and dell in it: teaches us that they were not obligated to bring the first-fruits until after the conquered the land and divided it (amongst the tribes.)

Rahi gets this interpretation for the juxtaposition of 16:1 which talks about conquering the land with 16:2 which talks about bring the first-fruits as a thankgiving offering:
ולקחת מראשית כל פרי האדמה אשר תביא מארצך אשר ה' אלקיך נתן לך ושמת בטנא

Loosely translated:
And you shall take from all first-fruit of your land which you shall harvest from the land that the L-rd your G-d gives you and you shall put it in a basket.

Because conquering the land (and diving it) is juxtaposed to bringing the first-fruits as an offering to Hashem, it's clear that the former is a prerequisite for the second, as Rashi points out.

But Rashi is telling us something a bit deeper:
Conquering the land took 7 years. Dividing it took another 7. The whole process took 14 years, then. However, once the conquering was over and the division process has began, some people would have gotten their potion earlier-on, while other got their portion toward the end of the 14 years.

One might think that the people who got their portion earlier would be obligated to bring the first-fruit thanksgiving offering earlier (i.e. once their fields yielded crop, which could even be the very same year they got their portion.)

Rashi therefore clarifies this for us: despite the fact that by the end of the 14 years the land was fully divided, those who got their portion earlier-on did not bring their first-fruit thanksgiving offering until after EVERYONE got their portion. (Goes to show us that a Jew cannot be fully happy with their lot if he/she knows that their's another Jew out there somewhere who is lacking theirs!)

So, according to this Rashi, the term והיה כי תבוא (=And it shall come to pass when you enter the land) does not mean "as soon as you enter the land". In other words, "when you enter" does not mean "when you physically set foot". Instead, Rashi tells us that "when you enter" means "when you wholly enter, every last Jew enters and gets their allotted portion."

Put differently, the שלמות (=wholeness, completion and perfection) of entering the land only occured when everyone got their portion. Until that time (14 years after physically entering the land) it cannot be said that the Jews "entered the land" in the complete sense.

Some sources (need citation) also give a homiletic interpretation of 16:1
והיה כי תבוא: And it shall come to pass that when the Jewish neshama (=soul) enters
אל הארץ: into the earthly (mundane) body
אשר ה' אלקיך נתן לך: that the L-rd G-d has provided you with

And Rashi comments (as derived above) that the wholeness and perfection of this entrance is only once the land (=homiletically the mundane body) is fully conquered and divided. What does it mean to conquer and divide the mundane body?

An answer:
Each person has within him-/herself the pull towards mundane, earthly things (=ארציות) . The Torah is teaching us that the neshama isn't fully finished entering the body, in שלמות, until the Jew battles his animalistic-self and conquers his/her ארציות and subjugates it to the service of Hashem, thereby rectifying it and making bringing it into the realm of holiness.

Once that's done, and a person's ארציות has been elevated and conquering is therefore complete, it is time to divide the mundane body: each part of the body is involved in a different manner of serving Hashem: the hand is set aside for giving Tzdaka (charity) and downing Teffilin. The foot is set aside for walking to study hall. The head is set aside for learning Hashem's Torah. The heart for loving Hashem, etc...

When a person reaches this level of conquering his/her ארציות and then dividing and giving each body part the prescribed mitzvot specific to it and engaging it in its specific service of Hashem, then it can be said that the neshama has "Wholly entered the body with שלמות."


On the surface, this presents one small complication: battling with the body's inclinations and conquering one's ארציות is something that's related to בעלי תשובה (=penitents). However, for צדיקים (=righteous individuals) there's no war to fight and no ארציות to conquer: a צדיק has no animalistic self. By such a person, there's only the division part that needs to take place, without a prerequisite war. Where is this hinted to in the Torah?

A possible answer: In Bamidbar (Numbers) Ch. 21:32 we find:
וישלח משה לרגל את יעזר וילכדו בנתיה

Loosely translated:
And Moshe sent spies to spy on Yahzer, and they conquered [it and] it's suburbs (see Rashi on the verse).

So, the spies were able to conquer the whole land of Israel, if they did not go off the path of righteousness and drag the whole nation with them.

Therefore, theoretically, if the spies did indeed conquer the land during the 40 days they spent there then the Jewish people would have maintained the status of צדיקים and would have have not needed to resort to fighting a war -- simply enter the land and divide it amongst themselves -- as is the case of a צדיקים. However, since they allowed themselves to follow the spies they ended falling from the level of צדיקים to the point that they needed to repent and become בעלי תשובה, which necessitate fighting with ארציות.

Good shabbos!

Each mitzvah stands on its own

B"H

Vaikra (Leviticus) Chapter 19:8 reads as follows:
ואכליו עונו ישא כי את קדש ה` חלל

Loosely translated:
v. 8: And whoever eats it shall carry his iniquities, for he has profaned that which is holy to G-d.

Rashi explains (and indeed proves from scripture) that this verse requires that a person should have the intention of eating the sacrifice in the alloted place (i.e., the Temple.)

From Rashi's explanation we can actually see that a person who goes ahead and eats the sacrifice outside the alloted place is not liable of כרת (=being spiritually cut off) as is the case of פִּגּוּל (see verse 7.)

Verse 8 appears to deal with a more pragmatic, specific and practical rule pertaining to sacrifices, as opposed to a general principle in- (or indeed the whole concept of) sacrifices -- hence the leniency.

So, actually eating the sacrifice at the wrong place does not invalidate the entire sacrifice, and albeit the sacrifice has not been offered in the most perfect or ideal manner, it is nonetheless accepted. (Perhaps a bit more effort is needed next time to make things perfect.)

We can also learn a lesson from this something relating day-to-day Jewish life:
A person might have some issues with the the pragmatic & practical observance of some of the 613 Mitzvot (G-d's commandments). This analogous to eating the sacrifice at the wrong place: perhaps his observance is not most perfect and ideal.

Nonetheless he/she is not in odds with the general principle of Mitzvot (analogous to having the wrong temporal intentions of verses 6 and 7). For that reason, his sacrifice, as it were, is accepted nonetheless. And indeed it's precious to Hashem -- the fact that he/she has issues with one Mitzvah, or another, does not detract from the value of his/her observance of yet a third Mitzvah.

Each Mitzvah stands on it's own and each one is wholly pleasurable to Hashem. Perform a Mitzvah when you get an opportunity, even if you do not feel you can commit to continuously performing it, and even if you do not feel the difference.