First Fruit (deuteronomy: ki tavo)

First fruits, blessings and our Promised Land. I dive into it all via The Rebbe, Jay-Z, Mark Twain, The Arizal and a memory of my Savta from Addis Ababa and Yemen in this week’s Parashah, Ki Tavo! Here are a few paragraphs from the dvar; The first fruits only became required once we entered, conquered, allocated and settled the Land. So the mitzvah was not a thanksgiving of the gift of the land by Hashem, but is contingent on our settling the land as a permanent home. Only then can we rejoice with peace of mind, and when we are at peace, blessings reveal themselves. The same way we need to conquer and settle the physical promised land, we need to do that in our own struggle within spiritual selves, making sure that we don’t doubt ourselves to the point of blocking our own blessings. As Jay-Z says on Welcome to the Jungle: Where did I go? I’m losing myself, I’m stuck in the moment I look in the mirror, my only opponent. Our own promised lands are in our own control. Sometimes it feels like it takes a miracle before we would see it or feel at ease and unified to the point that it would manifest as a feeling of peace or enlightenment, but we have to enter into the process within ourselves, conquer our own doubts and parts of us that act as enemies towards our own selves. When we can settle ourselves to a space of peace, then we can reach a feeling of our own Promised Land. ** Audio/Podcast version - https://lightofinfinite.com/podcast/ ** To pre-order the first of the five book series, “LIGHT OF THE INFINITE: THE GENESIS OF LIGHT”, click https://bit.ly/3B3FOGi & OF COURSE, BE SURE TO READ THIS DVAR IN FULL @ https://lightofinfinite.com/first-fruit/ ---------------------- Thanks for listening/reading. Much love, Erez Safar ** Follow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lightofinfinite *** Follow on instagram: @thelightofinfinite