Comentários de Citação sobre Deuteronômio 31:21

ושמת בטנא, “and you shall place it in a basket.” According to the plain meaning of the text the bikkurim were a distinctive present for the priest, an honor for the Almighty, and its presentation was of great practical use for the people of Israel. It was a present of great distinction for the priest seeing that the farmer personally carried the gift all the way to Jerusalem from whatever part of the country he lived in. It was an honor for the Almighty seeing that the farmer came all the way to offer prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord in connection with the bikkurim. The farmer acknowledged that all blessing originates with the Lord. The bikkurim procedure was of practical use to the Jewish people seeing that fulfillment of this commandment resulted in the bounty of the fields and orchards being greatly increased as G’d’s response to fulfillment of the commandment. The word טנא means the same as סל, “basket.” It serves as a receptacle for the fruit. This verse is the source for the ruling that the bikkurim must be presented in a receptacle (Maimonides Hilchot Bikkurim 3,7). This is one of seven different parts of the procedure of bringing the bikkurim. They are: 1) bringing them to the designated site, 2) presentation in a suitable receptacle; 3) reciting the appropriate verses from the Torah; 4) the actual presentation to the priest; 5) an accompanying song, 6) the “heaving” of the fruit. 7) The remaining of the owner inside Jerusalem on the night following presentation. Let us describe the stages in detail: Bringing the fruit to a designated place, i.e. Jerusalem, is based on the line: “you will proceed to the place designated by the Lord to make a residence there for His name” (26,2). The need to deposit the bikkurim in a receptacle is based on the words ושמת בטנא, the same verse. The best way to comply with this instruction is to present each species of bikkurim in its own receptacle. However, if the various species have all been presented in the same receptacle this is acceptable. They must not, however, be mixed inside that receptacle but inferior species must be placed below superior species, such as the wheat which must be on top of the barley. Dates would have to be placed on top of both species of grain, etc. The figs are to be on top of all the other species. There is not to be a foreign substance intervening between the various layers of the fruit if they are all presented in the same receptacle (basket). It is best to surround the figs with grapes (Maimonides ibid.).
The donor brings pigeons and turtle doves at the same time as a sacrificial offering seeing the Torah writes: “you shall rejoice with all the goodness” (and there is no true enjoyment unless accompanied by the eating of some kind of meat (Pessachim 109). These birds were suspended on the sides of the basket in order to decorate the bikkurim. The birds attached to the baskets were offered as burnt-offering, whereas the ones carried by the donors in their hands served as peace-offerings, and they were given to the priests of the respective roster. The priests divide them among themselves as they do with other offerings (Maimonides Hilchot Bikkurim 3,1). The recital of the verses pertaining to this commandment consisted of the reading of verses 5-to the middle of verse 10. This recital is to be in a loud voice and in Hebrew (the text of the verses of the Torah in its original). This requirement is based on the words of Deut. 31,21 וענתה השירה הזאת, “this song shall speak up as...” Just as that song has to be recited in the original Hebrew, so the acknowledgment of G’d’s bounty when bringing the bikkurim has to be in the original Hebrew. Both the passages employ the word וענית when introducing the obligation. We find that expression also in connection with the recital of the confession of the elders that their hands are free from guilt of the unidentified victim of murder described at the end of Parshat Shoftim (Deut. 21,7). This declaration also has to be made in Hebrew(Sotah 44).
קרבן, the presentation of the offering; every person offering bikkurim must also offer a peace-offering. Song; the need to accompany the offering by a “song” is based on the verse: “you shall rejoice with all the goodness,” and joy is traditionally expressed as a form of song. Our sages base this on Psalms 33,3: הטיבו נגן בתרועה, “play sweetly with shouts of joy.” This is what the Levites did, beginning when the donors brought the bikkurim to the lobby of the Temple (עזרה). The “heaving,” waving of the basket with its contents. This is derived from the word והנחתו, “you are to deposit it,” implying that prior to being deposited it was “lifted, waved,” etc. The procedure consisted of the priest placing his hand under the hand of the owner and waving it to and fro (Sukkah 16). This is the meaning of the words (verse 4) “and the priest shall take (accept) the basket from your hand and place it in front of the altar of the Lord your G’d,” i.e. to swing it in front of the altar. לינה, the requirement for the donor to spend the following night in Jerusalem. This rule is derived from Deut 16,7: “and you will turn in the morning (after the Passover) and return to your tents.” It is forbidden to depart from Jerusalem except on the morning after (or later). (Maimonides Hilchot Bikkurim 3,14)
The bikkurim are forbidden to non-priests as the Torah has compared them to תרומה, describing them as תרומת ידך, “the gift of your hand,” in Deut. 12,17. Our sages in Makkot 17 base this inference on the word מידך which follows the word הטנא in verse 4 of our chapter. Just as a non-priest must not eat תרומה, so he is also forbidden to eat bikkurim. A priest who is in pre-mourning for close relatives (אונן) is also forbidden to eat the bikkurim while in that state. Clearly, he is not in a joyous frame of mind, a prerequisite for eating bikkurim as we have explained (Maimonides Hilchot Bikkurim 3,6).

The verse also contains an allusion to the כנסת ישראל, the Jewish people as a conceptual entity. We find that this term is applied to women in such verses as Isaiah 54,5: כי בעליך עושיך, "for He who has made you will espouse you;" the prophet also continues: ואשת נעורים, "and the wife of your youth;" the prophet Hoseah describes the relationship of G'd and כנסת ישראל in Hoseah 2,21: וארשתיך לי לעולם, (G'd speaking to His bride) "I will betroth Myself to you forever, etc." Isaiah 50,1: "where is the bill of divorce I have given you?" There are more such verses to be found scattered throughout the Books of the Prophets. וילדה זכר, "and she gives birth to a male child, etc." when viewed from a moral-ethical vantage-point, the Torah reveals that when the מזריע the initiative for the husband-wife relationship with G'd originates with the Jewish people, the כנסת ישראל, then the product of such an initiative will be a male child, זכר, the entire nation will attain the highest spiritual level. The word זכר, male, is hyperbole for the highest moral-ethical achievenment. In Sanhedrin 98 and Shemot Rabbah 15 the superiority of the ultimate redemption to the redemption at the time of the Exodus from Egypt is described. The ultimate redemption is perceived there as the corollary of Israel distinguishing itself by the performance of good deeds, etc. The prophet described the Exodus in terms of Israel being "naked and nude" (Ezekiel 16,7). Clothing is perceived as a layer of מצות and good deeds covering our bodies. The inadequacy of the Jewish people at the time of the Exodus is underlined in Deut. 4,34 where G'd describes the Exodus as wrenching one people from the midst of the same people, something that made it legally difficult for G'd to justify taking the Israelites out of Egypt when He did. That redemption has been described only in female terms and that is why it did not endure in the end and the Temple was destroyed. Not so the redemption of the future which will occur as a direct result of Israel's merits. First and foremost among those merits is Israel's preoccupation with Torah as described in Deut. 31,21 something that will never be forgotten even during a protracted period of exile. The Torah continues: וטמאה, the mother contracts ritual impurity as a result of giving birth. Here the Torah alludes to the way G'd initiates a process which culminates in the rehabilitation of Israel so that it will attain a spiritual level that qualifies for the description זכר. The "days" mentioned here are to be understood as seven years similar to Genesis 24,55 where Laban and his mother wanted Rebeccah to delay her departure by ימים, i.e. a year. The years which are viewed as the חבלי משיח, the birth-pangs of the Messiah, last for seven years during which Israel will be refined spiritually in preparation of his arrival. He will make his appearance during the eighth year. On the eighth day, at the beginning of the eighth day (year), the baby is to have its foreskin removed, i.e. the concept of a foreskin which acts as a barrier between man and G'd will be removed from the universe. We read in Zachariah 13,2 that G'd will destroy the spirit of impurity from the earth. This will occur during the eighth year. It is well known that conceptually the foreskin is identical with the forces of the קליפה, the spiritually negative emanations. When the Torah wrote the word וטמאה, describing the state of the mother, this is a simile for the afflictions experienced during the birth-pangs of the Messiah.

When the Torah speaks of ומצאה קוצים, this is a reference to the wicked who are considered nothing but painful thorns. The expression ומצאה may be understood in a sense similar to Deut. 31,21 that "trouble befell them." The justification for using the word מצאה is that the wicked have no one who is responsible for them, either benevolently or otherwise. Wickedness means rejection of authority. G'd is the only true authority, and He has abandoned them as a result of their deliberate wickedness. Anything that happens in their lives subsequently is in the nature of a מציאה, a find, something one comes upon accidentally. Anyone who encounters such a person may do to him what he wants without divine interference. The verse also informs us that once fire has been given permission to act destructively, i.e. as the attribute of Justice, it will not only burn the thorns but it will also consume the stack of corn (the good, the useful). The choice of the word גדיש is an allusion to youngsters studying Torah, children who have not yet attained the height of adults, i.e. קמה. They are swept away together with the guilty as part of the troubles sweeping society. According to Shir Hashirim Rabbah on Song of Songs 1,4, when G'd was about to give the Jewish people the Torah He demanded guarantors that the people would continue to observe it. After having turned down the patriarchs as suitable guarantors, the Midrash relates that G'd accepted the people's children as their guarantors. This is the meaning of Psalms 8,3: "from the mouths of infants and sucklings You have established strength, etc." As a result of this arrangement the attribute of Justice is entitled to include such children in retribution when these forces are at work.

ואין עמו אל נכר AND THERE WAS NO STRANGE GOD WITH HIM — for not one of the gods of the other peoples possessed the power to display its might and to war with them. — Our Rabbis, however, explained it as a promise referring to the future (cf. Sifrei Devarim 315), and so, too, does Onkelos render it. But I say that they (the statements of this chapter) are words of reproof which he said with the view of calling heaven and earth as witnesses against them, and also in order that this song (cf. Deuteronomy 31:21) should be witness, because He knew (Deuteronomy 31:29) that they would in future prove faithless and would bear in mind neither the past (lit., the first) deeds that He performed for them nor those that would come to pass (lit., that would be born), which at a future time He would do for them. For this reason it is necessary to make the text fit in with this and with that (the past and the future). Indeed, the whole section is to be connected with (v. 7) “Remember the days of old (i.e., the past), consider the years of generation after generation” (the future) (cf. Rashi on that verse): Thus has He done for them and thus will He in the future do for them — all this they ought to bear in mind.

[17] And I will wait for the Lord, Who hides His countenance... There is no harsher prophecy than that time when Moses said (Deut. 31:18): “And I will surely hide My countenance on that day.” And even on that very day, He promised them, “And this song shall testify before him as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten from the mouth of his seed” (ibid.).