“When you have come to the land Adonai your God is giving you as your inheritance, taken possession of it and settled there; you are to take the first fruits of all the crops the ground yields, which you will harvest from your land that Adonai your God is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live.”-Deuteronomy 26:1-2
At this point in our Torah studies, we have actually been exposed to two so-called First fruits ceremonies.
The first one is called BIKKURIM in Hebrew and it’s connected with the spring festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread.
The second one is a summer festival connected with SHAVUOT (an observance Christian folks call Pentecost).
Finally, there’s a third “first fruits” observance held together with SUKKOT (Feast of Tabernacles).
Since this feast takes place at the end of the harvesting season when winter approaches, it’s also known as the “final ingathering”.
What’s important for you to know is that each of these three “first fruits” festivals are connected to the pilgrimage festivals.
In other words, out of the seven Biblical festivals, for three of them you have to travel to the Tabernacle (or Temple) with your offering of first fruits.
And that is the meaning of the command to “…go to the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live”.
After Israel seized and took control of Canaan, the place where the Lord chose to have His name live changed a couple of times.
In the beginning, Shiloh was the major Israelite worship center followed by other competing sites Israel built over time.
However, by the time of King David and his son Solomon, Jerusalem where the Temple was built would become the permanent location where HASHEM would establish His HOLY Name.
I’m done.
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