Visualizing the Parsha

This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, starts with the bikurim, the first fruit offering. Are these all fruits or just some? According to Rashi, the bikurim are only the fruits of the seven species. He learns that it is not all fruits from the “mem”, the word that translates as “of”:

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 26:2–

You shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground

Rashi learns that the word “eretz” used both here and when it mentions the 7 species teaches us that it is the seven species that one needs to bring as bikurim.

It says in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 8:8–

a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey;

So in order to learn this better, I decided to draw some pictures. And who decided to join me but my daughter. First, some notes for next year: we both need to learn what wheat and barley look like:

Next on the list are the grapes. Can you guess who drew which grapes:

Do these look like figs:

Now our pomegranate drawings:

(I am hoping to work on a pomegranate watercolor, as a pre-Rosh Hashana siman post)

Olives:

Finally, the honey was supposedly the honey of dates:

Hope you will remember this Rashi, having seen all these drawings to go with the bikurim.

Check out Daniel Saunder’s post on the bikurim.