WHAT COULD BE WRONG WITH GRAPES?
Probably nothing, that is nothing that should concern us, but the Torah is very clear about not eating fruit and grain crops until very specific things have been done:
When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before the Lord; and only in the fifth year may you use its fruit--that its yield to you may be increased.
Until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God, you shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears;
The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.
There are several approaches to these mitzvot:
- Ignore them because they say "when
you enter the land" and most of us do not live in the
land of Israel. But many other mitzvot that are generally
followed use that phrase--do we ignore them all?
- Ignore them because they cannot be
followed:
- who knows where our fruit comes from?
- there aren't any places to bring
the crops as an offering any more.
- Pay attention to them only if we
plant trees or crops, in which case: What do we do with
the fruit that forms in the first three years:
- Pick it?
- Don't pick it?
- Give to the poor?
- If prayers substitute for temple worship, would saying a blessing over the crops substitute for a temple offering?
You decide!
12/16/98
Bluethread ©1997 Rosemarie E. Falanga, Cy H. Silver