Ki-Tavo. National Treasure

When a farmer has worked for an entire season and watches as the first fruits from his field ripen, what might he do with these fruits, that represent an entire year of labour?

The Torah suggests that the fruits be transported to the Temple, and that the farmer enact a special ceremony.

What is this ceremony? And why is it so important for the Torah to detail this?

“You shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish His name.

You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him:

“I acknowledge this day before the Lord your God that I have entered the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to assign us.”

The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. You shall then recite as follows before the Lord your God:

“My father was a fugitive Aramean.

He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians de