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Ki Tavo begins with the Halachot of Bikkurim — the first fruits which were brought to the Kohen as both thanksgiving and rememberance of Pharaoh’s cruelty and Hashem’s deliverance of B’nai Yisrael from Mitzrayim to a land flowing with milk and honey. <\/p>\n The 3rd posuk of our parsha; “There [to the place of the Kohen] you shall go to the Kohen who shall be [officiating] in your days…” It is puzzling that Rashi on this posuk which to “in your days” he adds; “as he is.” <\/p>\n The 3rd posuk continues; “…and you shall say to him, ‘I profess this day to Hashem that I have come to the country which He [Hashem] swore to our fathers to give us.”<\/p>\n Torah Gems, by Aharon Yaakov Greenberg (Parsha Ki Tavo, pages 282-283 tells over a story and a definition which relate Perek 26, posuk 3 and to Rashi’s “as he is.”<\/p>\n The story related in the sefer by A. Frankel;<\/strong><\/p>\n R’ Meir Shapiro of Lublin once visited the Hafetz Hayyim in Radin for Shabbos. Over the seudah, R’ Meir asked the Hafetz Hayyim to say over a drasha. The Hafetz Hayyim responded that he was not well and was unable to fulfill the request. R’ Meir recalled to him this posuk; “You shall go to the Kohen who shall be in your days…” to which Rashi adds “as he is.” R’ Meir’s response pleased the Hafetz Hayyim (himself a Kohen), and he began to dwell on various Torah matters.<\/strong> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n The definition is attributed to Mei Shilo’ah;<\/strong><\/p>\n The word for “profess,” haggadah, is taken by our sages to mean a reproachful statement, because the farmer’s message to the Kohen was a stern one: “Do not think that you are superior to the farmers because you spend your time in service in the Beit HaMikdash (Temple). When a Jew brings his first fruits to the Beit HaMikdash he proves that there is holiness in every place, in the field just as much as as in the Beit HaMikdash.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The point of these two, as well as the point of Rashi’s amplifying addition to our posuk; “as he is,” seems to be striking the right balance of mutual respect and unity amongst B’nei Yisrael regardless of station; the Kohen or Kohen Godol and the farmer, the Godol HaD’or or the Talmudei Chachamim or those who learn all day in the Beit Medrash and those who work at the various fields of parnossa, etc.<\/p>\n As a Kohen myself, the kavod granted the Kohen by others seems necessary to be tempered by a sense of mutual respect for other brethren and their contributions to the good of and the unity of B’nei Yisrael. This tempering should hold in check or eliminate any tendency of a Kohen to “feel full of himself”, be “self-affectionated” or, in times of the Beit HaMikdash, that he shouldn’t feel entitlement to that in excess of what is rightly his.<\/p>\n And this lesson for Kohanim seems also a lesson for all of B’nei Yisrael and extends to such areas as corruption, envy, excessive use of protexia and more. This lesson seems yet another expression of V’Ahavta, L’rei’echa, Komocha!<\/p>\n May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the 3 captive Chayalim and the other MIAs be liberated and returned to us and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!<\/p>\n Good Shabbos!<\/strong><\/p>\n