In פרשה כי תבא, the Torah tells us about the mitzvah of bikurim. The mitzvah was, as the pasuk says, ולקחת מראשית כל פרי האדמה, you should take from the first of all the fruit of your land, אשר תביא מארצך, that you will bring from your land אשר ה' אלקיך נותן לך, that ה' your God gives you, ושמת בטנא, you should put it into a basket, והלכת אל המקום אשר יבחר ה' אלקיך לשכן שמו שם, and you should come to the place that ה' will choose to dwell, His name should be there. And the pasuk continues, ובאת אל הכהן אשר יהיה בימים ההם, you should come to the kohen that's going to be in those days, ואמרת אליו, and you should say to him, it says הגדתי היום לה' אלקיך etc., then the pasuk says, ולקח הכהן הטנא מידך, the kohen should take the basket from your hand, והניחו לפני מזבח ה' אלקיך, and he should put it in front of the mizbeach of ה' your God, וענית ואמרת לפני ה' אלקיך, you should answer and say in front of ה' etc. etc. It goes on with the parashah of bikurim that a Yid was supposed to say when he brought the bikurim. Concerning this mitzvah of bikurim, as we said, in the Torah it says, ושמת בטנא, you should put it into a basket, and later the pasuk also says that the kohen will take the טנא מידך, he will take the basket from your hand, and therefore the din is that הביכורים טעונין כלי, that the bikurim need a keli, you must bring the bikurim in a keli, in a vessel, as it says in Sifrei, and the Rambam paskens that way in Hilchot Bikurim פרק ג הלכה ז, that it must have a basket. We know that every mitzvah that we have, in addition to the simple meaning of the mitzvah, the literal meaning of the mitzvah, the way you were supposed to perform the מצוה בגשמיות, in a physical sense, also has a רוחניות'דיקע meaning, and has a spiritual רמז, a spiritual lesson to a Yid, and it has an explanation based on רמז and דרוש. So this mitzvah of ביכורים also has a רמז and a דרוש the way it is in a more spiritual sense, and therefore we must say that this din, that ביכורים must have a כלי, also must have a reason, a spiritual reason, an explanation also based on רמז and דרוש of this pasuk. We find even more, that not only must ביכורים have a כלי, but we find that if the כלי was made of more simpler stuff, of more cheaper stuff, then the כלי actually became part of the mitzvah of ביכורים. This shows a stronger connection between the mitzvah of ביכורים and the כלי, because the din is, as the Rambam says there in פרק ג of הלכות ביכורים הלכה ח, that הביאום בכלי מתכות, if they brought the ביכורים in a metal כלי, then נוטל הכהן הביכורים, the כהן would take the ביכורים, וחוזר הכלי לבעליו, he would give back the כלי to its owner, but ואם הביאום בכלי ערבה וחלף, but if he would bring it in a כלי made of reeds and things, similar things, וכיוצא בהן, הרי הביכורים והסלים לכהנים, then the ביכורים and the basket would go to the כהנים. And this is all based on what the Mishnah says in ביכורים פרק ג משנה ח, that העשירים מביאים ביכוריהם בקלתות של כסף ושל זהב, that the rich people would bring their ביכורים in baskets of silver and gold, והעניים מביאים אותם בסלי נצרים, but the poor people would bring them in basket made of reeds, של ערבה קלופה, והסלים והביכורים ניתנים לכהנים, and the baskets and the ביכורים would be given to the כהנים. And from this Mishnah, the Gemara in בבא קמא דף צ״ב עמוד א learns out that מנא הא מילתא דאמרי אינשי, from where do we know a makor, a source to what people say, בתר עניא אזלא עניותא, that after a poor man poverty goes? From where do we see that if a person is poor then he gets poorer, on the other hand if a person is rich, then he gets more money? דתנן, it quotes this משנה, that the rich people that would bring it in כלים of כסף וזהב, they would get their כלים back, but the poor people, they would bring it in very cheap baskets, so their baskets would remain part of ביכורים given to the כהנים. So we see that since they were poor, they would lose even more. But anyway, we see from there that if the basket was made of very cheap stuff, made of פסולת גורן ויקב, made of the waste, so to speak, of the grain, etc., made of reeds and things that are very cheap, so then the כלי would actually become part of the mitzvah of ביכורים. So there must be a spiritual explanation, meaning a remez, a hint to this din also, that the cheaper the basket is, the more this would become part of the mitzvah of ביכורים. Lichorah, what is the reason that ביכורים needs a כלי בכלל, has to be put into a vessel, meaning the reason according to the remez and the drush, and also why is it That it if the כלי was made of cheaper things, then it would actually become part of the mitzvah of ביכורים.

So it's explained in sefarim, and also in detail in the Sefer Or HaTorah of the Tzemach Tzedek, he says that the mitzvah of ביכורים is a remez for נשמות ישראל, that's a remez for the neshamos of the Yidden before they came down to this world. Because the pasuk says in Hoshea, קאפיטל ט' פסוק י', כבכורה בתאנה בראשיתה ראיתי אבותיכם, like בכורה בתאנה when the תאנה becomes ripe in the beginning, that's how I saw your parents. So this refers to Klal Yisrael, and to the אבות of Klal Yisrael, and the פסוק uses the לשון כבכורה בתאנה בראשיתה. So we see that he refers to it with the term of ביכורים, and also with the word בראשיתה, ראשית, because ביכורים is called ראשית, as it says here, ולקחת מראשית כל פרי האדמה. So ביכורים is called ראשית because it is from the first fruit, and the פסוק there concerning the Bnei Yisrael also uses the לשון בכורה בתאנה בראשיתה. In addition to that, we find בכלל that the Yidden, the neshamos, are called ראשית, as it says in Yirmiyah, קאפיטל ב' פסוק ג', קודש ישראל לה' ראשית תבואתו, that the Yidden are holy to ה', they are the first of His תבואה. So the Yidden are called ראשית. And this is brought down also in Rashi in the beginning of Chumash in Parshas Bereishis, the first פסוק of Parshas Bereishis. So we see that the Bnei Yisrael are called ראשית. So the Bnei Yisrael are called ראשית, and ביכורים is called ראשית, as we also find in Parshas Mishpatim, קאפיטל כ''ג פסוק י''ט, and in Parshas Tisa, קאפיטל ל''ד פסוק כ''ו, there he refers to ביכורים as ראשית. The truth is, we find something else which is called ראשית, and that is תרומה. In פרשת קרח, קאפיטל י''ח פסוק י''ב, and in פרשת שופטים, קאפיטל י''ח פסוק ד', as Rashi explains there. So we see that תרומה is also called ראשית. We find something else that's called ראשית, and that is the Torah. As Rashi brings down in the beginning of פרשת בראשית, that the פסוק says in משלי, קאפיטל ח' פסוק כ''ב, ה' קנני ראשית דרכו, that Hashem' was קונה in the beginning of His דרך, and that refers to the Torah. So we see that the Torah is called ראשית, and תרומה is called ראשית. So it comes out that we have two things: we have ביכורים and תרומה both called ראשית, and we have the Bnei Yisrael and the Torah both called ראשית. As Rashi says in the beginning there, in בראשית, that בראשית, the word בראשית is made up of two words: ב' ראשית. So the word, the letter ב' could be a abbreviation of the word בשביל, and also ב' means two, so what the פסוק is really saying, בשביל ב' ראשית, that the world was created because of the two things which are called ראשית. And that is the Torah and the Bnei Yisrael. Why are those two called ראשית? Because, as it says, that they are קדמו לכל דבר. It says in Midrash, in Bereshit Rabbah פרשה א' ד' etc., in other places, that they are both קדמו לכל דבר, קדמו למעשה בראשית. That the Bnei Yisrael, the מחשבה of Hashem' to create the Bnei Yisrael, which means the source of the נשמות of the Bnei Yisrael, came before the creation of the world. That's why it's called ראשית. ראשית means first, and ראשית also means before. And the Torah also is קדמה before מעשה בראשית. The Torah also came before the creation of the world, as it also says אלפיים שנה קדמה תורה לעולם, that the Torah came before the world אלפיים שנה, 2,000 years, whatever the explanation should mean, be, but we do see that the Torah was before the creation. That's why Torah is also called ראשית.

Now between the two, the Torah and the Bnei Yisrael, which one came first? So it says in the Bereshit Rabbah mentioned before that מחשבתן של ישראל קדמה לכל דבר, that the מחשבה of the Bnei Yisrael, meaning the source of the נשמות ישראל, came before everything, even before the Torah, as it says there. So it comes out that the ראשית of the Bnei Yisrael is even a greater ראשית, a first ראשית, even before the ראשית of the Torah. This is the reason for the דין why ביכורים comes before תרומה. תרומה, we said before, is called ראשית. תרומה represents the ענין of Torah. That's why we find in the word תרומה the two words תורה מ', which means that this is the Torah that was given in 40 days. Moshe Rabbeinu went up to שמים for 40 days to get the Torah. So Terumah, which is made up of the letters ת, ר, ו, מ, ה, has the words Torah מ'. So Terumah is called ראשית, that represents the Torah which is called ראשית. Bikkurim is called ראשית, That represents the Bnei Yisrael, which are called ראשית, as we quoted before the pasuk where it says, כי בכורה בתאנה בראשיתה ראיתי אבותיכם. And just like we said that the Midrash says that מחשבתן של ישראל קדמה לכל דבר אפילו לתורה, that the machshavah, the thought of Hashem for the Bnei Yisrael, which means the source of the נשמות ישראל comes before even the source of Torah. So therefore, the din is that Bikkurim comes before Terumah, even though they're both ראשית, but the ראשית of Bikkurim comes before the ראשית of Terumah.

Now, since we said that Bikkurim represents the נשמות ישראל the way they are in the machshavah of Hashem, they're the ראשית, they came before the creation of the world, so just like we say by the נשמות ישראל, that even though the way the neshamah is in שמים, it stands in a very, very high level, in high madregah, as the pasuk says, it's a pasuk in מלכים א' קפיטל י\"ז, א', קפיטל י\"ח, ט\"ו, it's in מלכים ב' ג', י\"ד, קפיטל ה', ט\"ז, explained in the Zohar חלק א' רל\"ג, ע\"ב, and in חלק ג' דף ס\"ח, עמוד ב', the pasuk is חי השם, and the pasuk continues, אשר עמדתי לפניו. That this refers to the neshama the way it stood in front of Hashem. And the Zohar explains that this goes on the neshama the way it stood in front of Hashem before it came down to this world. And the neshama before it came down to this world stood in front of Hashem. What's the inyan of amidah, standing? אין עמידה אלא תפלה. Standing is tefillah. And it says bichlal that the neshama before it comes down to this world has no connection to gashmiyut, anything physical. It's only ruchniyut, and it constantly is involved only in being close to Hashem. Nevertheless, Hashem wants the neshama to come down into this world, into a body. It gets dressed into a body. It's put into a keli. Similar to bikkurim, which represents, as we said before, the neshama, the din is it must be put into a keli, so too, the neshama is put into a keli. The neshama is brought down into this world into a guf. And this what Hashem wants. Now, even though the keli covers up on the neshama, the neshama, the way it's in shamayim before it comes down, there is no העלם והסתר, we call it, there is nothing covered up, no obstacles in the serving of Hashem. When it's put into the keli, into the body, then the neshama has to work through the body. So the body covers up on the truth of the neshama, and makes it very hard for the neshama to do what it's supposed to do and feel what it feels. That's why the neshama feels itself in galut, so to speak, in exile, in jail in the body. But nevertheless, we know that even though this is a great yeridah, the neshama coming down into the body is a great lowering of its level, and it's referred to in ספרים as a yeridah from igra rama lebira amikta, which means as if it's a yeridah from a very high roof to a very deep hole. Nevertheless, it says that this yeridah is כדאי, is worthwhile, because this is a yeridah tzorech aliyah. It comes down, but the purpose of its coming down is because the נשמה reaches a higher מדרגה by coming down to this world than the way it was before. Because the way that the נשמה was before, as close as it was to Hashem, nevertheless, this is still a נשמה which was created by Hashem, so it really cannot be truthfully united with Hashem. The only way the נשמה could be truthfully united with Hashem is by fulfilling the mitzvot that Hashem gave us. Since we know that הוא ורצונו אחד, that Hashem and His will, which are the mitzvot, are one, הוא וחכמתו אחד, He and His wisdom are one, and since the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the wisdom of Hashem, so the wisdom of Hashem and Him are one, so the Torah really is Hashem, so when a נשמה down here does the mitzvot, connects itself to the ratzon, the will of Hashem, learns Torah, connects itself to the חכמה of Hashem, that's the way the נשמה becomes really one with Hashem, higher even than it was before. And that's why this yeridah into the גוף, into the כלי, is worthwhile. And the truth is even more. Hashem created the world with a purpose. The purpose was, as it says in the Midrash, that נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו דירה בתחתונים. Hashem had a desire to have a dwelling place in this low world. Hashem, for whatever reason He had, but this is what He wanted. He wanted that He should live, which means we should bring Him down into this world, into the low part of the world. Just like, generally speaking, this physical world, עולם הזה, is the lowest of all worlds, because there are higher spiritual worlds, עולמות עליונים. But this world is עולם התחתון, the lowest world. And Hashem wants that we should, in this low world, do His will and learn His chochmah, and doing that, we fulfill the desire that He had by creating this world. So too, within the world itself, the lower we go, so to speak, the more we bring Hashem into a lower מדרגה. We're only able to go as low as Hashem allowed us, and therefore, things which are forbidden, we are not allowed to do. But nevertheless, as low as Hashem wants us to go, the lower we go, the more we fulfill the desire of Hashem of bringing kedushah into a low part and elevating the low part. And therefore, we find that most of the mitzvot are מצוות מעשיות, are mitzvot connected to action. Even though the כח השכל, the intellect of the person, is in a higher מדרגה than the כח המעשה, than the person's ability to do, to act, nevertheless, most mitzvot are maaseh, because Hashem wants us to bring kedushah low, into the lowest parts of ourselves, into the כח המעשה. We have mitzvot which are connected to the brain and to the heart. There are mitzvot of שכל, learning Torah, understanding the Torah. There are mitzvot of the heart, the mitzvah of ahavat Hashem, to love השם, yirat Hashem, to fear of השם, ahavat Yisrael, to love another ייד, and a few other mitzvot which are connected to the feeling, but most mitzvot are מצוות מעשיות, because when we do it with a maaseh, we bring Hashem into a lower part of ourselves and a lower part of the world. We bring Hashem into a physical thing. For instance, when we eat matzah on Pesach, we bring kedushah into a physical part of the world, into the wheat that the matzah was made out of. When we put on tefillin, we bring kedushah into a piece of leather. So we bring, we make a דירה for Hashem into a very low part of the world. And this is the רמז in ביכורים. First of all, the רמז is that we have to put the ביכורים into a כלי. ביכורים represent the נשמות, the נשמות come down into a כלי, into the body. It's like a vessel that holds the נשמה in it. In addition to that, the cheaper the vessel is, the cheaper the basket is, the more connected it is to the מצוה of ביכורים. As we said before, that if it's a very cheap one, then this becomes part of the מצוה of ביכורים, and you give it to the כהן together with the fruit. This is a רמז that the lower you go, which means the מצוות that you do with the lower parts of yourself, and the מצוות you do with the physical things of the world, there you accomplish more of what Hashem wants when He sent a נשמה down to this world. Then the גוף, the low part, the מעשה, the כח המעשה, the גשמיות becomes united with the נשמה, and this gives an עליה to the נשמה, because the נשמה fulfills truthfully the desire of Hashem to make a דירה בתחתונים, a dwelling place in this low world. And this is the רמז in the fact that when the basket is cheaper, it's made of lower things, then this becomes actually part of the מצוה of ביכורים, which means that even the basket becomes part of the fulfillment of the רצון of Hashem, of the will of