והיה כי תבא אל הארץ אשר נשבע ה' לאבותנו, “it will be when you come to the land which the Lord has sworn to our forefathers to give to us;” basing themselves on the above line, the Mishnah in bikkurim chapter 1,4, concludes that a proselyte who offers the first ripe products of his orchard while allowed to offer them, must refrain from reciting the benediction which includes thanking the Lord for having given the land to “our fathers”, seeing that he had not been Jewish at that time. Nonetheless he is commanded to address the Lord our G–d in his prayers as “our G–d and the G–d of our fathers.” The reason for this ruling is that the Jerusalem Talmud in tractate bikkurim 1,4, has ruled that all converts are called descendants of Avraham, seeing that G–d had told him that he would become the “father of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17,5)

וענית ואמרת, “and you will respond by saying, etc.;” the recital of the prayer of thanksgiving must be performed audibly, but the recital of the “confessional” part starting with the words: בערתי את הקודש, “I have cleared out any sacred things, etc.” may be recited in a whisper. The text introduces it with the word: ואמרת, “you will say,” instead of וענית ואמרת

ושמחת בכל הטוב, “you will rejoice in all the good, etc.” our sages in the Talmud tractate Pesachim folio 36 derive the rule that the period during which these bikkurim may be offered in the Temple commences with the festival of Shavuot and concludes with the sukkot festival, by which time every type of harvest has produced at least some fruit that have ripened. This is also the reason why one of the names of the Shavuot festival is חג הבכורים, “festival of the first ripened fruit.” While it still possible to present such bikkurim at the Temple between sukkot and Chanukah, the paragraphs in our portion to be recited by the farmer who offers these fruits, may no longer be recited. The reason is that the term “ראשית,” “the first of,” would hardly be appropriate at that time of the year. After Chanukah no more such fruit may be offered in the Temple. The reason is that even the animals in the field will no longer find such species of fruit on the field.

והגר אשר בקרבך, “and the stranger that dwells in your midst.” Rabbi Joseph Kara raised the question of why a convert-who presumably does not own ancestral land belonging to Israel,- is mentioned in this paragraph at all. These firstling fruit are given only to Jewish priests, and only from land defined as ארצך, “your (ancestral) land?” This word specifically excludes produce not grown by Jews on Jewish land. Rabbi Yom Tov explained it to him and showed him a Midrash in which it is stated specifically that converts (referred to as גרים, onetime strangers, may bring bikkurim, but they may not recite the benediction in which we give thanks for the land which the Lord had sworn to our forefathers to give to Avraham’s descendants (Compare Mishnah 4,chapter 1 tractate Bikkurim. Since the Lord had not sworn to give this land to converts, he could obviously not give thanks for what had never been promised or given to him or his forefathers. Nonetheless, when he says his prayers, privately, he may refer to “our G–d, the G–d of the forefathers of Israel.” if his mother had been Jewish, he will use the same formula every Jew uses, i.e. “our G–d and G–d of our forefathers. In the Jerusalem Talmud Rabbi Yehudah states that the proselyte, though, of course, the land had not been given to his forefathers, may address G–d as also the G–d of our forefathers, as G–d has proclaimed Himself to be the “father” of all converts According to Rabbi Yehudah, the convert recites the same benediction as the natural born Jew when bringing bikkurim. This is based on G–d having appointed Avraham as the ”father” of a multitude of nations in Genesis 17,5. Rabbi Joshua, son of Levi stated that the halachah is according to the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah.

את ה' האמרת היום להיות לך לאלוקים....וה' האמירך היום להיות לו לעם סגולה, “You have affirmed this day that the Lord is your G–d.....and the Lord has affirmed to you this day that you are His special people, etc.” Concerning the precise meaning of these two verses, we read the following in the Talmud tractate B’rachot, folio 6: “The Holy One blessed Be He said: “you have declared Me as unique in the universe, by declaring “hear o Lord the Lord our G–d the Lord is unique.” Therefore I have reciprocated by declaring you as a unique people for Me.” (Compare Chronicles 1 17,21: ומי כעמך ישרך גוי אחד בארץ, “and who is comparable to Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth.” An alternate interpretation of our two verses: The word האמרת, means: “an exchange of something.” G–d credits the Jewish people with having traded in any other deities in favour of the invisible Creator, Who had revealed Himself to them at Mount Sinai. In response to that act, the Creator traded all the other 70 nations on earth as His potential favourite, and chose us instead. This would be similar to what Moses said in Psalms 94,4 יתאמרו כל פועל און, “for how long will the ones mouthing falsehoods (against Israel) be allowed to get away with it?” Still another interpretation of these unusual verses: The word אמיר occurs in Isaiah 17,6, שנים שלשה גרגרים באמיר, “two or three berries on the topmost branch;” here we would have to understand the word האמרת as meaning that Israel had elevated the Lord G–d to the topmost branch, and the Lord responded by elevating the Jewish people to the highest ranking nation. The expression יתאמרו כל פועלי און, corresponds to the psalmist describing the wicked people describing themselves (reflexive mode) as the most advanced and important in the world.