Here the Torah is stating the mitzvah to bring bikurim, the first fruits of one’s fields, to Beis Hamikdash. Besides just presenting the fruits to the kohen, there is a whole parshah that one must recite, recounting the troubles the Jewish people underwent in its early days and how we went down to Mitzrayim. “An Aramean sought to destroy my father, and he went down to Egypt....”
But why do we need to say all this when we bring bikurim? What does it have to do with bringing first fruits?
There are really two reasons why we bring bikurim. One is because naturally speaking, the first is the best, as the Rishonim mention. And we should give the best to Hashem, as the Rambam writes:
Anything that goes to Hashem, Who is good, should be from the nicest and the best.... And so it says 'הַב לֵּל חָּכ – “All the fat goes to Hashem.”
The other reason we bring bikurim is because in principle, Hashem owns everything that is first. This principle applies also to the firstborn:
Because all firstborn among the people of Yisrael, both of humans and of animals, belong to Me. On the day I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them to belong to Me.
Makas Bechoros should have struck the Jewish people along with the Egyptians, but Hashem saved them. Since then, all the firstborn among the Jewish people belong to Hashem.
Am Yisrael itself is called reishis, the “first,” as it says:
The Jewish people is sanctified to Hashem; they are the first of His crop.
And similarly, Hashem says:
My firstborn son is Yisrael.
The Jewish people themselves thus belong to Hashem, on principle. And everything of theirs that is a “first,” such as firstborn sons, the first fruits, the first shearing of the sheep, the first of the dough – it all belongs to Hashem.
Bikurim, which are the first of the fruits, thus belong to Hashem because of the acquisition that Hashem made on us through Makas Bechoros when He took us out of Mitzrayim.
This explains why we recite the whole parshah stated here in the Torah. This parshah clarifies Hashem’s ownership of the fruits we are now bringing to Him. An Aramean tried to destroy our father, and we went down to Egypt, from which Hashem took us out by His powerful hand and thereby acquired us. We thus belong to Hashem in general, and our reishis, our “first” things, belong to Him in particular.
So we declare, “And now I have brought the first fruits of the soil that you gave me, Hashem,” expressing that we recognize and admit Hashem’s acquisition of us. We are saying to Hashem that we are Your people and all our reishis belongs to You.
