ABSTRACT
Israel's "first-fruits" could only be offered up as a sacrifice in the land of Israel and in the Temple of Israel. When deprived of land and Temple, Israel could only celebrate a festival and rejoice at the thought of what had happened in days of yore. The Jewish people never lost the hope, nay the feeling of certainty, that the fields and gardens, orchards and vineyards, the fruits of which were once offered up in the Temple. It would yield fruit once more when tilled again by the hands of Judah's sons and daughters, and that the Jewish basket would be filled again with the produce of the labour of the Jewish people on Jewish soil. Even in his periods of glory the Israelite counted the days and the weeks before he could fill his basket and take it to the Temple. Such an offering could not fail to impress those who made it.
