Parshas B’chukosai opens with
a flowery description of the blessings of observance. The blessing starts
material prosperity, continues with peace in the land both from wild animals
and foreign enemies, plus the people will be fruitful and numerous. It concludes
that the Temple will be built, Hashem will be the power of Israel, and Israel
will be His people.
After that there is a litany
of horrors if the nation does not accept the Torah into their hearts and keep
it in practice. Starting with the emotions, people will be paranoid, manic, depressed
failures. If they become defiant they will be plagued by wild animals, war,
pestilence, and poverty. If the nation turns to sporadic and superficial
observance G-d will not only not pay attention to their good qualities, but
will inflict them with starvation, destroy their cults and fetishes and dump
their dead bodies on them.
The warning segues into a
prophesy that both the good and the bad will indeed occur. In the end Israel
will wind up scattered and in the land of their enemies. The final denouement,
though, is somewhat optimistic. Israel’s uncircumcised heart will become
submissive; G-d will then forgive their insolence, and recall His covenant with
the patriarchs.
Cryptically the parsha ends with
a description of an unusual type of vow to give charity. In it a person pledges
to give the value of his life to Hashem, meaning to the Temple. Fixed values
are stated basically depending on the age and gender of the donor. The highest
is fifty silver shekels for a man between twenty and sixty (Leviticus 27:3). By
comparison the Chumash considers fifty shekels as the value of a “chomer” of
barley (ibid 16). A chomer is about ten bushels. In other words the value of a
man is same as ten bushels of barley. It is less than the 130 silver shekel
bowl that a tribal chief donated to inaugurate the Mishkan (see Numbers 7:13). By
today’s values it is around US$ 50.
The Kli Yakar comments that
this section is next to the section about the curses because a person makes
promises in times of travail. He brings the Ba’al HaTurim who notes that the
sum of all of the human values mentioned there totals 143 which is the same as
the number of curses that were just enumerated, meaning that the curses cause
the oath. He adds that there is a tendency to renege on the pledge once the
immediate peril has passed.
With this we can understand
why only fifty shekels is considered the worth of a man. When the horrors are
at hand a person has a humble recognition of how little his life really is
worth. His beginning is dirt and his end is dirt. He risks his life to bring
his daily bread. He is like a broken potsherd, withered grass, a passing
shadow, a wispy cloud, dust in the wind. He also recognizes that Hashem is the
living and existing king. His years and days have no end and it is impossible
to reckon His glory. However, our name is bound up in G-d’s name. Therefore
there is a reason to repent, pray, and give charity (see Unesaneh Tokef, High
Holiday liturgy). Also when the relative smallness of the amount is considered,
it’s worth paying.
There is a story of the Ba’al
Shem Tov that when his soul mate was proposed to him, he replied to his
prospective father in law that he wanted the shidduch to be with him and not
his Torah and wisdom. When he first met his wife he behaved like a simpleton,
suggesting that this was what he was like without Torah and mitzvahs (see
Shivchei HaBesht story 4).
A man is a soul clothed in a
body. The soul is a piece of Hashem and the body is the hide of the snake. If a
man turns to his body then his life is worth that of ten bushels of barley. If
he turns to his soul he is a little less than an angel, crowned with splendor
and dignity. He is given dominion over the works of G-d, the animals of the
field, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea. And he recognizes the
mastery of Hashem and how great His name is in the entire world (see Psalm
8:6-10).
לע"נ, הדוד ,לייב הערש בן אהרון ז"ל
נלב"ע י"ז תמוז תשל"ב
Acknowledgements
to websites: תורת אמת, וויקיטקסט, http://dictionary.reference.com/,
http://hebrewbooks.org/,
וגם בדואר אלקטרוני ניתן באתר http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il
Blogger English
Blogger Hebrew
YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment