Parshat Bechukotai

2005

How Much Are You Worth?

B'Chukotai is the last Torah portion of the Book of Leviticus. This year it comes at a time when many schools are in the last weeks of the academic year. My comments will tie these two endings together.

I will, therefore, pass over the penultimate chapter of the book, chapter 26, with its contrast between the blessings that accrue from living a good life, and the dire - I should say terrifying - consequences, physical and psychological, of behavior that is consistently thoughtless, selfish and inadequate. Warning: Do not read those curses (called "the Tochechah" in Hebrew) on a full stomach.

I want to focus on the final chapter, No. 27, that closes Leviticus. Here, after a whole book about holiness and purity, we get into money matters, specifically how the sanctuary, the repository of God's glory, is to be funded. We are given the details of an elaborate system of pledges and contributions of silver and in-kind gifts.

So is that what it all comes down to: funding and fundraising? Isn't this a rather venal way to end a book about holiness?

I think not. It could be that the Torah, in concluding the Book of Leviticus in just this way, is telling us something we ignore at our peril, that money and holiness can be related. The sanctuary of old did not run on air and goodwill, and neither do the contemporary institutions that house our collective spiritual endeavors. That, literally, is the bottom line of the Book of Leviticus.

Now in contributing to the upkeep of the sanctuary, a primary method was to pledge the value of oneself, "the equivalent of a human being." (27:2) How much was that? Leviticus (27: 3-7) indicates a scale, a scale based on age and gender. The JPS Commentary (Numbers, p. 193) lays it out as thus:

Age	Male	Female
20 - 60 years of age	50 shekels	30 shekels
5 - 20 years of age	20 shekels	10 shekels
1 month - 5 years of age	5 shekels	3 shekels
older than 60	15 shekels	10 shekels

The Jewish Study Bible explains that "the scale is evidently based on size and strength, and thus on potential productivity in terms of physical labor. It is not indicative of any social hierarchy." (p. 277)

Fair enough. No age-ism or sexism here. And there is the important stipulation in verse 8 that "if one cannot afford the equivalent, he shall be presented before the cohen, and the cohen shall assess him ...according to what the vower can afford."

But there's a deeper issue here:

"Through the procedure described, a purely fiscal transaction takes on the character of the ultimate act of devotion, that of consecrating oneself ... to the Lord. Thus biblical religion preserves vicariously the notion of self-consecration without requiring one actually to sacrifice oneself." (Jewish Study Bible. p. 277)

So we give our worth in money.

But now come the big questions: How much is that? How much is a human being worth? How do we measure this? By our productivity? By our earning capacity? By the size of our bank account? Stock portfolio? Total net assets? Is human worth quantifiable?

How much do you think you are worth? How much would you pledge as that equivalent?

And here are some special questions for graduating seniors who have lined up a job: Does your starting salary correlate with what you think you are worth? After you graduate, how will you convert your worth, whatever it is, to the upkeep of the Jewish institutions that will be there for you?

Mazal tov to all graduates and their families.

Prepared by Rabbi James S. Diamond, Princeton University, senior consultant to Hillel's Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning

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Additional commentaries and text studies on Bechukotai at MyJewishLearning.com.