Devar/5768/Bechukotai
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עברית
וְאִם-נְקֵבָה, הִוא--וְהָיָה עֶרְכְּךָ, שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁקֶל. (יוקרא כז:ג,ד)
English
then thy valuation shall be for the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
And if it be a female, then thy valuation shall be thirty shekels. (Lev 27:3,4)
The Torah permits several ways to contribute to the Temple. One may contribute all manner of objects, or contribute a certain sum of money. Here the possibility is given to give "one's valuation". It would be natural to think that one's valuation would be according to one's wealth. But the Torah comes and says that one's wealth is not the same as one's valuation.
And it says that every person's valuation is only according to his age -- not his health, nor his ancestry, nor his wealth or his beauty. Every one only according to his own age. But the Torah adds that the valuation of males and females are not the same, rather females' valuation is always somewhat less than males'. This is interesting, and brings up complaints that there is "sexism" in the Torah; and this needs to be understood.
What is the "valuation" spoken of here? We already clarified that it's neither wealth, nor beauty nor health. If we look into the valuations of the Torah, we see that an adult male is valuated at fifty shekels -- whereas an elderly man is valuated at fifteen, and a youth at twenty shekels. That is to say that a man in the prime of his strength is worth the most -- and this is a hint to understanding the entire matter. Were a man hale and hearty, at his current age, how much would another person be willing to pay to purchase him as a servant? And since, as a general rule, women are not as strong as men, their "valuation" is therefore somewhat less.
The Torah wants to say that when you take away from a person his wealth, and ignore his appearance, and consider him just as a person, you should know that he has the same potential as any other person, and therefore the same "valuation".
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