The Value of Human Life - Bechukotai 5784

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How do you value a human being?  In a bit of a shocking Parsha, the Torah addresses pledging the monetary value of a person as a gift to Hashem. .  (Vayikra 27:2-3)  “When a person expresses a vow, [pledging the] value of lives to the Lord, the [fixed] value ... shall be as follows:...” Then the Torah lists the values for different age groups and gender.  “Value of lives?”  What does that mean?  (One of my pet peeves is when people discuss a person’s financial net worth.  “This person is worth $...")  


Isn’t a person’s value more than just a monetary amount?  On a basic level, one could explain that when someone wants to give a monetary gift to Hashem, He has set a fixed amount that represents a monetary gift appropriate to his or her status in life. But of course there is more, and I would like to share a mystical insight from the great Kabbalist and sage, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, the Rebbe’s father, as explained by Rabbi Dovid Dubov. 


The various amounts of silver Shekels the Torah assesses for the various ages and the genders are as follows:  50, 30, 20, 10, 5, 3, 15, 10.  This all adds up to a total of 143.  


Now let’s shift gears and take a look at a verse in the Tehillim - Psalms.  Psalm 50 begins with a triple reference to G-d: “A song of [the prophet] Asaph; G-d, G-d the Lord, spoke and called to the earth, from the rising of the sun until its setting.”  In Hebrew, these are actually three distinct names of Hashem.  1) Kel, 2) Elokim, and 3) Yud-Kay-Vav-Kay, the name of four letters that we may not pronounce that we refer to simply as “Hashem” - “The Name.”



Kabbalah and Chassidus explain that each of these three names represents a distinct aspect of Divine energy.  Kel represents Chesed - Hashem’s kindness and revelation.  Elokim represents Gevurah - judgment and withholding.  Yud-Kay-Vav-Kay is Tiferet - glory, which is a combination and balance of the other two.  These three names mentioned by Asaf in this verse represent the three methods of our service to Hashem by which we fulfill His desire to “call the world” to Him.


Chesed - kindness, giving, love, charity and tapping into Hashem’s revelation through observance of practical Mitzvot are all essential components of divine service.  Gevurah - holding back, denying and judgment are also necessary.  We have to refuse that which we are forbidden.  We need to judge what is right and wrong and refrain from doing that which is wrong.  But extremes of either chesed or gevurah are  not good.  Giving without any limit can be destructive.  Withdrawing too much can also be harmful.  Tiferet is the perfect balance.  Giving appropriately, withdrawing where necessary, the perfect balance between the other two.  Tiferet also includes compassion and mercy.


This is what Asaph is teaching us.  In order to fulfill our mission to make the world a place for Hashem, we need to have the perfect balance of Chessed (Kel) and Gevurah (Elokim) as expressed in Tiferet (Yud-Kay-Vav-Kay).  Now let's look at the numerical value of these three names:  Kel 1, 30 (the first letter is an Alef, we write it with a K in order not to pronounce the Name in vain).  Elokim (with a Hei, not a Kuf) is 1, 30, 5, 10, 40.  Yud-Kay-Vav-Kay (also with a hei, not a kuf) is 10, 5, 6, 5.  That all adds up to 143!


So in our Parsha, the Torah is telling us that the true value of humanity, across all ages and genders, is the fact that we have the power to “call the world” to Hashem, by our observance of Torah, taking a balanced approach between giving and withdrawing, doing what is right and refraining from wrong, while dealing with one another with compassion.

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