Equal Before Hashem
Sam is an enterprising businessman, who heads one of the
biggest corporations in America. Whoever meets him is
immediately taken by his charm and grace, and drawn to be his
friend. Everybody sees Sam as Mr. Success Story.
Yonni on the other hand seems to have the opposite fortune.
He has no success in business, and almost every venture he
enters seems destined to fail. Yonni is not charismatic, and
has very few acquaintances. No one envies Yonni.
While in the eyes of man Sam is a success and Yonni a
failure, from Above things are seen differently. Hashem is
the one who decides how big or small a person's bank account
will be, and if one will be popular or disliked. From a
Heavenly perspective a person's G-d-given characteristics are
of no concern; the only issue is how well each person
utilizes the gifts he was given.
The parsha of Erechin emphasizes this crucial
world outlook. The Torah assigns each person a set monetary
value, which fluctuates according to ones age and gender, but
takes no other factors into consideration. In doing so the
Torah puts aside the presents that man was given, and teaches
us that we can not judge others by what meets our eyes. Only
that which lies within man's heart is of concern to
Hashem.
Non-Jewish Funding
Funding for the Beis Hamikdash came solely from
donations. In addition to the yearly tax of half a shekel, a
person could at any time vow to give money to the Temple.
Aside from the normal method of pledging, a person could
accept the erech prescribed by the Torah of himself or
others as a contribution by stating "erchi olai" or
"erech ploni ali" (the value of someone else is on
me).
"Whoever controls funding governs the project." Our Sages
wanted the Jewish people to be the only ones involved with
the building and upkeep of the Beis Hamikdash. In
order to insure this, only Jewish funds were accepted.
Since only Jewish funding can be used for the Beis
Hamikdash, what should be if a non-Jew gives money for
the Temple? First we must find out what the intentions of the
gentile donor were. If he meant to leave the Jews in charge
of deciding what to do with the money, then we can use it for
whatever charity expenses that we see fit.
If he really intended to give a contribution to the Temple,
then the funds are hekdesh and cannot be used
for any other purpose. We do not use the money for the Beis
Hamikdash, in order that there should not be non-Jewish
funding in the Temple. Since there is nothing that can be
done with these funds we bury their donation.
What happens if someone points to a gentile and says "His
value should be upon me"? While non-Jews can not pledge money
to the Temple, if a Jew accepts the erech of a gentile
his commitment is the same as if the person that he pointed
to was Jewish. The Jew is obligated to pay the full value to
the Beis Hamikdash (Erechin 5b).
Dead Men
"Goseis" is the halachic terminology for someone who
has reached the state of sickness where death is almost
inevitable. Since most people in this condition die, he is
considered to have no value as far as Erechin is
concerned. Therefore if someone accepts the value of a
goseis on himself, he is not obligated to give
anything to the Temple.
The same halochoh applies to a person whom Beis Din
has ruled must be killed. Halochoh considers him to be a dead
man, and he has no assigned erech. Nonetheless, even
as he stands on the threshold of death, he and his inheritors
are still obligated to pay for any damage he causes or any
monetary obligations he accepts upon himself.
Yonoson pledged to give the erech of his heart to the
Beis Hamikdash. Even though the Torah does not assign
any set value to limbs, if a person accepts the value of a
vital organ that he would die without, then he must pay.
Since Yonoson cannot live without his heart, it is as if he
made an erech on a whole body.
Reuven said "I accept the erech of half of Shimon on
myself." While at first glance it might seem as if Reuven
only meant to obligate himself in half of Shimon's
erech value, his words expressed that he wanted to
give the value of half of Shimon's body. Since Shimon would
surely die if half of his body were removed, this is
considered an erechin in a vital organ, and Reuven
would have to pay Shimon's full value (Erechin
20a).
Income Brackets
Mr. Brown, a successful stock broker, decided to make a large
contribution to the Beis Hamikdash in honor of his
son's bar mitzvah. He was expecting a windfall profit on a
venture he was involved with and accepted to give his own
erech (50 silver selo'im, the value of 38,400
perutas) to the Temple. However, the day after making
his vow the market crashed, and Mr. Brown lost almost all of
his fortune. How does he proceed?
Someone who vows to give a large donation to the Beis
Hamikdash must pay up regardless of his financial
situation. Failure to do so is considered to be a violation
of his promise. Erechin differs from other gifts in
that if one cannot afford to pay the amount of money he
promised, he goes into the category of "heseg yad,"
and he can fulfill his vow, by giving the amount of money he
has (Erechin 7b).
The halochoh is that if a person gives a sela
of his donation, the Torah views it as if he has
completely fulfilled his obligation. Even if he later becomes
a millionaire he does not owe any money for his previous
commitment. If he gave less than a sela then his
obligation is still binding, and if he later gets money he
must pay the entire debt.
Mr. Brown however may not rely on this halochoh, since
it does not apply if one was wealthy when he accepted the
commitment upon himself. Therefore, he must pay up the entire
sum. So too if someone was poor at the time of his promise
and then became wealthy, he is responsible to make full
payment (Erechin 17b).
Collection Agencies
While promising to give a large sum to tzedokoh only
requires saying a few words, actually giving the money is a
more complicated task. Our Sages recognized this difficulty
and allowed the Beis Hamikdash to take strong measures
to get their money. Even though we are generally very careful
about how we take pledges, when it comes to erechin we
allow the Temple workers to enter a person's house and to
take his possessions to pay his debt (Erechin
21a).
How far can the collectors go in claiming payment? Even a
person's tefillin, bed and shoes can be taken to pay
up his obligation. Only in a case where the person who made
the promise is impoverished, do we let him keep his bed and
shoes.
Although tough measures are taken, we let him keep food for a
month and clothing for a year. We leave him some of his work
tools so he should be able to continue supporting his family.
Transportation vehicles or animals may not be kept since
these are not considered work tools.
If the person who promised to give an erech is wearing
gold and silk clothes, we take them off his back in order to
get payment (Rambam 3,16). What do we do with these
items afterwards? Any possessions that we take are sold
locally and are not taken to a place where more money could
be gotten for their purchase (Erechin 23b-24a).
Worth Her Weight in Gold
When someone commits himself to Erechin, his pledge
follows the prescribed values laid down by the Torah. If one
accepts the domim, value, of someone else upon
himself, then we must make an estimation of what this person
is worth. This evaluation is done by ten dayanim in
Beis Din, and is based on his work abilities.
What if someone says I am giving the value of the weight of
my arm or leg to the Temple? Here we encounter two
difficulties in making the evaluation. First we must figure
out how to weigh his hand separately from the rest of his
body. Then we have to decide what commodity he meant to
give.
The Greek thinker Archimedes is famous for entering a full
bathtub and screaming "Eureka!" when he realized that the
amount of water was displaced equaled the volume of his body.
Our Sages were aware of this before his discovery, and the
Mishnah uses this principle to figure out the volume of a
person's arm or leg. Once having determined the amount, we
weigh that amount of donkey meat (which is similar in density
to human flesh) to settle on an exact number. Others disagree
with this process, and rule that we should merely evaluate
the weight.
If someone promised a specific item he must give that
commodity. When he just said "I will give the value of my
weight," he can give anything that is a tradable product in
the place that person lives, even tar. Someone who is very
wealthy must give according to his financial position.
"Yarmatiah's mother, who was extremely wealthy, decided to
make a generous contribution to the Temple. She said 'I
accept the value of Yarmatiah's weight upon myself,' and then
traveled to Yerushalayim to give her donation. When she got
there she weighed Yarmatiah, and gave that amount of gold to
the Beis Hamikdash" (Erechin 19a).
In Exchange
50+30+20+10+5+3+15+10. If we add up all of the values of
erechin that the Torah lists, we come up with a sum
total of 143. It is interesting to note that this is the same
number of curses that are listed the parshas of
Bechukosai and Ki Sovo for someone who does not
follow the mitzvos. The Torah subtly hints at a connection
between these curses and erechin (Baal Haturim,
Vayikra 27).
"When a person accepts upon himself a vow to donate the erech
of his `nefoshos' (lit. lives) to Hashem"
(Vayikra 27,2). In choosing this word, the Torah shows
that in offering ones erech to the Beis Hamikdash,
a person is doing more than making a vow to donate
tzedokoh. Giving his own erech to the Temple is
equivalent to offering up his life as a sacrifice on the
altar.
All of the curses listed in the Torah come because at times
we lead our lives according to our own desires and not those
of Hashem. A monetary pledge of our own value is an
expression that the `nefesh' that once was is no
longer, and we will be starting a new 'life' from fresh. This
is the ultimate act we could do to remove these harsh
decrees.
In the merit of learning parshas Erechin, may we be
privileged to fulfill these halachos, in the rebuilt
Beis Hamikdash, may we see it speedily in our days.
