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Opinion & Comment
Jewish Values: Unusual Cases of Erechin

by Rabbi Daniel Yaakov Travis

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.


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