When a person chooses to consecrate their value to the Temple, saying: “Erki alai - My value is upon me,” he or she is obligated to donate an appropriate amount of money to the Temple.
In Parashat Behukotai the Torah establishes what that amount of money should be, indicating consistent, uniform values that change based on objective criteria such as gender and age. The “value” of a given woman at a certain age will be identical with that of her similarly-aged friend. This is true in the case of men, as well.
The Mishnah in Tractate Arakhin notes this fact, and places it within the context of a larger framework –
The law of evaluation is sometimes lenient, and at others times strict.
The law of the field of possession is sometimes lenient, and at others times strict.
The law concerning a warned ox that has killed a slave is sometimes lenient, and at others times strict.
The law of the rapist and the seducer and the defamer is sometimes lenient, and at others times strict.
(Mishnah Arakhin 3:1)
The point made by the Mishnah is that in each case, the criteria serve as a leniency for some and stringency for others –
The law of evaluation is sometimes lenient, and at others times strict. How so?
Whether one has evaluated the fairest in Israel, or the ugliest in Israel, he must pay fifty sela.
If we establish the value of each person of a given gender and age as being identical at 50 sela, then all other distinctions – e.g., a person’s abilities or appearance – disappear. Sometimes 50 sela is a small amount in comparison to a given person’s actual value (if that person is especially talented or attractive), while in other cases it is a large amount (if that person lacks talent and is unattractive).
This is true of the other examples listed in the Mishnah, as well. The established value of a “field of possession” is uniform. It makes no difference if that field contains a lush orchard or if it is a dry desert. In both cases the owner who dedicates its value to the Temple will pay 50 shekels of silver. If a “warned ox” kills a slave, the actual worth of the slave is irrelevant. Whether the slave is diligent or lazy, whether he is sick or healthy, in all cases his value is determined by the Torah to be 30 sela.
The law determining the payment for a slave that was killed does not appear in Parashat Behukotai, as it is not part of the laws of donations to the Temple, rather it belongs to an entirely separate set of laws – the laws of damages. It appears in the mishnah in Arakhin because of the theoretical parallel between the laws. Similarly, the monetary punishment established in cases of rape and seduction is uniform, whether the victim was a simple girl or a girl whose family was part of the aristocracy. Establishing such uniform values gives concrete expression to the value of equality and to the understanding that injury has an absolute value. This approach minimizes differences between human beings.
At the same time, the mishnah also teaches that this uniformity is not true in other areas of Jewish law. There may be no difference in payment when slaves are killed by an ox, but were that ox to injure a free-man, the owner would have to pay full restitution for the actual damage that was done. In truth, were someone to cause injury to a slave and to a free-man, the criteria for establishing payment is the same – the amount of damaged caused. Still evaluating the damage that occurred is different for slaves and for freemen. When one person embarrasses another, compensation is determined by a discriminatory principle: “All is according to the status of the one that inflicts indignity and the status of the one that suffers indignity.” Not everyone who intends to insult has the status to do so successfully, and not everyone suffering indignity is the same. Societal status affects the level of compensation to be paid to them.
By listing together the various cases of payment, the mishnah in Arakhin succeeds in emphasizing the exceptions – establishing a uniform system of valuation for people who want to consecrate their worth to the Temple does not match the true value of the person. The mishnah’s use of the expression “to be lenient…to be strict” relates to the Torah’s ruling that all people of a given class are valued identically, because the assumption of the mishnah is that each person’s value is different. Furthermore, in many places we find that the Torah also recognizes that reality, which requires us to examine rules of arakhin in greater detail.
One way or another, it is clear that to this day nothing has changed. Establishing a person’s worth was done in different ways for different purposes throughout history, from ancient times until today – a time when such values as humanism and equality prevail. When paving roads or determining the health care budget, people’s lives are valued arithmetically by the government, with no sympathy whatsoever. When personal injury claims are taken to court it becomes clear that there are ways to evaluate a person’s value, and even when dealing with such a personal matter, pragmatism reveals that there are cold calculations that can be made in such cases. The bottom line is that calculating damages makes clear that not every person is equal.
Another case when society decides what the value of humanity might be is when a person turns to social security offices to apply for a subsidy that would allow them to keep a minimum standard of living in difficult times. In such cases we also find that in many cases everyone will receive the same, uniform benefit.
Thus, the methods of determining a person’s value differ according to the context. Penalties and subsidies may be uniform, while someone who injures another must pay restitution according to the damage that he inflicted.
When the government divides up its budget, it is forced to make difficult decisions: Should the life-saving new road be paved in the center of the country or in the periphery? Should cultural programming be included in the budget if it means reducing support for national security needs? Who is it that derives the greatest benefit from these decisions? Setting national priorities will always minimize the value of the individual. We find this also in the arakhin that we have been discussing. When a person places himself before God, his actual value disappears.
So we find that the division of values found in the Torah mirror those of our everyday life. Parashat Behukotai teaches that from a Godly perspective, all are created equal. God created a world in which every person is equal – even if that is not always apparent. It is among people – who are able to see only a partial and superficial picture – that the division between them grows.
In summary, both the Torah and the mishnah move back-and-forth between these two poles. The mishnah asks: What is a person? Is a person simply a collection of body parts? Is the only question one of health in body and soul? Do we examine what benefits the individual can bring to society? Or, perhaps, a person is merely a statistic – one of a large number of people.
The answer is yes. Both this and that. It depends what the situation is at the time that the question is asked.
This is true from our perspective as individuals, as well. Sometimes we feel equal to others because of our status and abilities, our income and place of work. Then there are times that even a minor problem makes us feel like our lives have no meaning. Sometimes we feel like a small cog in a large world, made meaningless by our place among millions and billions of others. And then there are times that – for that very reason – we are proud to be members of the human race, doing our part to improve the world, together with so many others, each one contributing to the greater cause.