Cancel the Appointment!

Toward the end of the Parsha, the Torah tells us that if one wishes to donate the value of his ‘soul’ or the value of another person’s ‘soul’ to the Temple treasury he can take such a vow. The Torah sets a fixed Shekel amount that the one who made the vow must give towards the Temple’s treasury depending on the age and gender of the person upon who the vow was made.There are four age groups and the fixed amounts and they span from 3 shekels to 50 shekels.

Commentators explain that while other religions include human sacrifice in their worship, in Judaism it is totally unheard of and forbidden. However, the Torah makes it possible for one to donate the monetary value of his soul to the treasury as a distinct merit for himself. One can also vow the value of another person – let’s say, the person has some type of illness, difficulty or happy occasion and through the merit of the vow of the value of the other person’s ‘soul’ to the treasury, it might bring him healing or Mazal.

Incidentally, this type of valuation does not apply towards one who is deceased or is so ill that they are unable to stand.

Commentators point out that the Torah specifically places this law of valuation of a person right after the Torah spells out all sorts of calamities that would befall the Jewish people if they reject and ignore G-d’s Torah and Mitzvos, because after hearing such rebuke one may feel deterred and frightened that they are unworthy of fulfilling their task set forth by the Torah. Therefore, the Torah immediately comes along with the uplifting idea that each Jewish soul has an intrinsic value which can be given and become sanctified toward the Temple’s functionality.

The Mishna in Ethics of our Fathers states that before one passes negative judgment upon another, he must first evaluate the whole person and give him the benefit of the doubt.

Commentators explain the “whole person” means taking into account all the possibilities – his background, upbringing, financial situation, health etc. – into consideration before condemning him for something negative one may have observed about him.

I came across a phenomenal story which brings out this point.

There was a great holy sage known as Rebbe Shlomo of Zevhille. One Friday afternoon as he was immersing in a Mikvah in preparation for the holy Shabbos, someone attacked him with a barrage of insults and allegations. Although the rabbi’s attendant was beside himself having to listen to the holy sage being abused, he took the rabbi’s cue and remained silent throughout the tirade.

After they emerged from the Mikveh, the rabbi asked his attendant to go to a certain person and borrow a sum of money. When he returned with the money, the Rabbi instructed him to give it to the person who had been insulting him! The attendant could no longer remain silent. “Rebbe, not only did you suffer in silence during the unwarranted bitter insults, you are now rewarding him – with money that you don’t even have – for such horrible behavior?” The rabbi laughed and explained, “Don’t you see, why would this person explode at me Friday afternoon when he is ready to immerse himself in the Mikveh? Obviously, he has absolutely no food on his table to feed his family! Go and give him this money that he desperately needs!”

When I had shared this story with my uncle, Reb Asher Herzberg, he responded with an inspirational incident that occurred with one of the Rabbis of Ger.

A follower of the Gerrer Rebbe came to him before the Holiday of Pesach and told him that he was ill and required major surgery right after the holiday. The Rebbe asked him for some details and then told him that he should cancel the appointment for the surgery and to come back after the holiday for instructions how to proceed. The man was shocked but elated and following the Rebbe’s advice he called the doctor’s office to cancel surgery. After the holiday, when the man came back to the Rebbe, the Rebbe told him to reschedule the surgery! “But I already canceled the appointment that took months to schedule.” The Rebbe responded, “Call back the office to see if he still has the opening.”

The man called the office and the appointed time and date was still available to do the surgery.

What really happened, was that the Rebbe, seeing how distraught and worried the man was about the upcoming surgery, realized that if he entered the holiday with such worry on his head, he and his whole family would have a miserable holiday. The Rebbe therefore instructed him to cancel the surgery so that he would be calm and happy over the course of the holiday, which indeed happened. However, the Rebbe had immediately called the surgeon’s office and told them when the patient calls to cancel the surgery, the receptionist should tell him it was fine, yet they should still keep the appointment for surgery which he desperately needed to save his life!

Two beautiful examples of people who were sensitive and creative to value the predicament of others!