What Do We Value?
A question from Torah
There is an interesting double portion of Torah reading scheduled for this Shabbat (May 24). The portions end the book of Leviticus and contain a myriad of issues from calendar concerns to blessings and curses as well as details associated with the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. It iis a portion that contains the famous “Liberty Bell” verse of 27:10 to “proclaim liberty” which is really, in the Hebrew, a call to “release” freemen who had become slaves.
In chapter 27 there are a few verses that describe the valuation of people which was associated with financial support of the ancient Temple. There is a list of what values were associated with people according to age. It should not surprise you that the older you were, the less the demand. What struck me in looking at these passages, and some of the commentaries, is the idea of “value” and the questions of what do we value in our life, do we see our life having value and do these questions change as we grow older?
How many of us, myself included, place “value” on issues, things and people that were defined by others? We did this to please some people, maybe to “fit in” or to try and adopt what we thought we needed to be. But as we age and the lessons of life become more clear, if we are lucky we learn to make our own decisions on what and who we value. Perhpas we do so knowing that, with the rush of time, we need to prioritize what is important to us, not to others. This is, in a way, a sense of freedom.
Let me also suggest that this re-ordering of our sense of value is even more important now. It seems that much of contemporary society is bent on de-valuing various types of people. This seems to be reflective in the decrease on civility in daily life as well as aspects of political life. The fundamental dignity of the human being seems to be devalued, and in doing so, we may be impacting current and future generations. If we keep seeing and portraying people as the “other” instead as part of a global “us” we will sow the seeds of social decay. So again, the question, what and who do we value?
Shalom,
Rabbi Richard F Address