20 May BECHUKOSAI: THE FIGHTER STILL REMAINS ARE YOU STILL THE CHOSEN PEOPLE?

The Blind Golfer
Charlie Boswell was
a great athlete who
became blind during
World War II while
rescuing his friend
from a tank that was
under fire. When he returned to this country
after the War, he decided to take up a sport
that he had never tried as yet—golf. Years
of practice and determination led him to
win the honor of National Blind Golf
Champion no less than 13 times. One of his
heroes was the great golfer Ben Hogan, so
it indeed was an honor for Charlie to win
the Ben Hogan Award in 1958.
Upon meeting Hogan, Charlie was
awestruck and told the legendary golfer
that his greatest wish was to have one
round of golf with the great Ben Hogan.
Hogan was duly honored, after all, he
knew Charlie as the great blind player that
he was, and truly admired his skills.
But suddenly Boswell blurted out an
unexpected challenge. “Would you like to
play for money, Mr. Hogan?”
“Charlie, you know I can’t play you for
money, it wouldn’t be fair!” said Mr.
Hogan.
Boswell did not flinch. Instead, he upped
the ante. “Come on, $1,000 per hole!”
“I can’t. What would people think of me,
taking advantage of a blind man,” replied
the golfer who was able to see.
“Chicken, Mr. Hogan?”
“Okay,” blurted a frustrated Hogan, “I’ll
play. But I warn you, I am going to play my
best!”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else,” said the
confident Boswell.
“You’re on Charlie. I’ll tell you what. You
name the time and the place!”
A very self-assured Boswell responded:
“Fine. 10 o’clock . . . tonight!”
A Strange Juxtaposition
In Parshas Bechokosai, G-d communicates
to the Jewish people the idyllic blessings
awaiting them if they live up to their
covenant with the Almighty. This is
followed by the warning, that if the Jewish
people fail to fulfill their role in our world
as the Divine ambassadors, they will
become the victims of horrendous
curses and losses described in frightening
detail.
Immediately following this section, known

as the “Tochacha” (rebuke, chastisement),
the Torah begins a totally new subject—the
laws of “erchin,” which means evaluation.
These laws specify how a person might
donate his or her own value or the value of
another human being to the Beis
Hamikdash. The Torah specifies the exact
sum one must contribute if he or she makes
such a pledge. The sum is not based on the
individual’s strength, or character, but
rather it is a generic value for each gender
and each age. For example, the “erech,” or
standard value, of a Jewish male between
the ages of 20 and 60 is fifty silver shekel
(a silver currency weighing around 9000
grams of silver). It doesn’t make a
difference whether the individual whose
worth was pledged was a neurosurgeon or
a street sweeper, no matter if the person
whose worth I pledged was Moshe himself,
or some outcast, the amount donated is
dependent only on age and gender. If I

pledged to contribute the value of a five-
year-old boy, I need to contribute 20 silver

shekel (a silver currency weighing around
360 grams) to the Temple. If I pledge to
contribute the value of a one-year-old boy,
I need to pay to the Temple five silver
shekel. (There is an entire Tractate in the
Talmud, Erchin, devoted to this topic.)
[Obviously, these numbers do not reflect
the true value of a human being. A person
is priceless. Rather, these are symbolic
numbers the Torah attaches to different
genders and different ages representing
certain generic features of this gender or
age group. The details of this are beyond
the scope of this article.]
The order in Torah is meticulous. What is
the connection between the Tochacha, the
stern and harsh chastisement, and the laws
of evaluation, discussing the “value” of
every single human being, man, woman,
and child?
The Power of Charity
I will present two answers, one is numerical
and moral; the other is psychological.
The Baal Haturim (Rabbi Yaakov ben
Asher, one of the great Medieval sages in
Germany and Spain, 1269-1343) explains
this as follows.
The Portion of erchin contains evaluations
in this order: 50 shekel, 30 shekel, 20
shekel, 10 shekel, 5 shekel, 3 shekel, 15
shekel, and 10 shekel—for various age and
gender groups. The total of all distinct
categories comes out to be 143 shekel. This
number matches the exact sum of the
curses in the Torah—45 in this week’s
parsha, Bechokosai, and 98 in the Parshas

Ki Savo in the book of
Devarim. The Torah is, in
effect, saying that the
antidote for the Tochacha is
the mitzvah of erchin, the
mitzvah of charity. The 143
shekels of contributions
cancel out the 143
chastisements.
This is the power of giving.
Still the Chosen People?
The second explanation,
presented by the Kotzker
Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel
Morgenstern (Poland, 1787-1859), is this.
One of the greatest gifts of the Jewish
people was that they did not allow the
humiliation and persecution they endured
by mighty nations to define their inner
identity, dignity, and destiny. Like fearless
lions, they left Auschwitz, and the next day
they went to rebuild Jerusalem.
We know of many people or cultures who
endured savage suffering, and as a result,
they could never rehabilitate themselves
emotionally. They remained eternal victims
of their oppressors. And even after they
were set free, it was merely external
freedom, but their inner sense of identity
and liberty has been obliterated.
Where did the Jewish people glean the
strength to emerge from every disaster
with the courage and confidence to rebuild
and prosper? From the order in this week’s
parsha! After the Torah enumerates the
suffering the Jews might experience from
the nations around them, it goes right on to
discuss the value of every single human
being. No matter what happens to you, the
Torah is intimating, you have value as an
individual, and as part of a nation. And
your value can contribute to the Beis
Hamikdash, to the revealing of the Divine
presence in the world.
Still Chosen?
After the Nazis invaded the small village
of Klausenberg, Romania, they began to
celebrate the defeat of the Jews in their
usual sadistic fashion. They gathered the
Jews into a circle in the center of town, and
then paraded their Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusial
Yehuda Halberstam (1905-1994), into the
center.
The Klausenberger Rebbe was later taken
to Auschwitz, where his wife and 11
children perished. He survived the war and
came to America, where he remarried, had
more children, and built a grand Chassidic
movement. He also built the beautiful

Laniado hospital in Netanya, Israel.
The SS guards began taunting and teasing
the Klausenberger Rebbe, pulling his beard
and pushing him around. The vile soldiers
trained their guns on him as the commander
began to speak. “Tell us, Rabbi,” sneered
the officer, “do you really believe that you
are the Chosen People?”
The soldiers guarding the crowd howled in
laughter. But the Rebbe did not. In a serene
voice, he answered loud and clear, “Most
certainly.”
The officer became enraged. He lifted his
rifle above his head and sent it crashing on
the head of the Rebbe. The Rebbe fell to
the ground. There was a rage in the officer’s
voice. “Do you still think you are the
Chosen People?” he yelled.
Once again, the Rebbe nodded his head
and said, “yes, we are.” The officer became
infuriated. He kicked the rebbe in the chin
and repeated. “You stupid Jew, you lie here
on the ground, beaten and humiliated, in a
puddle of blood. What makes you think
that you are the Chosen People?”
With his mouth gushing blood, the Rebbe
replied. “As long as we are not the ones
kicking, beating, and murdering innocent
people, we are the chosen people.”
Rise Up
Many of us have experienced loss, abuse,
and grief in our lives. There are individuals
who from a very young age have been
given the message that they are worthless
and that their lives amount to nothing. For
years they struggle to regain the inner
confidence to create a blessed life for
themselves.
Comes the Torah and teaches, that after
you experienced turbulence in your life,
after you endured a “Tochachah,” a harsh
experience, make sure that you do not
allow those experiences and messages to
make you doubt your value. You may have
been challenged, but let the fighter in you
still remain.