Rabbi Frand on Parshas Tzav
This dvar Torah was adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher
Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah portion:
Tape #92, Selling Non-Kosher Foods. Good Shabbos & Chag Kosher V'Somayach!
The Torah Is Concerned With the Pride of the Poor
Just as the Torah is concerned lest Aharon the Kohen Gadol become haughty,
so too the Torah is very meticulous regarding the pride of the Ani -- the
less fortunate "poor" person. The Torah is worried that the impoverished
individual should not become despondent and emotionally broken.
There is an interesting Gemara [Talmudic passage] in Bava Kama. The Gemara
says that when the Jews would bring the bikkurim [first fruits] to
Jerusalem to give to the Kohanim, the rich would bring their bikkurim in
gold and silver baskets. The poor people, however, could not afford gold
baskets. They would bring the first fruits of their meager crops in
baskets of reeds.
The Gemara says that the Kohanim returned the gold and silver baskets to
the wealthy people, but kept the reed baskets from the poor people. The
gemara says this is an application of the old rule (loosely translated
from the Aramaic) that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's
ironic: the rich fellow gets his basket back, but the poor person loses
his basket to the Kohanim!
Rav Aharon Backs explains that the reason for this paradox is as follows.
The rich person has orchards full of fruit and brings large quantities of
fruit to give to the Kohen. The poor person has a meager crop and probably
has a very small quantity of bikkurim to offer. By keeping the fruit in
the basket, at least the bikkurim look a little more substantial. The
Torah says that we should have the Kohen keep the basket and let the Ani
suffer further financial loss, in order to keep his pride intact. This is
an example of how far the Torah is willing to go to avoid shaming a
person!
One time, a person asked me the following question. He wanted to raise money
for Hachnasas Kallah [bridal expenses], for someone in the recipient's own
home town. His question was as follows: If he told people for whom he was
soliciting, there is no doubt he could raise a lot of money, because that
person was a known and well-respected individual. If he would make an
anonymous appeal for Hachnasas Kallah, however, then he could not expect to
make much -- because such appeals occur several times each week. The
question was, should he mention the name and raise more money or keep it
anonymous and raise less money.
At that time, I asked the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yaakov Ruderman z"tl. The Rosh
Yeshiva, without thinking a minute or batting an eyelash, said, "It should
be anonymous, because a person's honor is worth a great deal."
That is the lesson of the baskets. A person's self-respect is worth a lot.
It is even worth losing money over. Money can always be replaced, but a
person's honor and pride are much harder to replace.
This write-up was adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher
Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tape series on the weekly Torah portion.
The complete list of halachic topics covered in this series for Parshas
Bo are provided below:
Also Available: Mesorah / Artscroll has published a collection
of Rabbi Frand's essays. The book is entitled:
