This Shabbat is the double parsha of Bihar-Bechukotai.   In Bechukotai we read of the blessings and curses which outline the good things that will happen to the Jews as a nation if they obey the word of God and the terrible things which will befall them if they do not.   Though these end with promises of redemption, the Torah’s curses are long and devastating.

Curiously, the portion of the curses is followed by the portion of Aruchin, a particular kind of charitable pledge to the Temple, as the Torah states, “Speak to the Jewish People and say to them, when someone takes a vow to give the value of a soul (person) to God…”  Aruchin is the biblical idea that a special way to give charity to the Temple was to donate the value of a person, or of oneself, to the Temple.   But, what possible connection is there between the curses in our parsha and this seemingly unusual form of charitable donation based on the “worth” or as the Torah puts it, “the soul”, of a person?

The Talmud rules that one must give this type of donation with the words, “The worth of so and so is upon me.”  The Talmud (Aruchin 20a) further rules that this type of donation is only meaningful if it is the value of the whole person, one may not use this type of language of donation to declare, for instance, “I donate the value of someone’s foot.”   Only the worth of an entire person is meaningful for such charitable pledges.   If one says, I donate the value of so and so’s head or heart, a part of the body upon which life is dependant, then this is tantamount to pledging the value of the entire person, and so it would take effect, and they would owe the “worth” of the entire person.

I think there is an interesting undertone here surrounding the idea of aruchin, such valuations which are based upon people – obligating oneself to the community, on the basis of a person- specifically a whole “soul”.  We do not do this anymore so the whole idea seems very foreign to us.  But imagine how it would feel to say, “I take upon myself to give your value to God.”   On the one hand it might be reifying, objectifying the other person, on the other hand there is something intimate about it, a sense of responsibility and unity that is evoked.

Perhaps the juxtaposition between the curses and aruchin in our parsha is precisely this.  That when something bad happens to the Jewish people we must each feel, as the language of this peculiar Biblical donation is phrased, that, “Your soul’s value is upon me”.   We must each feel the intimacy of full responsibility for the other – as the talmud says- only a whole person can be valued.

This past week the Jewish people suffered a confounding tragedy in Meron. The loss is devastating, and the horror of the way in which they died, under the feet of their brethren who were unable to stop themselves due to the throngs, is unthinkable.  As with all tragedy, we can not know why, we can only ask how we must respond; what now is our obligation?  For us tragedy tows responsibility in its wake.  The response our parsha instructs in the face of curses which befall the Jewish people is not only t’shuvah, repentance and change, but for us all to declare the phrase of aruchin-“The value of your soul is upon me”.