Rabbi's Corner

In this week’s parashah, Parashat BeMidbar, we find the following: “HaShem said to Moshe: ‘Record every first-born male of B’nei Yisrael from the age of one month up and make a list of their names; and take the Levi’im for Me, Hashem, in place of every first-born among the B’nei Yisrael.’…So Moshe recorded all the first-born among the B’nei Yisrael as HaShem had commanded him. All the first-born males as listed by name recorded from the age of one month up came to 22,273…HaShem spoke to Moshe saying: ‘Take the Levi’im in place of all the first-born among the B’nei Yisrael…and the Levi’im shall be mine, HaShem’s.  And as the redemption price of the 273 B’nei Yisrael first-born over and above the number of Levi’im [22,000] take five sh’kalim per head…and give the money to Aharon and his sons as the redemption price for those who are in excess.’  So, Moshe took the redemption money from those over and above the ones redeemed by the [22,000] Levi’im; he took the money from the [273] first-born of the B’nei Yisrael…” (BeMidbar 3:40-50) Although there was a negligible number of first-born B’nei Yisrael who participated in the incident of the Eigel HaZhav (the Golden Calf), all of them had a shared collective responsibility for the sin that was committed by the few and thus lost their status of first-born who were to both serve in the Mishkan (Wilderness Tabernacle) and fulfill duties as Kohanim (Priests).  HaShem chose the Levi’im to take their place.  This passage is the basis for the ritual ceremony of Pidyon HaBen (Redemption of the First-Born).  Outside of the Orthodox Jewish Community, I would not be incorrect in saying that the Pidyon HaBen ritual ceremony has fallen into disuse within the American Jewish Community as a whole.  But why?  Because I believe that the average “Jew-on-the-street” (i.e.- non-Orthodox/non-observant) does not believe in the power of redemption.

Rebbe Natan of Breslov teaches (Kitzur Likutei Moharan, I:51.2) that a person should not wait until encountering trouble before considering the power of redemption.  S/he should provide a pidyon to a tzaddik (righteous person) even in good times.  Why?  Because, says Rebbe Natan, such an action helps to prevent future trouble (spiritual or otherwise) from happening.  You protest that you did know any tzaddikim?  Rebbe Natan says that providing Torah scholars with support can serve as a pidyon.  Perhaps the following Chasidic parable will give a clearer picture as to the power of a pidyon:

The hamlets of the Jewish Ukraine consisted of wooden houses with thatched rooves.  If a fire broke out, chas ve-chalilah, the entire shtetl would be nothing but a pile of ashes by the time the bucket brigade schlepped to the river and back.  The clever people of Podol learned their lesson after having witnessed their homes and possessions going up in smoke every other year.  They undertook a unique initiative to build a large shed in which they stored a sturdy horse-drawn wagon which was equipped with two tremendous barrels filled with water.  Itche-Meir, the shtetl “genius” and mechanical innovator, created a hand-drawn pump that was able to siphon water from the barrel through a metal pipe that Honya the blacksmith had made thus giving Podol’s water brigade ten times the water power in both speed and volume of even the best of any shtetl’s bucket brigade.  It was after peasants stole Podol’s horse and fire wagon a second time that the people of Podol decided to install a large, heavy door to seal off the shed from intruders and thieves.  Under Itche-Meir’s careful direction, Honya made a massive lock for the heavy door.  They were determined to protect the fire wagon at all costs, for its use had already successfully extinguished half a dozen blazes that would have otherwise consumed the entire shtetl.

   One hot summer day, a spark from Mrs. Klebanoff’s oven set her house on fire.  Everyone in the shtetl smelled the smoke, and the urchins of Podol were already running to-and-fro yelling “Fire!  Fire!”  The men of Podol raced to the fire shed only to find that the door was locked.  They yelled at each other screaming: “Who’s got the key?”  Nobody could provide an answer to the question.  In the meantime, Mrs. Klebanoff’s house fire was growing in size and was beginning to spread out in the direction of the Turlitzky house.  “Where’s Itche-Meir?” someone yelled.  “He’s got the key!”  “Oy-vey!” exclaimed Chaimke the baker.  “Itche-Meir’s gone to his nephew’s wedding in Zhitomer!  He will not be back until next week!”  Just as clouds of doom and gloom seemed to be ready to descend upon Podol, Honya the blacksmith came running with the key to the fire shed.  It was a spare key he had made for himself.  And although the Klebanoff house was a total loss, the rest of the shtetl was saved because the water brigade of Podol was able to extinguish the blaze in the nick of time.

The shtetl fire of the parable is symbolic of the troubles we face in this world.  The fire wagon is symbolic of the chesed (the compassion) which Hashem uses to extinguish a din (a severe decree [e.g.- a calamity]) which may hang over our heads at any time.  The key that the blacksmith used to unlock the shed in the “nick of time” is symbolic of the pidyon a tzaddik receives in order to invoke Hashem’s compassion that is needed to extinguish the fire of an impending din.  The moral of this parable is just this: never discount the power of a pidyon.  The history of Am Yisrael (the People Israel) is replete with stories of how peoples’ lives were turned around simply by their remembering who they were and why they were: HaShem’s Chosen People with all of the required privileges and responsibilities given to us at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai).  And that pidyon, the receiving and accepting of Hashem’s Torah, is the ultimate pidyon.