Sunday, February 21, 2016

Parshat Ki Tisa, 1st Portion, Exodus 31:11-34:35, February 21, 2016

The Census Tax

11 “The Lord said to Moses, 12 ‘When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel [1] according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), [2] half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. 16 You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.’” (Exodus 31:11-16)

Depending on the translation I read, this passage has a different meaning. In the Chabad.org Torah, it speaks of an atonement for one’s sins, but here below we read of ransom for your life, which I take to mean to free from slavery.

12 “When you take the sum of the children of Israel according to their numbers, let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul when they are counted; then there will be no plague among them when they are counted.” (Exodus 30:12)

So when people say, I believe in the Bible... one has to ask “which Bible.”

I like Chabad.org because it neatly divides the Torah into manageable bites... one for each day. It has commentary by Rashi. It also is a little more spiritual. Freedom is ultimately not about who has chaines around your legs, but rather whether your mind has been liberated. Are you a creature of habitual actions, or are you dealing with your challenge (life) in a creative way? 

Something rubs me the wrong way when I read about giving... where really it is payment for atonement or freedom, depending on which Torah you are reading. Giving is ransom when it is done under a threat. Who wants to be hit by a plague as the Egyptians so sadly were?

Let’s call a spade a spade. Dare I trust a religion that asks for money to keep you from getting sick, eternal damnation, or whatever the threat might be? 

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