The Torah column is supported by a generous donation from Eve Gordon-Ramek in memory of Kenneth Gordon.
Bamidbar
Numbers 1:1-4:20
Have you ever attended a pidyon haben? It’s the ceremony when a first-born, 31-day-old male baby is “redeemed” from Temple service. His parents give five silver dollars to a descendant of the Kohanim, the ancient priestly caste, recite pledges of commitment to the baby’s Jewish education and express gratitude for becoming parents. In exchange, they are “given” their infant to keep and raise.
As Tevye said, “Sounds crazy, no?” But it’s a very old practice — continued even 2,000 years after the fall of the Temple — with its roots in this week’s Torah portion.
The first grand-scale “redemption of the first-born sons” happens in Bamidbar, which means “In the wilderness.” Bamidbar is both the name of this week’s Torah portion and the Hebrew name of the Book of Numbers. The English name for the book comes from the focus of its opening chapters on the great census of the Israelite men of fighting age.
A curious case of counting occurs in the latter part of the portion amid the ongoing parceling out of priestly duties. The Levites are counted specially, all males from 1 month and up, and the number comes to 22,000. But God directs an exchange. Moses is commanded to “number all the first-born males [those under 20 years old, per the midrash] of the children of Israel from a month old and upward and take the number of their names. And you shall take the Levites for Me, the Holy One, instead of all the first-born among the children of Israel….” (Numbers 3:40-41) Moses counts all the first-born males, and the number comes to 22,273.
Since it wasn’t an even swap, Moses gathers five shekels per head as God directs, and the collected monies (273 x 5, listed mathematically correctly in the Torah as 1,365 shekels) are given to Aaron and his sons as a redemption price for the overage of first-born males (Numbers 3:46-51).
It isn’t very often that a Biblical injunction comes with an explicit example of it being enacted, and in a way that conforms so closely to how the ritual is still performed. In our case, the wilderness pidyon haben transaction fulfills and expands on the commandment in Exodus 13 after the terrible 10th plague, the makkat bechorot/slaying of the first-born of Egypt, which brought wide-scale death and destruction to Egypt but also brought the nightmare of the Israelites’ slavery to an end.
To ensure that the night would always be remembered, God commands, but without elaboration: “Sanctify to me all the first-born, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is Mine.” (Exodus 13:2) In Bamidbar, we learn some of how that would ultimately be done.
Despite the many Biblical instances of favored younger children, the preeminence of Jewish first-borns at a pidyon haben is considered a direct repudiation of the ancient and terrible practice of sacrificing first-borns to the gods by fire. There is no evidence of that horrible rite being carried out in Jewish history, except in a few very abnormal times during the reign of the (mostly awful) Judean and Israelite kings.
Awe of the plagues and the triumph of God over Pharaoh has remained embedded in Jewish life primarily through Passover (in the haggadah and at the Fast of the First Born) and in our prayers, but also with the continuation of the pidyon haben ritual. Though these ceremonies aren’t widely done beyond Orthodox and some Conservative circles, they’re joyous, sweet and a wonderful opportunity to celebrate a first-born boy without the drama and overwhelming newness of the brit milah that took place a few weeks prior.
It is important to note that this ritual has been limited to male-assigned children. Women did not serve as Kohanim, and they were not subject to Pharaoh’s edict of death for the Israelite boys, hence their “redemption” is not necessary. Still, the daughter of a Kohen, a bat Kohen, can and often does receive the “five shekels” (given customarily to charity) and takes part in the pidyon haben ritual.
The “radical amazement” that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel encouraged when beholding the cycles of creation extended to so many areas of traditional Jewish life.
Beyond the confines of a first-born male baby’s pidyon haben, all Jewish people and their loved ones can acknowledge the miracle of growth and regeneration this weekend on Shavuot. The lovely, Torah-based pilgrimage festival starts at sundown on Sunday, June 1. It is known by many names, among them Chag HaBikkurim, the Holiday of the First Fruits. (“Bikkurim” is from the same root as “bechor,” first-born.)
After what we hope would have been a bountiful season, the spring harvest comes to fullness with the gathering of the wheat, 50 days after the counting of the Omer began on the second night of Passover in almost all Jewish communities. (The definitive start time for the Omer has been the subject of debate throughout Jewish history.)
The bringing of the bikkurim is one of the few places in the Torah where we are given an actual prayer script. In Deuteronomy 26:1-10, farmers bearing their first fruits, specifically wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates as listed in Deuteronomy. They would then declare their gratitude for the land’s produce and summarize the journey into slavery in Egypt, the providential rescue and the arrival ultimately to the “land flowing with milk and honey.” (Deuteronomy 26:9) It seems that reminders of the Exodus, both its perils and its promises, are to be with us always.
At Shavuot, we rejoice in the Divine gifts of the land and its yield and, as the holiday evolved, of the giving of the Torah, our Tree of Life. We have almost finished counting the days of the harvest and, in more modern practices, we have worked on our character traits with meditations and self-awareness exercises. It is a time to remember that each of us is precious and irreplaceable, and that each of us, from the smallest to the eldest, counts for so very much.