When a person pledges a vow regarding the value of a person to Hashem (Vayikra 27:2)

Imagine going to buy a new car. You come to the dealer and tell him all of the fancy controls you want in your car. You want the greatest sound system which makes you feel like you are in a concert hall. You also want leather seats and not just any leather seats – seven cows must have been killed to provide the leather for the seats. And there should be heating and air conditioning that comes out of the seats. Windshield wipers on the headlights are really cool! And of course, you really want those colored lights under the car that make it look like it is flying. Finally, your car arrives and you prepare to take it out for a test spin. You start the car and drive down the road. You have so much excitement as you get ready to go into the first turn – but your car doesn’t make the turn. The reason is because the wires connecting the steering wheel to the tires aren’t connected.

At the very end of this week’s parsha, the Torah discusses bringing a voluntary offering to the Temple. Rav Hirsch explains why this comes at the very end of Sefer Vayikra. This whole Sefer discusses obligatory offerings a person brings. After the discussion of all of the obligatory offerings, the Torah mentions this voluntary offering to remind us obligations come before voluntary acts. Before doing all of the extras, we have mandatory items we must complete.

When I was in grade school, I took numerous tests which had extra credit questions. One of my teachers made a rule regarding the extra credit questions which was a great lesson for me: the student was required to complete all of the other questions on the test before answering the extra credit. Extra credit is only to come after all of the mandatory items are done.

This seems to be an obvious thing, but sometimes we forget this. A man learning in the Lakewood Kollel was showing up late to his set time for learning every morning and his Rosh Yeshiva asked him why he kept coming late. The Kollel man answered every morning on his way to learning, he passed a woman who was alone in her house struggling to take care of many children. He would stop to help her out and after everything settled down, he went to the yeshiva. The Rosh Yeshiva asked for this woman’s name so they could maybe help her out. The Kollel man said it was his wife. Many people run to help others, which is an excellent thing – but we must not forget about our own families. Judaism has many wonderful chesed organizations that need our help, but we need to remember chesed starts at home. We are required to have Shalom Bayis and raise our children. Doing volunteer work in an organization, although it is definitely a great thing to do, should not push aside our obligations. Just like a person would not buy a car with loads of extras if the steering wheel doesn’t work, we are not allowed to do extras until we fulfill our requirements.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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