Torah is Like Gold and Silver

This week’s Torah portion begins with God’s instructions for constructing the Tabernacle, including taking gold and silver. The opening Midrash cites a famous verse in Proverbs that is ostensibly talking about the value of Torah. “For I have given you a good acquisition, do not forsake my Torah.”¹ The Midrash then goes on to extoll the value of Torah in that a person can but a golden item but not have silver, or he can buy something of silver and not have gold. Yet the Midrash proves that Torah ‘has’ both gold and silver based on verses in Psalms that compare God’s words to gold and silver.²

Why does the Midrash extoll the value of Torah in the Torah portion that is focused on the Tabernacle? It would have made more sense to praise the Temple service, not Torah. The Ketav Sofer³ offers a fascinating answer⁴:

He suggests that the Midrash is understanding that the ‘good acquisition’ described in Proverbs is not in fact referring to the Torah, rather to the Tabernacle and its sacrifices. The Tabernacle is a good acquisition in that it enables sinners to receive atonement for their sins by bringing sacrifices. However, there is a danger that people will be complacent about avoiding sin because they know that they can always easily receive forgiveness through bringing sacrifices. Hence, the Midrash is reading the verse as saying, ‘because I gave you a good acquisition through the Tabernacle don’t forsake the Torah and mitzvot because of that.’

Now that we understand the location of the Midrash about Torah in this week’s portion, a question about the Midrash’s point arises. The Midrash states that Torah is great because it is compared to gold in one place and to silver in another place. We all know that gold is more valuable than silver, so what is the great benefit of the fact that Torah is also compared to silver?

Rabbi Yissachar Frand, citing the Abir Yosef offers an illuminating answer. In his words:

“By almost all disciplines in the world (Chemistry, Physics, Math, English, etc.), a curriculum that is appropriate for a six-year-old child is not appropriate for a sixty-year-old. If I take a basic arithmetic book (2+2 = 4, 4+4 = 8) and show it to a professor of math, he does not need to learn that and he does not learn it. It is the same with all endeavors. But this week – and so it is every week – our children or our grandchildren will come home from school and share what they learned about the Portion… the story of the Tabernacle and all the events in Terumah. Likewise, great Torah scholars will discuss the same Portion.”

The same section of Torah can be learnt and analyzed by the greatest Torah scholar and by a young child, each on his level. This also applies to Talmud as well. Traditionally, the first piece of Talmud that young boys learn is a chapter about lost objects, and yet simultaneously, a great Rosh Yeshiva can give an in-depth shiur on the very same piece of Talmud. As Rabbi Frand says, the same cannot be said of other disciplines. The scientific works that an expert scientist studies, would mean nothing to a young child, or indeed the average adult. And the science book for young children would be a total waste of time for older people or scientists to read.

Rabbi Frand continues that perhaps the only other discipline that this can be remotely compared to is music. Music can be appreciated on a very basic level and on a very sophisticated level. A great musician appreciates great music on his level and a little child may appreciate it at his level. That is one possible reason as to why Torah is compared to song: “And now write for yourselves this Song…”⁵.

That is the meaning of the Midrash comparing Torah to both gold and silver – Torah is indeed both. Someone who appreciates the deeper mysteries of Torah appreciates it as gold. The little school child who comes home with a picture of the Menorah with its knobs and flowers appreciates Torah on his level, at least like silver.

Putting the lesson of the Ketav Sofer and Abir Yosef together we learn two vital points: That Torah should never be forsaken even if one thinks that he can get atonement from sacrifices or any other way. And at the same time, the lessons of the Torah remain applicable and understandable to every Jew on every level.

May we all merit to observe and learn the Torah, each one on his level.