פרשת בהר - בחקותי תשכ"ו - ה"ערכך"

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When a man shall clearly utter a vow of persons unto the LORD, according to thy valuation,

And whosoever bringeth a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto the LORD in fulfilment of a vow clearly uttered, or for a freewill-offering, of the herd or of the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.

Pledging valuation of souls. The valuation is for the soul and not the body, and therefore it is not estimated like a slave whose body is sold in the marketplace.

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When a man shall clearly utter a vow of persons unto the LORD, according to thy valuation,

והיה ערכך THEN THY ערכך SHALL BE etc. — This word ערך used throughout this section has not the meaning of דמים, market-value (which varies according to the condition of the market or the condition of the person offered for sale, whilst ערך is a fixed value), but whether he be of high value or of low value, according to his age is the ערך fixed for him in this section.

the valuation of animate things This involves a case where someone takes a vow, saying, “If God will do such-and-such for me, I will redeem my soul with its valuation” (or his son’s valuation, or the valuation of an animal, etc). All the grammarians agree that the khaf is extraneous, and that the word means “valuation”. One opinion, however, holds that the khaf indicates the second person masculine singular possessive and denotes the kohen. “As the valuation of the kohen” [:12] would then be explained to read, “as your valuation, of you”, and the heh would be classified as a vocative heh . Similarly, “the valuation” [:23] must perforce be an irregular word, like “within my tent” [literally: within the my tent] [Joshua 7:21]. In my opinion, however, the latter word means, “the tent, which was my tent”. The same argument can apply to “the your valuation”.

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When a man shall clearly utter a vow of persons unto the LORD, according to thy valuation,

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When a man shall clearly utter a vow of persons unto the LORD, according to thy valuation,