וְאִישׁ אֶת־קֳדָשָׁיו לוֹ יִהְיוּ אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־יִתֵּן לַכֹּהֵן לוֹ יִהְיֶה׃

A man’s holies will be to him. What a man gives to the Kohen (Priest) will be to him. (5:10)

It’s obvious that we need commentary to understand this verse.

Rashi in his commentary cites an Aggadic interpretation. The Torah mandates that we give the Kohen (the Priest) a portion of our grain which is called “Terumah” and that we give a tenth of our grain to the Levi (Levite) known as “Ma’aser” (a tenth).

“A man’s holies will be to him” means that whoever retains the Ma’aser and does not give it to the Levite, only a tenth will be his, i.e., his field will ultimately yield no more than a tenth of what it was accustomed to yield (so that his whole possession will not exceed the gifts he should have given to the Levi).

The second half of the verse, “What a man gives to the Kohen will be to him” means that a man who gives to the Kohen the gifts that are due to him will be blessed with prosperity.

There is a beautiful homiletic interpretation offered by Oznayim L’Torah to the words, “What a man gives to the Kohen will be to him.”

A Jewish minister of a king became very successful and wealthy which drew the ire of the other ministers. Behind his back, they began accusing him before the king of making his wealth off the king’s coffers. The king recognized his Jewish minister’s sterling character and refused to believe their accusations.

Not being able to withstand the pressure being put upon him, the king finally agreed to investigate. He called in the Jewish minister and asked him to give a value to his estate. The answer he gave alarmed the king. It was a significant number, but it was way below the value of what this minister owned. Before giving him a chance to explain, the Jewish minister was thrown into jail and his estate was confiscated.

On the day of his trial, the king angrily asked this minister how he could have so blatantly lied to him. Finally the minister had a chance to explain.

“Your Highness,” he said.” My answer to you was the absolute truth. This is how I calculate my wealth. I keep a ledger of all the money that I have given to Charity. Every gift I make is recorded with the date on which it was given with the amount. The Heavenly reward of those monies is my true wealth because those profits are mine for eternity! No one can take it away from me. My material wealth can disappear in a second as you have clearly seen! When you asked me for the value of my estate I answered you based on the numbers recorded in that ledger because that is my true estate!”

The king had the ledger brought to him and the value that the minister had told him was exactly the total number of donations recorded in the ledger.

The king returned all his property to him and reinstated him to his position.

This is what the Torah is alluding to in the words, “What a man gives to the Kohen will be to him.” The money you give away for a mitzvah “will be to him”. That’s the money that a person truly has. That is his wealth for eternity.

Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak