How Many Kids Can I Buy If I Gave You a Silver Coin?

     Thirty days ago, a baby was born. A little over seven pounds with all his health, he collided with this world with awesome newness. Eight days later, he received his Bris (a Jewish circumcision ritual) and twenty-two days after that he was bought back from a Jewish man of the tribe of priests.

     A brother of mine— for all intents and purposes, though not by blood— gave a speech at his newborn son’s “Pidyon HaBen,” a Jewish ceremony where the family of a first-born son not born of a Kohen or Levi (the tribes of priests and temple-workers of older times) buys back his child from a man of that tribe. The custom dates back to the first and second temples, where only those born of the tribe of Kohanim could do the work in the temple, except for first-born sons who were given the opportunity to join the priests in the holy work.

     After poking fun at the guests of this event for having nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon, my friend discussed the idea of a Pidyon HaBen in his speech. The family of the new child is given a choice, spending some money or keeping their child. At first he remarked, “Of course every parent would keep their child! Who in their right mind after all the hardship of pregnancy would give up the wonderful and beautiful fruit of their labor’” (pardon the pun). 

     But, he continued (and I’ll paraphrase). How easy is it to forget the gift of a child? How easy is it to look at a child as a “cost,” either of money or of time or of energy? How many parents fall victim to resentment toward their kids, and forget that they too once were so young and somewhat helpless, and asked of their parents resources?

     It reminded me of a conversation I’d had with a few friends of mine, debating the value of having a child. They argued that from an economic standpoint a child is just a financial drain, another drop in the bucket for world-overpopulation, an obstacle to themselves and their partner’s dreams of world-domination. 

     I responded that I was sad for them. If any human life— no matter how old or how young—is shoved into this little box of economy, or biology, or any other logical-sounding, box-fitting method created and stamped “safe” by scientists, how will we appreciate the that-ness that is life, the adjective that has no name, the specialness that is a human being. The reason why every parent buys back their child at a Pidyon HaBen is that because no matter how holy the work of G-d is, there is a bond between humans, specifically family, that transcends the silver coin. And that, I think, has the power to illuminate.

          -Rebecca Najjar