I’ve heard that the Leviim were most famous for three things:
First, they were the choir of the Beit HaMikdash. Second, the educators. Third, they weren’t wealthy. Unlike the Kohanim, who got a piece of the korbanot, and the Yisraelim, who were given chunks of real estate, the Leviim seemed to have lived on song and thought alone.
Maybe it had to be that way. Maybe the lack of emphasis on wealth is baked into sharing Torah and sharing song.
In his book, The Gift, Lewis Hyde, describes how art is most able to flourish when it is created and shared as a gift, rather than as a product to be sold for a fee. When art is given freely and generously without payment, the creation is able to circulate from one person to the next freely, with the result being more connection and meaning.
Since we live in a Capitalist society, this can be a tough idea to wrap our heads around. And, to be sure, Im ein kemach, ein Torah. We must pay our educators, and our musicians and artists too. (As an artist myself, I am a big fan of being paid for my work!)
But as an artist I also know that when I gift my work – either as a ketubah for my niece and nephews, or even a painted rock to a friend – it is somehow infinitely more valuable than the fee I might have charged for the same. Its value becomes abstract and not measurable.
Perhaps Torah and song are the same: Without a price – and therefore priceless.
