Gad Weil

Blés Vendôme, 2016, Wheat, sand, wood, paint, 250 sq. m., Place Vendôme, Paris; frederic REGLAIN / Alamy Stock Photo

Not Ours to Sell

Commentary by Petra Carlsson Redell

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Read by Ben Quash

Agnes Denes’s (b.1931) Wheatfield, a Confrontation (1982) took six months to create—or to assist the process by which it created itself. She planted a two-acre field of golden wheat near Wall Street in Manhattan. In 2016, Gad Weil created a similar installation in Paris, planting wheat at Place Vendôme. Two of the most hectic and expensive pieces of land in the world were filled with crops gently waving in the wind.

As part of the project in 1982, a questionnaire was composed, with questions concerning human values, the quality of life, and the future of humanity. The microfilm containing the answers was desiccated and placed in a steel capsule in a heavy lead box in nine feet of concrete. ‘The time capsule is to be opened in 2979, in the 30th century, a thousand years from the time of the burial’, Denes wrote.

Will our species still be around in 2979? It doesn’t look like it. Humanity currently appears to be the dinosaurs and also the meteor that killed them, all in one. At least, that will be true if we continue to ignore the last paragraph of Leviticus 27—the one where it all starts making sense.

By the end of the chapter, it is not so much about substituting holiness for money, but about what is holy to begin with.

All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord ... And all the tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. (Leviticus 27:30, 32)

In other words, we may use some, but not all. We may transfer some value from God to money, but not all. Because it is holy, and not ours to sell.

See full exhibition for Leviticus 27

Leviticus 27

Revised Standard Version

27 The Lord said to Moses, 2“Say to the people of Israel, When a man makes a special vow of persons to the Lord at your valuation, 3then your valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. 4If the person is a female, your valuation shall be thirty shekels. 5If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, your valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 6If the person is from a month old up to five years old, your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. 7And if the person is sixty years old and upward, then your valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 8And if a man is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall bring the person before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of him who vowed the priest shall value him.

9 “If it is an animal such as men offer as an offering to the Lord, all of such that any man gives to the Lord is holy. 10He shall not substitute anything for it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; and if he makes any exchange of beast for beast, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. 11And if it is an unclean animal such as is not offered as an offering to the Lord, then the man shall bring the animal before the priest, 12and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so it shall be. 13But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to the valuation.

14 “When a man dedicates his house to be holy to the Lord, the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. 15And if he who dedicates it wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth of the valuation in money to it, and it shall be his.

16 “If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land which is his by inheritance, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it; a sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, it shall stand at your full valuation; 18but if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall compute the money-value for it according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from your valuation. 19And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of the valuation in money to it, and it shall remain his. 20But if he does not wish to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more; 21but the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall be holy to the Lord, as a field that has been devoted; the priest shall be in possesion of it. 22If he dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not a part of his possession by inheritance, 23then the priest shall compute the valuation for it up to the year of jubilee, and the man shall give the amount of the valuation on that day as a holy thing to the Lord. 24In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession by inheritance. 25Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.

26 “But a firstling of animals, which as a firstling belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. 27And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at your valuation, and add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at your valuation.

28 “But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether of a man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. 29No one devoted, who is to be utterly destroyed from among men, shall be ransomed; he shall be put to death.

30 “All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. 31If a man wishes to redeem any of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. 32And all the tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. 33A man shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, neither shall he exchange it; and if he exchanges it, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”

34 These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai.

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