2020/5780

Parashat Shekalim, found in the beginning of Parshat Ki Tissa, deals with the collection of the Machatzit HaShekel. It serves as a remembrance of that annual Mitzvah and is read prior to Adar as that was the month when, in the times of the Beit Hamikdash, citizens would contribute their half-Shekel to the Temple’s fund. This passage is obviously temporally connected to the month of Adar. It also serves as a potent introduction to the Pesach season, however, with an overlapping theme at the essence of both the Parashah and the holiday.

                Parashat Shekalim’s key message is one of Tzibbur--of community--and collective responsibility. It requires every single Jewish male to give exactly half a shekel to the Temple treasury. The Torah tells us, “Kol HaOver Al HaPekudim MiBen Esrim Shanah VaMalah Yitein Terumat Hashem; HeAshir Lo Yarbeh VehHadal Lo Yamit MiMachatzit HaShakel Lateit Et Terumat Hashem Lechapeir Al Naphshoteichem,” “Everyone who is entered in the records, from the age of twenty years up, shall give the Lord’s offering. The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than half a shekel when giving the Lord’s offering as atonement for your persons” (Shemot 30:14-15). No matter how wealthy or destitute the person, the obligation remains the same: half a Shekel, exactly the same as everyone else in the community. A well-known homiletical interpretation of the Machatzit HaShekel adds additional consequence to the fraternal nature of the half-Shekel, explaining the significance of the half-Shekel measure. Each person is required to bring half a Shekel, a recognition of the fact that every Jew can only be considered half a Jew by himself. Only together, as part of a collective, can anybody be considered whole.

                The Machatzit HaShekel does not just unify the Tzibbur metaphorically, but becomes a practical means to serve God together, as a people. In the times of the Beit HaMikdash, the half-Shekel was used to purchase the communal offerings, where the Kohein became a messenger for all of Bnai Yisrael, giving one Korban for the entire nation. These Korbanot achieved the purpose of the Machatzit HaShekel, and served as a representation of all of Klal Yisrael as a single, unified group.

                A sense of community, in addition to being a key aspect of the Machatzit HaShekel, was also what saved Bnei Yisrael from their Egyptian exile. The Midrash notes that “Rabi Huna stated in the name of Bar Kappara: Israel were redeemed from Egypt on account of four things: because they did not change their names, they did not change their language, they did not go tale-bearing, and none of them was found to have been immoral” (Vayikra Rabbah 32). What connects all four of these merits is their shared sense of communal responsibilty. In a positive sense, they maintained communal identity by using traditional names and speaking a unique national language, while avoiding negative betrayals of the community, namely, Lashon Hara and Giluy Arayot. This communal responsibility ultimately led, according to the Midrash, to the redemption of the Jews from Egypt.

                Redemption’s polar opposite, exile, took place when the Jewish people lost this critical feeling of fraternity. The Gemara (Yoma 9b) teaches that the second Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of the sin of Sinat Chinam, baseless hatred. At the end of the Second Temple era, the Jewish population had become fractious, with many different sects competing with, and fighting, one another. A civil war between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, two Hasmonean claimants to the throne, allowed the Roman general Pompey to step in and effectively strip Eretz Yisrael of its Jewish sovereignty, turning it into a Roman vassal state. Later, during the Siege of Jerusalem, the Zealot defenders of the city were divided into fractious, combatting groups, whose violent infighting structurally damaged the city, allowing it to collapse in on itself. Ultimately, the separation of the Jewish people eventually led to their defeat by the Romans and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.

                According to Rabi Yehoshua (Rosh Hashanah 11a), the Jews will be redeemed in the month of Nissan. In antiquity, redemption was brought about through unity, and exile through infighting. To end our current exile, it is key that we revive the ancient communal ties we felt in Egypt, making them a tool to achieve our Yetziat Mitzrayim.