Machatzis Hashekel: We Are One With Hashem

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This week we read about the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel, every Jewish male, from the age of 20 to 60 had to give a half shekel coin. This was an atonement for the sin of the golden calf. 

On the verse, "This is what they should give... a half shekel," the Talmud Yerushalmi and the Midrash tell us that Moshe didn't understand, so Hashem took out a coin of fire from under His throne, showed it to Moshe and said, "like this is what they should give." And Tosafos explains that Moshe knew what a half shekel coin was, his question was:  How can a person give an atonement for his soul (through a half shekel)? As the Midrash continues, "Who can give an atonement for his soul, '... A person would give everything he has as an atonement for his soul,' and it still wouldn't be enough..." In response, Hashem "showed him a coin of fire." 

In other words, the half shekel was an atonement for the sin of the golden calf, which was Idolatry. How can a half shekel be an atonement for such a grave sin? 

Mitzvahs are compared to the organs of the body. In the body there are vital organs and non-vital organs. Then there are organs that are the most important, the brain and the heart, in which the neshama resides, and they control or enliven the entire body. The same is with mitzvahs, there are those that are more vital to the rest of the body of mitzvahs, and there are those that are less vital. Then there are general mitzvahs that the whole Torah and all the mitzvahs are dependant on, like, "I Am Hashem your G-d," which is the belief in Hashem, and "you shall not have any gods before Me," which is the prohibition against Idolatry. How could it be possible for idol worship, such a grave sin, to be atoned for by merely giving a half shekel? 

Being that Moshe knew what a half shekel was, and he wondered how is it possible that a half shekel coin could be an atonement for the soul of a person, how did Hashem's response, showing him "a coin of fire," answer the question? 

We will understand it through a parable of the Baal Shem Tov. There was a man who was a goldsmith and a silversmith, and he took an apprentice. He taught him everything there was to know about shaping the precious metals, the only thing that he didn't teach him, was that he had to put a fire under the gold or silver in order to shape it, and surprise surprise, no matter how hard he tried, he only ended up with a clump of metal. 

The same is with the half shekel, the coin itself might be of little value, but it is how they gave the half shekel that made all the difference. They had to give it with fire, the whole fire of their being, the whole fire of their neshama, then it was an atonement. 

When one does a mitzvah, the actual act of the mitzvah brings out the accomplishment that is being done by doing the mitzvah. Here he is giving a coin. How does that act show the atonement over Idolatry? 

By the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel the Torah says, "This is what they should give... a half shekel of a holy shekel, a shekel is twenty gera, a half shekel donation to Hashem." Later, when it gives the total of the half shekels, it says that they gave "A bekka per head, a half shekel of a holy shekel." The Torah doesn't use extra words, however, here it seems to go on and on. First it calls it a half of a shekel, then it explains that a whole sheke is twenty gera, and it continues, that we have to give a half shekel, then later on it calls it a bekka, and again a half shekel. Why doesn't it simply say that we should give ten gera, and it would be clear? The must be something deeper going on here. 

It is clear from the verse, that the fact that it is ten gera is unimportant, what is important, is that it is a half. And the Torah goes to explain a half of what. In order to do that, it has to explain what a holy shekel is, twenty gera. Then it makes it clear that it is a half, because that is what's important. 

Why is the fact that it is a half so important? 

Another question. Usually everything in Torah has to be complete, as we should give the best to Hashem. And here Hashem insists on a half and only a half, as He said, "The rich person shouldn't add and the pauper shouldn't subtract from a half shekel." Why? 

The question becomes stronger, when you consider that the Torah calls it a bekka, which is a whole coin that is worth a half shekel or ten gera. So it could have been a whole thing, a bekka. Why then does it insist on using the term half shekel? And if it's insisting on a half shekel, then why mention bekka all together? 

Bekka is mentioned earlier in the Torah. When Eliezer went to find a wife for Yitzchak, he found Rivka and he gave her a nose ring that weighed a bekka. Rashi tells us that it is a hint to the half shekel. 

The explanation. When Hashem told Moshe that He is going to forgive the Jewish people for the sin of the golden calf, He said that He would "cut a covenant" with the Jewish people. Why is the term "cut" used to actualize a covenant? Because it was the way of people who were making a covenant to cut animals in half, and they would pass through them, like the Bris Bein Habesarim, the Covenant Between the Parts. The idea is that the two parties are saying that just as the two parts are one animal, so too, although they are two people, they will be as one in respect to one another. 

The sign of this covenant between Hashem and the Jewish people, is a half shekel, specifically a half. Because Hashem and the Jewish people are, so to speak, two halves of one whole, as He says in Song of Songs, that we are "tamasi," that we "complete" Him. Each half is ten gera, ten is a whole number, symbolizing the ten attributes of the soul, and although Hashem is infinite and beyond this world, He compresses Himself into ten G-dly attributes. By giving a half shekel, we realize that we are half and that Hashem is our other half, in other words, we are one. 

When we realize this truth, we touch our essence, which is one with Hashem. This essence is not touchable and it is not affected by any sin, not even Idolatry. When we reveal this essential oneness with Hashem, it is so powerful, that it is an automatic atonement, because in that moment there is nothing but complete oneness, everything else falls away. 

The separation that we experience between us and Hashem, is only superficial, the true essence is one. 

This is also true for a marriage, the two are truly one, and that is why, the half shekel is hinted to in the marriage of Yitzchak and Rivka. And perhaps that is the reason that bekka is mentioned by the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel, because it is a reminder of the marriage between Hashem and the Jewish people, that makes us one. 

If a marriage is two that is really one, then why doesn't it say machatzis hashekel by the marriage of Yitzchak and Rivka? Because it was before the giving of the Torah, the complete oneness wasn't revealed, however, at the giving of the Torah, our oneness with Hashem was open and revealed. 

So the half shekel reveals the essence of the neshama, which is only revealed through the fire, and it probably is the fire itself. 

May we feel the oneness with Hashem once again, with the coming of Moshiach. May he come soon. 

Dedicated to my other half shekel, Dina, who is in Israel, lifting the spirits of our brothers and sisters. It is an honor to be her husband and best friend.