You will all, no doubt, know that this week in addition to reading Parshas Mishpatim, we also have a separate extra Parsha, the first of the four special Parshos, namely Parshas שקלים. We read the beginning of Parshas Ki Sisso, which deals with the whole matter.
Why do we read Parshas שקלים at this time of the year?
The Mishnah at the beginning of Maseches Shekalim commences באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים, that on Rosh Chodesh Adar there was a special proclamation every year that people should contribute a half a shekel each of silver.
What was this meant for? Well, whilst there was a Bais Hamikdosh, there were, in addition to the korbonos, the various sacrifices which people brought individually, also קרבנות ציבור, communal sacrifices. They had to be paid for from somewhere and it was the money that was collected each year, these payments of half a shekel which added up to a large sum and were utilised for korbonos Tzibbur. These were not just for the korbonos which had to be brought every day and especially the special ones on Shabbos and Yom Tov as we are told in various places in Torah, especially parshos אמר and פינחס. There were times when the Mizbaech, the altar, was not busy because there were very few individuals who were bringing their private korbonos. In order that the Mizbaech should not be underutilised, korbonos Tzibbur were brought and these came from the communal money chest.
There was a once a year fundraising effort and the New Year commenced each time as at ראש חדש ניסן. In order to ensure that the funds were in place, a proclamation was, therefore, made a month earlier, namely אדר ראש חדש . The money then gradually came in over the next month.
As a commemoration of that on אדר ראש חדש if it falls on Shabbos, or the Shabbos proceeding אדר ראש חדש we read the special Parsha, Parshas שקלים.
Just to complete the picture please note that prior to the erection of the Mishkan, as a once off, there was also a מחצית השקל contribution given. This was utilised at that time for the silver needed to coat the אדנים, the sockets in which were placed the קרשים, the wooden fence which surrounded the Mishkan. A very small quantity being used for the hooks at the top of the wooden planks, the קרשים.
The מפרשים, the commentators, wax lyrical about the fact that everybody gave a מחצית השקל, the same amount and they explain that every Jew is basically of equal worth. Every male over the age of 20 whether he was rich, middle class or poor had to give this fixed contribution. Not only is every Yid basically equal, in addition, nobody is complete (has שלמות) without joining in with somebody else and with the community, the whole ציבור. That is the reason for giving a half a shekel rather than a whole shekel each.
If one looks carefully at the Parsha, one finds that we are enjoined to give מחצית השקל בשקל הקודש, a half a shekel of the holy shekel. The Torah tells us that the שקל הקודש was double the normal shekel. In that case, why were we not told to give a shekel each of the ordinary shekalim? The answer is two fold, firstly, as I mentioned above that everybody should understand the significance of a half a shekel, that one has to complete it with at least another half with some other person. Secondly, that the money given should be holy, קדש.
We find that our Chazal tell us נתקשה משה במחצית השקל הראה לו הקב''ה מטבע של אש. When Moshe Rabbenu was told by Hashem of this particular mitzvah, he had difficulty comprehending it. Hashem showed him a coin of fire.
Fire has got many qualities in it. Fire can light up the dark, fire can heat up as well, these are both positive qualities, however, fire also has a negative quality in that it can burn. Remember what it did in Australia, near Melbourne, very recently. Nearly 200 people were killed in the bush fires and thousands of properties destroyed. Hashem showed Moshe that money has to be handled very carefully, just as fire has to be, it has to be given to good causes, but it also has to earned in an honest way and always used in a good way. I am sure that some of you will remember an old tune which starts off “Money is the root of all evil”. It may be so, but it is also the root of a lot of good. It just depends how one earns it and how one utilises it. Here we are talking about utilising it for the common good for the greatest mitzvah, of keeping the Temple service going.
Unfortunately, nowadays, we do not have a Bais Hamikdosh, may it speedily be rebuilt, but nevertheless, we do have institutions such as this very בית המדרש that we are in at the moment and including Jewish Day schools, Talmud Torahs, Yeshivas, girls’ seminaries, kollelim etc. where holiness, the beauty, the enthusiasm for learning about our religion and keeping it, is nurtured and carried out daily. This is in addition to the תפילות ותשבחות, the prayers and praises offered to Hashem. All this is, of course, in some small way a continuation of what took place in our Holy Temple many years ago, and it is what keeps our nation going as a Holy Jewish nation.
Once a year everybody had to join in communally and do their bit. Of course, if somebody could afford more and wished to bring his own sacrifice, marvellous. In the same way nowadays, people may wish to give large sums of money to these good causes, Torah and Chesed and not just studying the Torah but also carrying our kind deeds, for example, Hatzolo who are today making their annual appeal for funds. We are all aware how they help to save lives, as well as dealing with other injuries and medical problems.
The thought might cross some people’s minds that this is not a time to spend money on charity, or at least to cut down, but in Parshas Shekalim, we have a word which shows otherwise. The word is ונתנו which means, you shall give. The Baal Haturim points out that this word is a palindrome, it is spelt exactly the same way whether you start at the beginning or you start at the end and work backwards, and he explains that this is an allusion to the fact that the more one gives the more Hashem gives back. The prophet מלאכי tells us בחנוני נא בזאת test me in this sphere of giving charity and carries on והרקותי לכם ברכה עד בלי די I will pour blessings on you without any stopping or interference.
From personal experience, I can tell you that it works.
The word שקל when spelt out in full as follows,שין = 360 קוף = 186 and למד = 74 totals 620. This is exactly the same as the word כתר namely a crown, these shekelim given are like jewels together in the crown (metaphorically speaking, of course) of הקב''ה. Furthermore, they also add together to the 613 mitzvos plus the 7 which the Rabbis enacted, again equally 620.
The last Mishnah in the whole of Mishnayos, contains the following
עתיד הקב''ה להנחיל לכל צדיק וצדיק ש''י עולמות
Namely that a Tzaddik will, when Moshiach comes, receive 310 worlds. I think you may have noticed that if the word שקל equals 620 a מחצית השקל equals 310. That is the power of giving מחצית השקל. Furthermore, mention is made of צדיק וצדיק, two righteous people, in other words two people each giving a half a shekel, together they make a whole and this is analogous to them creating a crown, a כתר, for the Rabbonu Shel Olam and also they will be the people who will keep the 620 mitzvos as mentioned above.
It is interesting to note, as I mentioned in detail above, that the monies which were gathered together in order to bring communal sacrifices during the whole year in the Bais Hamikdosh were allotted year by year. The changeover date for the New Year was 1st day of Nissan, Rosh Chodesh Nissan, and, therefore, a month earlier there was a proclamation that these shekalim should be gathered together and brought to Yerushalayim into the coffers of the Bais Hamikdosh. That is why we now read Parshas Shekalim on Rosh Chodesh Adar, or the Shabbos immediately prior to it. The question one can ask is, Why is that the changeover time, why not make the changeover date Rosh Hashonah, which is more appropriately the New Year, and therefore, why was the beginning of Nissan chosen?
The Gemorah at the beginning of שקלים states that this was because the Mishkan was consecrated on the first day of Nissan in the second year that the Bnei Yisroel were in the Midbor. The first shekalim given were utilised in the making of the Mishkan in connection with the אדנים as mentioned earlier on.
May I suggest that an additional reason to commence from Nissan could be that because the first ever sacrifice, קרבן ציבור, brought by the Bnei Yisroel was the קרבן פסח the details of which were commanded by Hashem on Rosh Chodesh Nissan. Therefore, it was originally enacted that the changeover point for bringing the monies to bring these קרבנות ציבור each year in the Bais Hamikdosh should likewise be Rosh Chodesh Nissan. Even nowadays, where, unfortunately, we have not got a Bais Hamikdosh, because we are so busy in Ellul doing teshuva, getting ready for Rosh Hashonah, therefore, the month of Adar is a very good time to remind ourselves of our communal responsibilities.
In addition to the rules that I mentioned above, there was a further הלכה which is learnt from this parsha. Whenever the Bnei Yisroel had to be counted, they were not allowed to be counted with a head count but everybody had to give an equal sum of half a shekel and that way the total number of Yidden could be ascertained. This was, in fact, the idea of איש כופר נפשו, each person bringing an atonement for himself. When this was not followed, for example, once at the time of Dovid Hamelech, there were tragic consequences.
On Musaf in Parshas Shekalim there are special extra prayers known as יצרות said by Ashkenazi communities. These are said at the end of each brocho of Shemonai Esra. The final paragraph in each case starts as follows.
אור פניך עלינו אדון נסה, ושקל אשא בבית נכון ונשא this is translated as, We beseech You, our Master to once again shine the light of your countenance upon us (that is by bringing Moshiach) and I will then bring a shekel in the third Bais Hamikdosh to be built.
I have seen the question being asked as to why does it not say a half a shekel as we are taught to take in Parshas שקלים. The simple answer is of course that it fits perfectly with the rhyme by saying just the words ושקל אשא, meaning the basic idea of giving shekalim, but that, of course, is a very simple answer. What occurs to me, on a somewhat deeper level, is that, as I mentioned before, namely that the shekel hakodesh was worth double an ordinary shekel and the Torah tells us to take מחצית השקל בשקל הקודש, when one could has easily taken an ordinary shekel של חול, not Kodesh and the effect would have been the same but as mentioned, the Torah wants us to take shekel hakodesh, a holy shekel because money has to be very carefully utilised and very honestly earned it has to be from things which are holy. However, when Moshiach comes and the third Bais Hamikdosh is built, the koach of the yetzer horah will be diminished, if not completely extinguished, and at that time we should be able to contribute a shekel even of חול and bring it in the Bais Hamikdosh without any problems.
I have seen quoted by the Pnei Menachem in the name of Rebbe Bunem of Peshischa that a maggid from Germany suggested that הראה לו הקב''ה מטבע של אש. Hashem showed Moshe Rabbenu a coin of fire, which means that he showed him that one should give money for good causes, Torah, tzedokah v’chesed with his התלהבות with a bren, with warmth.
Many of you will be aware that when giving a צדיק a kvittel one also includes some money as a פדיון, the idea being that the צדיק can then pray to Hashem on behalf of the individual. If asked what he has to do with the matter, he can explain that he has received a benefit from the individual and has become a sort of a partner with him, so to speak.
How much more is this true if one contributes to Torah and Chesed which benefits the whole community the ציבור and this is analogous to giving the מחצית השקל.
In Parshas פקודי, the Torah reckons out all the gold, silver and copper that was utilised from the contributions given by the Bnei Yisroel.
The gold amounted to 29 ככר, and 730 shekalim in shikle hakodesh. The silver was 100 ככר 1,775 shekalim stated by the Torah to be the מחצית השקל which we are speaking about today and those מחצית השקל which were utilised at the time of the Mishkon were used for silver to surround אדנים the sockets in which were placed the wood which surrounded the Miskhan, as I mentioned above. That amounted to100 ככר. The 1,775 remaining shekalim were used for the hooks at the top of the wooden planks. The Torah then tells us that the copper contributed amounted to 70 ככר, 2,400 shekalim.
If you add together the gold and the copper which was given as an unsolicited contribution by whoever fancied giving it, the two together total 100 ככר and 130 shekalim; less than the silver donated, which amounted to 100 ככר and 1,775 shekalim.
I think that there is a fundamental lesson to be learned from this. The small contributions of Klal Yisroel, just a half a shekel each person, added up together to more than all the other contributions given by people who gave spontaneously out of their own pocket whatever they fancied. Remember that the Bnei Yisroel at that time had lots of gold, silver and copper, they had taken the wealth of Egypt with them and they did not have to spend money buying anything, they were provided with manna, מן, with the water from the Be’er shel Miriam and they could give as much as they wanted. Nevertheless, the koach of tzibbur, of the ordinary man, rich, poor or middle class giving half a shekel for all the 603,550 males of 20 years and over, added up in weight to more than the others. The contributions in silver outweighed all the gold and the copper together. Every little bit counts.
The Zohar Hakodesh tells us that one should not count Jews and therefore, the מחצית השקל was utilised when a head count or census was needed. Incidentally, in the same way nowadays, when for example, we wish to count to see if we have a minyan, the custom is that one does not count the people, 1,2, 3 but utilises the posek הושיעה את עמך etc which has 10 words in it and not for nothing is that פסוק utilised, because the translation is “Save Your people” etc.
We are also told by the Zohar elsewhere that gold being of a reddish tint, represents דינים, whereas כסף, silver being of a whitish colour represents חסד. We begin to understand why the מחצית השקל had to be given from silver. Furthermore, this also explains why the אדנים, the sockets, were covered in silver as a sign of chesed and rachamim for כלל ישראל.
Shabbos is the focal day of our week. We all feel different on Shabbos, more uplifted, I would like to share with you an explanation of the first words of the Parshas Shekalim which starts as follows כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל and this can be translated, “When you will lift up the heads of the Jewish People” that is to increase the affinity to the spiritual side of our religion. The Chidushei Harim, the first Gerrer Rebbe, comments as follows:- If you take the word ראש and go to the next letters in the אלף בית (because you are uplifting) that is you are going to the next letter, in consequence, a ר is followed by a ש, an א is followed by a ב and a ש is followed by a ת, and that spells outשבת and he explains, this is an allusion to the fact that שבת uplifts our spiritual dimension and our affinity to our Torah and religion.
We all know that we are living in extraordinary times. There is a credit crunch, there is a new president in America there have been new elections in the State of Israel, there is Hamas and other such movements rearing their ugly heads. The financial position of many of our brethren, especially the orthodox community in the Holy Land, is very difficult indeed. It is the call of the hour for us to redouble our efforts to give צדקה to Torah institutions and individuals and to encourage others to also contribute as well as to ensure that we, ourselves, connect and uplift ourselves with our adherence to our religion by keeping שבת and all the other mitzvos in the correct manner and studying our holy Torah. This will, no doubt, help considerably in bringing the Moshiach quickly, במהרה בימינו אמן.
Thursday 19 February 2009
SEDRA MISHPATIM PARSHAS SHEKALIM 5759
Wednesday 4 February 2009
The Shira
The Shirah was the song of praise sung by the Children of Israel when they crossed over the Red (Reed) Sea after leaving Egypt and the waters split. They walked through dry land between piled up mountains of water and the Egyptians pursuing them were drowned.
The normal way words are written in the Torah is on straight lines following one another with gaps left only at the end of each chapter.
The Shirah is the only place where there is a spacing in a brick like formation as shown on the adjacent page. This layout is according to tradition and is shown in the Rambam’s monumental work Yad Hachazoka. I have not seen any reason given for this layout which is unique in the five books of Moses. Furthermore, the song starts with the words אשירה לה' and ends ה ימלך לעולם ועד.
The question then arises as to why the two lines below the final sentence are still written in the same brick like formation. If you look immediately above you will find that the introduction, which commences with the words אשירה לה' is written in the normal manner with no gaps. Therefore, it is even more strange that after the song apparently ends there should be more brick like formations.
I suggest that the key to the answer lies in the last line of the brick like formation. If you look at the first word of the last line, this reads הים - HaYom, “the sea”, if you look at the final word it once again reads הים HaYom “the sea” and in the middle, you have the words ובני ישראל הלכו ביבשה בתוך “and the Children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of”.
What we have is a bird's eye view of what happened because of the two gaps which have been deliberately left to emphasis the waters on the two sides and the Children of Israel walking on dry land between them. (See copy of the layout on the adjacent page)
I mentioned earlier on that I had not seen any explanation given as to why the whole Shirah is written in brick like formation. I should like to suggest a possible reason.
There are a number of names of Hashem, most of which we are familiar with as we use them continually during our prayers and are mentioned clearly in the Torah. There is, however, one particular one known as the Shem Ayin Bais שם ע"ב which is quoted by Rashi on a Mishnah in Succah page 45A and he explains that these are in fact 72 separate combinations of three letters which come from three verses just before the Shirah (Chapter 14, verses 19, 20 and 21). Each verse consists of 72 letters and the method used is to take the first letter of the first verse, the last letter of the second verse and the first letter of the third verse, which therefore makes the word
והוVov Hay Vov, and so on. A detailed explanation of this is given by the Zohar on the spot.
The final statement at the end of the third verse isויבקעו המים , “and the waters split”. It would seem, therefore, that this emanation of the 72 words were those used by Hashem to wrought the miracle of the splitting of the sea.
Going back to the brick like formation of the Shirah if you count each brick individually and I mean by a brick, for example, אשירה Oshirah and the next four words as one brick, the word סוס Sus as a separate brick etc., and you then go forward until the final word in brick like formation “HaYom”, you will find that there are exactly 72 bricks. As the Bnei Yisroel then saw such wonders and reached such a high level of holy spirit, Ruach Hakodesh, they instinctively understood the use of the 72 combinations and their song of praise is likewise split into 72 bricks.
To re-enforce my suggestion, I want to turn to the verse before the Shirah which is immediately above and starts with the wordsויראו ישראל את היד הגדולה and endsובמשה עבדו. This states that the Israelites saw the Great Hand which Hashem had brought upon Egypt, the people revered Hashem had faith in Hashem and Moshe His servant.
We know that in addition to the Hebrew letters serving to form words, each individual letter has a numerical value for example, an aleph is one, a yud is ten etc. If you take the initial letters of the whole of the verse and add them together, they total 216 which is exactly three times 72. I mentioned earlier on that the 72 combinations each have three letters and therefore this is really, at a deep level what the Children of Israel saw, namely, that these 216 letters in total had been used to produce the great miracle, the splitting of the sea.
* * *
The Shirah was the song of praise which the Bnei Yisroel sang together to Hashem after the vanquishing of their foes and all future wars and praises pertaining thereto up to the coming of Moshiach are hinted therein. The last phrase ה' ימלך לעולם ועד is in the future tense and we are told that Hashem will be King (recognised by all) for ever and ever, this applies to the time of the Moshiach onwards.
At the time of the second temple, when the חשמנאים - Hasmonians rose up against the Greeks leading to the miracle of Chanukah the acclaimed leader of the war was יהודה המכבי, Yehuda HaMacabi. A reason given for this unusual surname is that when he went into battle with his small band of religious Jews against the mighty armies of Greece, his battle cry was מי כמכה באלם ה'“Who is like unto you among the strong ones, Hashem” the first letters spell out מכבי, and as we all know, he won a series of spectacular victories leading to the recapturing of Yerushalyim and the Bais HaMikdosh.
Why did he choose this battle cry? If you look at the Shirah as a whole, you will notice that this phrase appears right in the heart of it. Yehuda HaMacabi told his followers that in the same way as Hashem performed a miracle to help the Children of Israel when they were going out of Egypt, He would help them again in their struggle to vanquish their degenerate enemies. The numerical value of the first letters of the words מי כמכה באלם ה' add up to 72 and as mentioned above this was the emanation of Hashem at a time of the going out of Egypt and he managed to reawaken this for his own generation.
The miracle of Chanukah took place, according to the Seder Olam, in the year 3595 from the creation of the world, this was 234 years before the second Temple was destroyed. The total numerical value of the four words, מי כמכה באלם ה add up to exactly 234. Would it be too much to suggest that as reward and merit for Yehuda HaMacabi using this phrase as his rallying call Hashem granted a further 234 years from the Ness of Chanukah that the Bais HaMikdosh should remain standing.
Furthermore, if one counts the letters from אז ישיר, Oz Yoshir up to באלם ה, BoElim Hashem, there are 420 which is exactly the total amount of years that the second temple stood.
We begin to understand some of the depth of the Shirah and perhaps part of the reason as to why this was incorporated into the פסוקי דזמרה said every morning…
* * *
King David, Dovid Hamelech, composed תהילים, the Psalms and in his own brilliant and unique way praised and thanked Hashem at length. Anyone who reads the Tehillim is struck by the fact that with his genius he used his own expressions. However, there is one place where he lifted half of a verse directly from the Torah. In chapter 118 which commences הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו “let us give thanks to Hashem for he is good, for His kindness is forever”. He continues מן המצר קראתי י-ה ענני במרחב י-ה “From being oppressed I called upon Hashem and Hashem answered me with expansiveness.” and shortly afterwards he uses the expressionעזי וזמרת י-ה ויהי לי לישועה which translates as “Hashem is my might and my praise and He was a salvation for me.” or “Hashem’s might and His cutting away (of the enemy) was a salvation for me” this is half of a verse taken directly from the Shirah. Surely Dovid Hamelech who was a supreme creator of verses must have had some special reason to have utilised half of a verse from Torah and in particular from the Shirah.
If one looks at the way Dovid vividly describes in this chapter of Tehillim the problems he encountered that, always with the help of Hashem, he managed to overcome, we can perhaps understand why he borrowed this phrase from the Shirah.
When the Children of Israel stood with their backs to the sea, watching with trepidation Pharaoh and his armed hosts coming towards them, they were terrified. They looked to the right, and saw a wilderness with wild animals, snakes etc., they looked to the left and saw the same picture. There were those among them who said that they should nevertheless try to run into the wilderness to escape, others said that they should fight the Egyptians and some even said that they should give in to the Egyptians and become slaves again. But they did pray to Hashem for a salvation. That salvation came in the most unexpected manner, namely, that they turned round walked into the sea which then split and they were saved and the Egyptians drowned.
I believe that Dovid Hamelech especially introduced this verse expression עזי וזמרת י-ה ויהי לי לישועה which can be translated either as “Hashem is my might and my praise and He was a salvation for me.” or “Hashem’s might and His cutting away (of the enemy) was a salvation for me” to emphasise that he likewise had often been in a situation where he could not see a way out and that Hashem had helped and saved him in the most unexpected manner.