Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Secret of Jewish Unity and the Half Sheqel

[music] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] >> Okay, hi everybody. >> Yeah, good to see you. Uh the reason why there's no shear next week is um next Tuesday is the uh first yard site of uh the founder of Or Sameach uh Nachman Schillers Achronal Bracha and uh I have to be there and I also want to be there. So, uh Baruch Hashem we're able hopefully to reschedule this year uh to the next uh night. >> right? Wednesday, yeah, yeah. And uh if I could add uh well, let me first give the dedications that are here. Uh praying for the lasting unity of Am Yisrael which will lead to victory and for all of those [snorts] whose health has been affected by terror. Aliyat Nishama Rabbi Poston's father Nachman ben and David Weitz's father of Yaakov ben Zvi Hillel. Um also of Samet's uh was it your your father's your yard site uh This Monday. This Monday should also be an Aliyat Nishama and thank you so much for your very generous uh support. If I could also add also I'd like to also dedicate it l'zecher nishmas Rav Schiller Achronal Bracha and um my own uh mother's yard site is going to be Thursday, so I'll also be uh l'zecher nishmata. Uh there are less than 2 weeks left before the shloshim for Nachman ben Rabbi Poston's father. There are still a few masechtas of Mishnayos available to learn. Uh sign up on the link provided in the description box below. People don't realize how important Mishnayos are uh for the elevation of a nishama. When the great base aleivi, the Rav Soloveitchik, the first Soloveitchik that's the famous the first Rav of Brisk was nifter, or before he was nifter, he left in his sava to Rav Chaim and his sons that the day that you don't learn Mishnah for me, don't bother to say Kaddish. He says the Mishnah is more significant than even the saying of Kaddish. So, Mishnah is is really a wonderful wonderful thing that we can do is a nishmas any neshama that we want to try to elevate in in shamayim. Uh, so things are going to be a little mixed up because Purim is coming. I believe the Tuesday after that is already Purim, right? So, uh, it's not Purim in Yerushalayim, but I assume that people are keeping Purim uh, two days one way or the other. Uh, so I I want to talk a little bit about something that really was started last Shabbos, but it's going to be relevant for a whole month. And that is the concept of the arba parshios, four parshios. The according to the Mishnah in Maseches Megillah uh, starting either the month of Adar or in this case the Shabbos before the month of Adar, we have four special Torah readings that are added to the regular parsha readings. In other words, they don't supersede the parsha shavua, but they are added as a mofia. And uh, the four special Torah readings, the first is called the parsha of shkalim, parsha shkalim. And that was actually last Shabbos, the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh. The next will be the Shabbos right before Purim which is parshas zachor, remembering Amalek. The third will be after Purim and that will be parshas para, about the para aduma, the red heifer. And the fourth will be the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Nisan which is parshas hachodesh. And uh, in truth for most of us these are not particularly eventful. They're just an extra Torah reading. But, in truth, you see, in the time of the Rishonim and the time of the Gaonim, there was actually a very festive element attached to these days. These were actually special, festive Shabbatot. Uh, those of you might remember, maybe in your shul you still do it, although most shuls do not do it anymore. Uh, there are special prayers called Yotzrot. Uh, and they are in the siddur. They actually are in the siddur. The Yotzrot for Parshat Shekalim, the Yotzrot for Parshat Zachor. And they tend not to be said, except they are said, uh, by two groups. Uh, they are They're not Uh, Sefardim don't say it at all. They're not part of Edot Hamizrach. But, among the Minhagim of Ashkenaz, they are said by many Hasidim, many Hasidic groups. Uh, not Chabad. And they are said by, uh, I have to hear I was going to say Yekkes, but I understand that Yekkes don't like to be called Yekkes. So, uh, I'll just say the those of uh, German descent uh, say the Yotzrot. And the Yotzrot are very uh, they're very difficult. The Hebrew is very difficult. They allude to all sorts of Midrashim. You wouldn't You know, you don't know what they're talking about without all sorts of commentaries. But, you know, Rashi, as great a person as Rashi, actually wrote Perushim on the Yotzrot of the four Parshiyot. That's how significant uh, they they were. And these were very, very special Shabbatot, uh, that we tend not to really celebrate today. We just uh, have an extra Torah reading. But, uh, there are some important lessons in the four Parshiyot. Now, first of all, you can see right away, just by enumerating them, that the way it works is Shekalim and Zachor, which are before Purim, are connected thematically to Purim. Parah and Chodesh are thematically connected to Pesach. So, there is kind of a neat division between the pre-Purim parshios and the post-Purim parshios. So, I just want to explore a few of the ideas uh in the four parshios, with really main emphasis on parshas Shekalim. Maybe next week, which will be our our share before Purim, I'll talk about parshas Zachor. Um parshas Shekalim. So, uh what is Shekalim? There's a mitzvah to give a half shekel every year for the upkeep of the Beis Hamikdash. Now, let me point out a half shekel does not correspond to a half shekel of modern Israeli currency. A half shekel is a certain weight of silver that's worth quite a lot. It would be be'erech current prices between 30 and 50 dollars is what a half shekel is. And the mitzvah of giving a half shekel applied when there was a Beis Hamikdash. And the half shekel was a mandatory tax for the upkeep of the Beis Hamikdash, but it did not go to the building funds. It went to what you might call the operating budget, meaning it was used for the korbanos that were brought. Remember, korbanos were brought every day. You had the korban tamid of the morning, the korban tamid of the afternoon. Uh you had the oil of the menorah, you had the spices that made up the incense, you had wood that had to be purchased. All of these are korbanos that have to be financed from the public. Now, again, be sure you understand this. If I committed a sin and I have to bring my own sin offering, that's not financed from the half shekels, that comes out of my money. Those are private korbanos, and those are called korbanos yachid. Those are private korbanos. The machatzis hashekel, however, was utilized for the financing of korbanos tzibbur, the communal offerings of Am Yisrael uh that were uh that were brought. Now, obviously, the obligation of machatzis hashekel uh is only when there's a base hamikdash because the purpose of the machatzis hashekel is to finance the korbanos tzibur. However, there is a minhag that is more or less become an obligation, but it actually is a minhag that uh l'zecher to commemorate the mitzvah machatzis hashekel before megillah reading. So, again, in the rest of the world, it'll be the night of the you know, before the night of the 14th. In Yerushalayim, it'll be a day later. Uh one gives what is called a half shekel as a commemoration. That's called zecher l'mikdash. And there and there, you takka can be yotzei with an Israeli half shekel because it's simply a zecher. And the definition of machatzis hashekel would be one half of the official denomination of currency. So, in America, uh you would be yotzei machatzis hashekel with a half dollar. In Israel, you're yotzei with a half shekel. But, just remember that the half shekel that you're giving l'zecher hamikdash is much much much less than the half shekel you would actually have to give there. So, this was an annual obligation. Uh and it applied uh only to men only to men and only from the age of 20 and up. Okay, so people uh under bar mitzvah or women were not chayavot in machatzis hashekel, uh although l'zecher hamikdash, um some people do give uh a man will give for his wife, for his daughters, etc. But, in terms of the actual mitzvah machatzis hashekel b'zman hamikdash, uh women were not obligated and uh nor were um nor were uh people below 20. Now, it's interesting, Rabbi Akiva Eiger says a fascinating point. You know, uh there is a din in the Mishnah that we pasken that women are obligated uh to daven. Women are supposed to daven and there's a machlokes rishonim. I don't want to get into this too much. What is a woman obligated to daven? Some say it's a full Shmoneh Esrei, which is kind of the standard Bais Yaakov teaching, and some say it's just a prayer of her own words, even if it's very brief. You know, "Hashem, give me a good day. Protect my family." So, there is a a minimalist view of women's obligation in tefillah and there's a maximalist view. But, Rabbi Akiva Eiger is mechadesh the following. He says, "Even if women are obligated in an Amidah, they are not obligated in Musaf of Shabbos or Rosh Chodesh, because since Musaf takes the place of the korban Musaf, the korban Musaf, and the korban Musaf was financed with a half shekel, and women were not obligated in the half shekel, that means they weren't obligated in the korban Musaf. Um this is um a very controversial chiddush and many, many poskim don't pasken this way, but this is what Rabbi Akiva Eiger concludes as a result of the Musaf being connected to the half shekel. Now, what's a little confusing is there are two separate mitzvos of half shekel in the Torah. One is an annual mitzvah when there's a Beis Hamikdash, and the other was a one-time mitzvah in the construction of the Mishkan. Meaning, when they built the Mishkan, they took a half shekel of silver and they melted the silver down and they made them into the sockets that held the beams in place. I don't know if you remember, in fact, it's in this week's parsha. Uh we have these very thick beams and the beams have two prongs like the prongs of a plug, teeth. And each tooth was inserted in a big silver block. It was a It resembled a concrete block, but it was a silver block. And those were called adanim. Adanim are the sockets, the sockets of the Mishkan, and that would hold the beams in place. And when the Mishkan was disassembled like Legos, they would remove the sockets and they would put the beams on wagons and carry them away. Now, those sockets were actually constructed from the melted silver of the half shekels. But that's only a one-time That's only a one-time thing. That was a one-time donation for the construction of the Mishkan. The operating machatzis hashekel was an annual obligation. So, what's a little funny is that the krias hatorah for for the mitzvah of parshas shekalim is Ki Sisa, which talks about giving a half shekel, but Ki Sisa is not talking about the annual mitzvah. It's talking about the one-time mitzvah. So, it really has nothing to do with what you're commemorating. So, why do we read it? Because there is no explicit reference to the annual mitzvah of machatzis hashekel. There's nothing else you can read. >> [snorts] >> We know it from the oral law, but we actually do not know from the text of the Torah that there's an annual mitzvah of machatzis hashekel. The only mitzvah of machatzis hashekel that is explicit in the Torah is the one-time mitzvah for the adanim. So, nebach, we got to read a parsha that has no relevance to what we're trying to commemorate simply because it's the closest thing that we have to what we want to commemorate. A lot of people don't realize that. The Machatzis Hashekel in Ki Sisa is called the Trumas Hadonim. The donation for the sockets. So, in this connection, although this not the main thing I want to talk about, I want to say a short thought uh I believe from Rav Meir Shapiro. Meir Shapiro, I hope you've heard of, was the great great Rav of Lublin. Uh he had he founded the great Yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin. Uh to even get into that Yeshiva as a student, you had to know 200 blocks of Gemara by heart just to get into the Lublin Yeshiva. Uh he was the one who originated the idea of Daf Yomi. But, he was really I mean, people, you know, that's one idea, but he had a million, you know, he was a man of great great Kochos who died tragically and he died in his 40s. But, he would have been uh one of the great I mean, as it was, he was a Gadol, and he would have been what certainly one of the great great Gedolim uh in Europe. So, uh he made the following observation. He says, "You notice that normally, when Moshe Rabbeinu calls on people to donate to the Mishkan, gold, silver, copper, wool, all these different things, people could give as little or as much as they wanted. In other words, there was no minimum required donation for the rest of the Mishkan. The only part of the Mishkan which had to be constructed from a minimal required amount was the sockets. Everything else, I mean, the Aron Hakodesh, you know, maybe you gave you maybe you didn't. You gave a little gold, you gave a lot of gold. But, the Adonim has to come from a fixed amount that everybody has to give. So, Reb Meir Shapiro says the following. He says, "The Adonim represents the foundation." Cuz they are the foundation of the building. So, he says, "Everybody builds their own Mishkan to God in their own way. Your life is your temple." As the saying goes from the Safer Charedim, it's put to music, Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh. I build a dwelling place for God in my heart. And everybody serves God in their own way, meaning within the framework of Torah, within the framework of Torah. Some people emphasize this mitzvah or that mitzvah. You bring your individuality, so it's not shiyach for the Torah to say, "Everybody gives the same." Cuz everybody's Mishkan is different. But, even though everybody's Mishkan is different, but the foundation must be a common foundation. And that foundation is emunah, belief in God. So, all of us have to be joined by a common foundation, although the particulars of our Mishkan are going to differ from person to person. You know, God does not want cookie cutters. God does not want everybody to be the same. Everybody has their own particular way of serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everyone has their own uniqueness. So, Hashem cannot tell you how to build your Mishkan. Everybody gives according to their abilities, according to their desires. But, the foundation has to be a common commitment to emunah in I in Hashem. This is, I think, from Meir Shapiro, uh this particular idea. But, the main thing I do want to talk about is the Machatzis HaShekel of Adar. So, here's the question. Why do we read about that mitzvah? At least indirectly, we're not reading about it explicitly, but we're calling to mind the annual mitzvah of Machatzis HaShekel on Rosh Chodesh Adar or the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar. So, there's another din you have to be aware of. The fiscal year of the Beis HaMikdash did not start on Tishrei. The fiscal year of the Beis HaMikdash started Nisan. Just as in the Torah, Rosh Chodesh Nisan is the new fiscal year. And the halacha is all korbanos tzibbur from Rosh Chodesh Nisan onwards must be financed from newly collected shekalim for the new year. In fact, to those of you that may have an accounting background, you know, there's a whole tractate of the Mishna, Maseches Shekalim. And Maseches Shekalim actually calculates, what do you do with surpluses? What do you do with deficiencies? I mean, let's imagine that people gave their half shekels for one year and the price of animals went down that year. So, at the end of the year there is a surplus. We got more money left over. So, counterintuitively, you cannot just carry over that surplus and buy new korbanos with it. Because the new korbanos have to be financed with newly collected money. Newly collected money. You can't use the old money. So, the Mishna lays down all sorts of rules that surplus shekalim could be used to city repairs, temple repairs, meaning it could be diverted to other specified uses, but the one thing it could not be used for is it could not be used for new korbanos. The new carbonas have to be financed from newly collected shalom. Now, the newly collected shalom comes in drips and drabs because people are taxes. People are paying it throughout throughout the year. But, since there had to be some newly collected money by Rosh Chodesh Nisan, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, we couldn't bring carbonas unless we had newly collected money. So, they began announcing the collection of shalom for the new year 1 month before Nisan, which is Rosh Chodesh Adar. And this is what the Mishna says in Masachet Shekalim. Be achad be Adar mashmi'in al ha shekalim. On the first day of Adar, we start announcing that people are able to give their new shekels. Now, again, did we did we collect a lot of money in Adar? Maybe not. Most people are late payers. But, at least there was enough money collected by Nisan that we could begin the carbonas that way. And that is why uh the Shabbos of Rosh Chodesh Adar or the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar, lezecher hamikdash, we read about Machatzis Hashekel. Now, that itself has nothing to do with Purim, right? I know I did say, you'll remember, that shekalim is not connected to Purim, and I'm going to tell you why it's connected to Purim, but in theory, it's a zecher lemikdash based on the idea be achad be Adar mashmi'in al al ha shekalim. By the way, the famous scene in the Christian Bible of Jesus overturning the money changers in the temple, right? Famous that Yeshua shows up, and there's all these money changers in the temple, and he turns over the tables, and all of the coins go spilling out. Well, this has been used as a bad rap against money changers. Money changers served an extremely important function in the base of Mitzvah Dash. People show up, they want to give their half shekel, but they don't have that currency. They have dollars, they have francs, they have pounds, uh all sorts of things. So, you have to go to a money changer to get your shekel coins to be able to contribute to the base of Mitzvah Dash. Yeah, and the money changers took a commission. Indeed, that's that's correct. You'd have to give a little extra, but it was a service like other services, and it had a very important function as a currency exchange uh in the base of Mitzvah Dash itself. So, I think Yeshua overreacted a little bit uh on uh on that one. Um halakhically, such an institution needed to exist in order to enable the fulfillment of the Mitzvah Mitzvah Machatzis Hashekel. Okay? So, this is generally what parshas shekalim is about. It is a zecher l'mikdash. So, the Gemara in Maseches Megillah quotes a statement of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish that via dua it was known to Hakadosh Baruchu that Haman would try to buy the right to kill the Jews by shekalim of silver. Right? It says in in in the in in Megillas Esther that Haman took 10,000 talents kikar. Kikar is huge. A kikar translated in English as a talent, but we don't know what a tal- a talent is. Around 100 lbs of silver. So, aseres alafim 10,000 kikar is what? That's a a million a million pounds of silver. That's what it is. Around a million pounds of silver. He had all of that wealth, and he wanted to give it to Achashverosh to get permission to kill the Jews. But Ahasuerus was generous and said, "You can keep the money. Kill the Jews anyway, you know. Whatever Whatever Whatever Whatever it would be." Uh so, here is what Resh Lakish says. Ha- Hashem knew that Haman would try to kill the Jews by giving shekels. So, Hashem gave us a mitzvah that we should give our shekels in advance of his shekels. So, that his shekels would have no effect. And that is why we started announcing the shikalim Adar 2 weeks before Purim to counteract >> [snorts] >> the shekels that he was going to use against us. This is Resh Lakish's statement. Now, there is a problem because in what way can it be said that our half shekel counteract his half shekel? I mean, whatever half shekel he gave he Well, he didn't give half shekel, but his 10,000 talents of silver was a long time ago. I mean, I'm giving machatzis hashekel now when there's a Beis Hamikdash to counteract the shkalim of Haman? Haman's shkalim are long gone. And what am I counteracting anyway? Haman was not giving his shkalim to Hashem. Haman wan- wanted to give his shkalim to Ahasuerus. So, what is the shaikhus? What is the connection between the machatzis hashekel that we're giving again, when there's a Beis Hamikdash that we have to give. I don't mean the zecher, but the actual mitzvah. And the shikli Haman of which it is said that our machatzis hashekel is like a trufa, it's like an antidote, it's like a medicine so that Haman's shkalim are not going to have any effect about Haman's shkalim. So, here the Sifrei Chassidim say a very beautiful idea. It's a well-known thought that the Zohar already says that in the book of Esther there is no mention of Hashem's name. Very, very strange. In fact, there's only two books of Tanakh which do not mention Hashem's name at all. One is the book of Esther where it's very clear Hashem's name is not mentioned. The other, paradoxically, is Shir HaShirim. Now, Shir HaShirim is a poem of great ecstasy and divine love. And yet God's name seemingly is not mentioned. The reason why I say seemingly because there is one word in Shir HaShirim that some look at a as a contraction. Uh when the woman, and that's the metaphor for the Jewish people and the man is God, when the woman speaks of the power of love says, "Love is like a fire that burns in the heart." Esh shallhavet ya. So, there's a machlokes what is the meaning of shallhavet ya. Some say it is just a poetic expansion of the word shallhavet. So, it's not God's name. Shallhavet ya. Others say, you read it like two words, shallhavet kah. A torch of God. So, that's why there's a machlokes a little bit if Shir HaShirim mentions Hashem's name once or not at all. But Megillas Esther does not mention Hashem's name at all. And yet and yet the Zohar says there's an old mesorah that whenever it says the word melech melech >> [snorts] >> even though in pashtus it's a reference to Achashverosh but there's a lower meaning of Achashverosh and a higher meaning of Hashem. So, give you one example. You know, the turning point in Megillas Esther is uh when Achashverosh can't sleep. That's when begin to change. So, it says Balayla hu, like the baal koreh even reads it in a very dramatic way. At least he should read it in a dramatic way. Balayla hu, on that night, nadeda of the king was disturbed. So, again, simple meaning is Ahasuerus can't sleep, and that's when uh they read to him that Mordecai did good things, and that's when he wants to reward Mordecai. But, the Midrash says that the notion of the king not sleeping is a remez to the pasuk in Tehillim, hinei lo yanum v'lo yishan shomer Yisrael, the guardian of Israel, Hashem, does not slumber nor sleep. In other words, Hashem couldn't sleep that night, so to speak, kavyakhol. Hashem has to get involved, right? Double meaning. Which means, every time you have ha'melech, you got to read it both in the literal sense, referring to the human king, and its higher sense, referring to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Higher meaning, lower meaning. So, now, let's go to this. When Haman initially presents his case, Haman tries to make a legal legal [clears throat] case, why the Jews are deserving of destruction. And although he doesn't mention Jews right away, he doesn't he doesn't even mention the nation, but he just gives he says, yesh no am echad, there is this one nation in your in your kingdom that's mefozar u'meforad bein ha'amim, they are scattered and separated amongst the nations, v'dasayhem shonos mikol am, and their practices are different than everybody else. They do not keep the king's laws, >> [snorts] >> v'la'melech ein shoveh lanicham, and it is not worth the king's bother to let them live, right? They're just not contributing anything. They don't mix. They don't assimilate, etc. Now, let's look at lower meaning and higher meaning. Because the same way that Melech has lower meaning, King Ahasuerus, and higher meaning, Hakadosh Baruchu, Haman also has lower meaning and higher meaning. Haman is a particular human being who happens to be the king's prime minister. Yeah, there's a man called Haman. But, there's a spiritual Haman that represents the koach of Amalek. Haman is from Amalek. That is a spiritual negative force that persecutes the Jewish people. Which means the physical conversations of human Haman to human Ahasuerus are a mirror of a spiritual confrontation between the koach of Amalek and Hakadosh Baruchu against the Jewish people. Kind of a middas hadin, an attribute of justice, a kitrug, a prosecution. So, now, let's look at the lower meaning. The lower meaning, human Haman to human Ahasuerus, mefuzar u'meforad. The Jews are dispersed. They're not concentrated in one place. Therefore, it's easy to finish them off. Meaning, if you had a critical mass of a lot of Jews, it would have been difficult. But, you have a few here, a few here, a few here, a few here. It's pretty easy just to hunt them down. In other words, he's simply giving a reason why it would be easy to destroy the Jewish people. And the reference, they don't keep the king's laws, just means, you know, it's a canard. You know, they're not law-abiding. They don't care about your laws. As whenever whenever there's an an to do something for royal service, they always pull out Shabbos Yom Tov. Shabbos Pesach Haman said whatever. Now, at a higher level though, something is happening in Shamayim. And that is the negative evil that Haman represents. When he says the Jews are and foreign, it doesn't just mean they're geographically dispersed. It [snorts] means they are separated among themselves. There is no unity. There is no love. There is period, there's polarization, there's separation. Now again, the human doesn't really care about that. In other words, what the human is hearing is the Jews are simply physically dispersed. But what is going on in heaven is the work. The prosecution of a lack of this. So that's freedom. And when it says they say they don't keep the king's laws, so he's hearing they don't obey my royal commands. He's hearing they don't obey my Torah. See double. And that is why you see that the of over us in part is because of the hatred that exists amongst Jews. The hatred that exists among Jews. That is the Achilles heel that makes us vulnerable. That makes us weak. That gives an and is a place to grab us by. An is is the That is why as soon as Mordecai tells Esther what's going on, Esther's immediate words are go and gather all the Jews. She didn't just say declare a fast, she says gather them together. Because if our weakness is mefozar u'mefurad bein ami, our tikkun, our elevation, will be lech kenos, by coming by coming together. That's how we defeat Amalek, by coming together. Amalek will get us when there's sinas chinam. Period. So, in this sense, when we talk about Haman's shekalim, Haman gave shekalim, and we have to counteract in a symbolic way, the currency of Haman is not referring to the silver that he gave, but it's referring to his accusation, the currency by which he bought the right to kill us, is the mefozar u'mefurad bein ami. And those shekalim, so to speak, are still around. We are vulnerable to Haman's shekalim, not in the sense of what the human Haman gave Achashverosh, that's long gone, but we're vulnerable in terms of the spiritual meaning of that currency, which is mefozar u'mefurad. In this way, therefore, the shekalim that we give in the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel, rectifies the spiritual pegam of mefozar u'mefurad bein ami. In other words, we're counteracting the shekalim by our shekalim. Now, how is that so? So, let's look at the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel. You know, the Torah has a very odd commandment about the machatzis hashekel. It mentions the rich person cannot give more, and the poor person cannot give [clears throat] less. There is a requirement of uniformity. There is a requirement of equality. Nobody's better than anybody else. And the question is, what do you make of that? I understand the idea. Even though it may sound harsh, that poor people can't give less because society can say there's a minimum requirement for participation. Okay. And if the only has to borrow, let him borrow. But but uh or gets from stucker, but okay, an only has to give this minimum. But where would there ever be a rule you're not allowed to give more? You know, Yeshivas have full tuition, right? But most of the students in most Yeshivas do not pay full tuition. Well, so let's say a wealthy person comes to the Yeshiva and say, "You know, not only will I pay a full tuition for my son, I will pay two tuitions for my son." No Yeshiva's going to say, "Sorry, we don't take more than a full tuition." >> [snorts] >> We'll we'll take as much I'll I'll tell you I have to tell you I am. I work for the for the Yeshiva. We'll take as much as you want to give. We're not going to We're not going to be fussy. And yet when it comes to Machatzis Hashekel, not only does the Torah insist on a minimum, the Torah does not allow you to give more. Why would that be so? Now, one answer, I'll give you one practical answer is that Machatzis Hashekel actually functioned in two different ways. On one hand, it was a financing of the carbonos. On the other hand, it was also a census device because you're not supposed to count people by heads, so you would count your at least your male population by multiplying by I think how many half shekels they have. Now, that you would take the number of whole shekels, multiply it by two, and that would be your population. Now, obviously as a as a population counting device, Machatzis Hashekel only works if everybody gives the same amount. If some people give more, etc., then you don't know how many people you have. So, uh a simple answer might be that since the machatzis hashekel did function in many years as a population counting device, it had to be uniform. But the truth is that that's not really a full answer because it was not always that way, meaning there were times where like in the midbar, the half shekels were basis for counting, but they didn't do a census every year. And yet every year the Torah says, "If you're rich, you don't give more." What's the meaning of that? So, the Sfas Emes says a very beautiful thought. The Sfas Emes says that when we talk about rich and poor, rich and poor can mean a number of things. Rich people in money, poor people in money. But rich and poor can also refer to the entire diversity of talents and abilities that human human beings have. There are people who might be rich in wisdom, rich in intellect, rich in charisma, rich in leadership ability. >> [clears throat] >> And then there may be people who seemingly are lacking in some of those qualities. And what the Torah is teaching me is when it comes to serving God, because after all, your shekels are your access to serving Hashem in the Beis Hamikdash, rich and poor stand before God in equal dignity. >> [snorts] >> Equal chashivus. Because Hashem does not judge you by your accomplishments. Hashem judges you by how much of what you are did you give to him. So, the rich person who has much to give in every sense, money, but other senses as well. And the poor person in every in every sense of being poor have equal connection to Hakadosh Baruchu if each one does what he can to serve Hashem. And the lesson of Machatzis Hashekel is that rich and poor, however defined have equal access to connect to Hakadosh Baruchu as long as each one does to the best of their abilities. In fact, to give it the other way around a person who has great abilities might actually be less esteemed by Hashem because he's giving Hashem less. The Mabit gives an amazing example. Um um I'm not sure if my page my numbers are exact, but this is the general idea of the example. Let's imagine that you had a very brilliant genius who could learn 100 pages of Gemara a day. 100 pages, that's that is truly phenomenal. That is the Vilna Gaon's rate, by the way. People ask sometimes, how many dafim of Gemara did the Vilna Gaon learn every day? We actually we actually know. I mean, if he wanted to, he could have finished Shas every day, for sure. But but but he had other things he was learning, too. The Vilna Gaon learned 100 blatt of Gemara a day. We we happen to know this was his seder. So, let's imagine you have a person who can learn 100 blatt of Gemara a day. And he's so far ahead of everybody else that he only does 50 blatt of Gemara a day. Which is still very phenomenal. And then you have another person who struggles to do one blatt a week. But he really works his hardest. So, we look at these two guys. One guy is doing 50 blatt a day. That actually means he finishes Shas every 2 months. Like wonderful, wonderful. And And another person struggling, and we basically have the attitude, well, this guy who does 50 is so accomplished, so great. The other person, never he's working hard, but he's certainly, you know, isn't really accomplishing that much. In all of my bots, going to be the opposite. Cuz Hashem will look at the person who learned one block and say, you gave me 100% of what you are. And the other person who did 50 block you only gave me 50%. So, if I could use numbers, certainly it's a much more sophisticated judgment, but I'm just uh simplifying. The guy who learns one block a week gets 100. And the guy who does 50 block a week, a 50 block a day, gets a 50. Now, we give lip service to this, but we actually don't mean it usually. You know, teachers will often tell students, you know, it's the effort that counts, it's the effort, it's not the grade, it's the effort. And yet the people who try hard and don't do well on the test will get the 50. And the brilliant kids who don't have to work will get the 100. So, on one hand, we give lip service, the only thing that matters is the effort. But the grading system and even success in life generally is based on these tangible results. But that's because we live in a world of shekel, we live in a world of falsity. It's a false world. In the world of truth it is the effort and the struggle that counts. And therefore, rich and poor, however defined have equal access to a relationship with God because everything is based on the effort. So, the rich person has to do everything he can. The poor person does everything he can, they stand before Hashem with equality. That is the great lesson of Machatzis Hashekel. equality of access to connect to Hakadosh Baruch Now, if you think about this this itself can be a tremendous antidote to jealousy to polarization to sinas chinam because much hatred in the world comes from jealousy I look at what other people attained that I haven't attained in life and I resent their success or vice versa the person who is so successful looks at the nebach a and looks at them with disdain so it can work both ways it it can work uh sinas chinam can be generated from jealousy and rage or it can be generated from arrogance and disdain the machatzis hashekel is a corrective to that by emphasizing it there's a message to the poor and the message to the rich the message to the poor is you're not shortchanged because of your limitations you have the same potential as anyone else to connect to God based on the talents that he gave you and the message to the rich is don't look down at others and don't be arrogant because you're not intrinsically better than them whatever God gave you God gave you but the judgment is not based on what God gave you the judgment is based on what did you do with what God gave you so that's the meaning allegorically of the idea that our shekalim counteract Haman's shekalim Haman's currency was the accusation of mefozar u'mefurad bein ha'amim and our shekalim counteract the mefozer meforad by stressing the equality of every person. Um This is the Mabit actually says that this is the meaning of a an interesting story in the Gemara. The Gemara mentions that a certain person uh had what we would call today a near-death experience. Died. And his neshama actually went to Olam Haba. And when he was revived he was asked what did he see in Olam Haba. And he said Olam hafuch ra'isi. I saw an upside-down world. Elyonim the big shots in this world were lemata, were below. Tachtonim the people who are on a very low level in this world, they were above. The world was topsy-turvy. And his father, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, told him you did not see an upside-down world. This world is upside-down. You saw the world of truth. So the Mabit explains, what does the son mean when he says elyonim, the big shots were lemata? He can't just mean the rich, the powerful, the politically well-connected, because that's poshet. Why would you have a hava mina? Why would you think they would by the right by that rank alone have such an important role in Olam Haba? So the Mabit says elyonim means people who seemed spiritually superior, such as the one who could learn 100 blood a day. So we look at one person who's doing so much more spiritually and we think that'll correspond to Olam Haba. In fact, that's not the case because he may be doing many times more than the other person, but he's giving Hashem less of a percentage of his kokos. That's the elyon u'mama'la u'zachton u'l'mata. So, the first point about the machatzis hashekel is equality of access as an antidote both to the jealousy of the ani to the ashir and the arrogance of the ashir to the ani. There is another aspect though of machatzis hashekel that's important. It kind of overlaps, but it is a a slightly distinct idea. And that is you'll notice that the Torah Torah requires what is a fractionalized denomination. The Torah doesn't say give a whole shekel. The Torah says give a half shekel. Now, that doesn't mean they cut the coin in half, but the There was a coin half shekel just like, you know, we might have it. Uh but, why does the Torah say half? So, there's a famous vort that many many chassidishe sforim say it. That the thing about a half is a half is incomplete unless it is joined to another half. Two halves make a dover shalem. A half is defective. And part of the lesson of the machatzis hashekel is the notion of interdependence. We need each other. None of us can make it by ourselves. And that too is a message that negates sinas chinam. I need you. You need me. You know, the analogy would be if you look at a a very complicated system like a space rocket. And you know, we've had crashes and and even tragedies because of some little screw that cost uh 30 cents. Of course, in government contracts, it costs $1,000, but but in theory, the screw costs 30 cents. But if it wasn't installed right, the whole thing falls apart. We're used to the idea that there are big, powerful, influential people even in ruchniyus, in spiritual. Then there's like little people who don't matter that much. >> [snorts] >> But at a minimum, the so-called little people are the plastic screws that if they're not doing their part, the whole rocket is going to explode. Interdependence. The rich needs the poor. Again, defining rich and poor as we said it, the poor needs the rich. We need each other. We cannot do the job alone. And therefore, how could there be sinas chinam among cutting myself off from what I need as part of Am Yisrael to fulfill the missions that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us. So, the two aspects of Machtzis Hashekel, both of them counteract the mefozar umeforad of Haman. One is the equality and the other is the interdependence. And again, the interdependence is a message of mussar to the arrogant person who might disparage the importance of the oni. And it's a message of chizuk, strengthening and encouragement to the I've told the story before, but I'll mention it again. Uh many of you might have heard of the um legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini. Uh very, very brilliant. He was a really a a prodigy. He had a photographic memory of music, all sorts of things. So, there was um in the 1950s, there was a reporter who wanted to interview Toscanini for a New York Times or a magazine. And Toscanini said, "Well, um my symphony is playing tonight." It was the NBC Symphony. And actually, even though NBC was just a TV network, they actually had a very professional symphony that Toscanini uh directed. Uh he was the He was the conductor. And Toscanini said, "I'm not feeling well. I'm going to have to sit at home, but I'm going to be listening to the concert on the radio. So, you cannot talk to me for 2 hours. I'm listening on the radio." So, the reporter said, "I just want to watch you. I'm not going to talk to you at all for the whole concert, but let me come to your apartment. Let me just sit in the living room, and I just want to watch the way you listen to a piece of music." So, Toscanini had those, if you remember, those old-fashioned radios that were gi- gigantic radios, big, big radio. The sound quality was not good at all. Uh and Toscanini is listening to a the symphony, and uh his eyes are closed for 2 hours, very, very deep concentration. And the reporter is very impressed at how much he's into the music. And at the end of the 2 hours, Toscanini Toscanini opens his eyes, and he says, "How come there were only 14 violins in the string section? There's supposed to be 15 violins." "Where was the 15th violin?" Now, this is kind of a miracle. Uh how many people can tell the difference between 15 and 14, even if you're in the concert itself? Unless you're counting the violins, Toscanini is hearing it with the radio with inferior sound quality, and he was able to be off in the difference between 15 and 14. So, the reporter said, "This is a miracle. This possibly This cannot can not be true. I'm going to check on this. So, the reporter goes to the first violinist and says, "Hey, how many violins were playing tonight in the string section?" So, the violinist looked a little embarrassed. He said, "Well, you know, we normally have 15, but uh right before the concert, one of the violinist called in that he was sick, and I figured the conductor wouldn't be here tonight anyway, and nobody would know the difference, so we just used 14, and then nobody nobody knew the difference." So, the reporter says, "Well, one guy did know the difference, uh your boss, and he was able to determine this from the radio." So, the reporter goes back to Toscanini and says, "What a miracle, Ruach Hakodesh, Nevuah, whatever whatever it is, you can tell the difference." So, Toscanini said the following. He said, "You know, listen, I know that most people don't don't know the difference. Most people it doesn't even make a difference. But when you're the conductor, when you're the leader, you realize how every little thing matters. Every little thing counts. Every little thing makes a difference. And yeah, on some rarefied level, the lack of that one violin lowered the quality of this concert, of this music. So, the mashal is, you know, Hakadosh Baruchu, Kavyochol, is the conductor of the universe. Everything has a place. Everything has a role. The world would not be the same if every given piece is not in there. This is why Chazal say that if you keep Well, well, this is why you uh it says, "Why was Adam created alone?" Hashem created many dogs, many cats, many cows, many goats, but only one man and one woman. Why? So, the Mishnah gives a few reasons. Uh one is that each person has to say "Because of me, because of one me, one me, this whole world is justified." Now, that's not arrogant, cuz the same way I say the world was created for me, I also say the world was created for you. So, it's not an arrogant thing. But a person has to realize how important they are. But there's a beautiful thing, I think it's from Rav Nachman. I see it a lot, it's become a popular, almost a t-shirt slogan. So, forgive me, but I actually think it's a beautiful t-shirt slogan. It says that celebrating your birthday, your birthday is the day that God decided that the world could not go on without you. The world needed you. And that's why your birthday is a happy day. I mean, a Hebrew birthday is a happy day, because that's the day that Hashem said, "We need you." Okay? [clears throat] So, even when a person feels, you know, despondent, a person feels they're not worth very much, they feel they're not contributing, you have to know that if Hashem gave us life, Hashem has faith that there's much that we can accomplish within the parameters. And that in turn is an antidote to the sinat chinam. And that is why the mitzvah of machatzit hashekel, both in terms of its uniformity and in terms of its interdependence, that two halves make all, kind of allows us to overcome the sinat chinam, which in turn gives us protection from the Amaleks in the world that try to destroy us. And that is why in Purim there is such an emphasis on friendship and unity, whether it's shalach manos, uh food that you give among friends, whether it's matanot la'evyonim, caring about those who are in need. Uh why is that such an important part of Purim? Because Purim is a celebration of the downfall of Amalek. And when we celebrate the downfall of Amalek, we have to incorporate in our lives the factor that will give us the power to overcome Amalek. And that's going to be the unity and love that exists among the Jewish people. So, Chodesh tov, Chodesh tov, and as Chazal say, Mishenichnas Adar, marbim b'simcha. Uh, when the month of Adar comes on, we increase our simcha. B'ezras Hashem, may all of us, all of Klal Yisrael, all of the world, uh, experience the true simcha of closeness to Hashem and the geulah of Klal Yisrael. Amen. >> [music] [music] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing]