The "Half Shekel": Individuality and Community in Am Yisrael
Student Summaries of Sichot of the Roshei Yeshiva
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PARASHAT
KI-TISA
SICHA OF HARAV
YEHUDA AMITAL SHLIT"A
The
"Half Shekel" – Individuality and Community in Am
Yisrael
Summarized
by Rami Yanai
Translated
by Kaeren Fish
When
you count the sum of Bnei Yisrael by their numbers… that there be no plague
among them… this they shall give:… a half-shekel.
(30:12-13)
At
first, this command sounds very strange: why is the counting of Am Yisrael a
matter of such gravity that if it is not performed in the proper way, it will
bring severe punishment upon them – a plague? Furthermore, how does counting by
means of half-shekels help to solve the problem?
Individuality
and Commonality – Two Half-Shekels
In
God's world there is nothing superfluous or repetitive. No creature is entirely
like another. Each person has his or her own special personality, and each has
his or her own individual path in the world. Every person also has his own
special letter in the Torah, and his own special method of Torah study.
Therefore, if we view a person as some arbitrary number, and declare him equal
in value to some other person, what we are in fact saying is that he has no
right to exist. A person who becomes a number in the midst of other numbers,
loses his individuality; he loses what it is that makes him special, what gives
meaning to his life. It is for this reason that the counting of Bnei Yisrael can
bring a plague: counting may be interpreted as the erasing of the uniqueness of
each and every individual in the Jewish nation, and this is indeed a grave
act.
Despite
all of the above, there is a part of a Jew that may be numbered. There is a
"half" inside every individual in Israel, a part of his or her personality, in
which he or she is equal to every other member of the nation of Israel; this is
the very fact of one's Jewish identity. Every Jew, qua Jew, is special and
different from everything else that God created in the world. This part of one's
personality is antecedent to the part that makes every Jew different from his
fellow, and it is this part that can be counted. The "count" refers to the
common quality that is unique to Am Yisrael – the "half" of the personality that
is symbolized by the half-shekel. It is specifically this half that may be
counted. By counting the "half" that one shares in common with others, the
other, unique "half" is awakened and given expression. A Jew who recognizes
within himself that quality of being Jewish that makes him special, will also be
able to arouse in himself the qualities that are unique to him alone: the
personal talents and abilities that exist in the other half of his shekel, as it
were.
Moshe
and the Half-Shekel
In
every generation there are great people, with special souls, who contain within
themselves many other people; these are leaders who draw followers after them,
or rabbis who attract disciples. These leaders succeed in enthusing others by
knowing how to draw out a person's unique aspirations and views – because they
contain those people's souls within themselves. Moshe Rabbeinu contained the
souls of all of Israel within himself. He internalized the fact that "As their
faces are different, so their views are different"; in this way, he managed to
make room within himself for every view that existed amongst Am Yisrael. It was
for this reason that his face shone and no one could behold him directly. One
cannot look into the face of such a great person, who contains within himself so
many souls.
At
the beginning of our parasha, the Midrash provides a wonderful
description of this quality of Moshe, and connects it with the command
concerning the half-shekel – a command that highlights the uniqueness of each
and every individual:
Moshe
said to the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the world, when I die, I shall
not be remembered.
The
Holy One said to him: By your life, just as you stand now and convey to them the
commandment of the "shekalim," and you raise their heads, so each and
every year when they read [this parasha] before Me, it will be as though
you are standing there, at that time, raising their heads.
From
where do we learn this? From what we read concerning the words, "God spoke to
Moshe, saying: When you count the heads…." The Torah does not say, "Count the
heads" (i.e., in the form of a command), but rather, "When you will count…"
(hinting at a future event).
The
Midrash emphasizes that the command concerning the shekalim, which Moshe
conveyed to Israel, served to "raise their heads" – i.e., to give them dignity.
This "raising of the heads" was caused by the half-shekel giving space to the
uniqueness in every Jew. This was expressed in the fact that they were not
counted by number; rather, they were counted by means of the "half" that every
individual has in common with the rest of the nation, leaving him with the other
half – i.e., the opportunity to develop his own individual personality. Moshe
was the ideal leader, who knew how to achieve this balance in the best possible
way, and succeeded in bringing these strengths to the fore and thereby "raising
the people's heads."
(This
sicha was delivered on Shabbat Parashat Ki Tisa 5733
[1973].)