“The main joy of Adar was in giving the Shekalim.”
Sfas Emes
In the times of the Beis Hamikdash, every Yid would contribute a half-shekel coin (machatzis hashekel) once a year during the month of Adar. This gave every single Yid the opportunity to have a part in the purchase of all the korbonos which were bought with these collected funds. But we don’t have a Beis Hamikdash, or the zechus to donate to it. Nowadays, our “Parshas Shekalim” consists of reading the part of the Torah related to this mitzvah. How can we access the “main joy of Adar” on Parshas Shekalim?
There are many lessons we can learn from the mitzvah of the machatzis hashekel. One aspect of it is that the Torah instructs everyone to give a half shekel coin, and even a wealthy person should not give anything more. An obvious observation is that it doesn’t seem to be the most effective fundraiser! Who makes a “max contribution amount” on a fundraiser?!
It is clear that machatzis hashekel was never intended to be “the most effective fundraiser.” Hashem has many ways he can ensure the Beis Hamikdash has enough funds to operate. Rather, the mitzvah gave every single Yid the opportunity to have a part in the great mitzvos of the Beis Hamikdash. Hashem didn’t need our money — He wanted our heart!
When a Yid gave a machatzis hashekel, he was showing Hashem: “I really want to be part of the great avodos that go on in the Beis Hamikdash, I want to do whatever I can to serve you.”
And now we can start to understand why the essence of the machatzis hashekel is so relevant today. Machetzis hashekel represented ratzon, the desire of a Yid to have a part of the avodah of the Beis Hamikdash.
The Sfas Emes adds something incredible. He says that since in the times of the Beis Hamikdash, a Yid actually fulfilled the mitzvah by giving a physical half shekel coin (and by bringing actual korbonos), it sometimes happened that they got stuck in the externalities of the mitzvah, and gave the coin (or brought a korbon) without the simcha and enthusiasm that the mitzvah truly represented.
But nowadays, since we don’t have the physical mitzvah, we are less likely to get caught up in the externalities of it, and therefore we have the ability to make up for what was sometimes lacking in the Beis Hamikdash itself!
.שע”י שחטאנו בעוד המקדש קיים ולא היה העבודה בשמחה ורצון שלם כראוי לכן צריכין עתה לתקן ברצון ותשוקה בלי עבודה בפועל. ובימים אלו מתעורר הרצון והנדבה בלבות בני כדאיתא משמיעין על השקלים
Since we sinned while we had the Beis Hamikdash, and did not do the avodah with joy and a complete desire as is appropriate, therefore we need to rectify that with desire and yearning even without the action-mitzvah. In these days, we awaken the desire and generous heart of the Jewish people, as we are taught to “publicize the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel.”
Hashem wants our heart and our ratzon. Rather than seeing the reading of Parshas Shekalim as a “commemoration of what used to happen”, the Sfas Emes urges us to fulfil the core essence of the mitzvah, which we can do even without Beis Hamikdash in a way that was even harder to do when the Beis Hamikdash was built!
As we listen to the parsha of Shekalim, it is a time when we can show Hashem our truest desire, which is to serve Him with a full heart and a joyous spirit. We should try telling Hashem from the depths of our hearts, “Hashem, I really want to come close to you, and even if I sometimes forget and do things that don’t demonstrate that, my inner desire and ratzon are only to come close to You.” This is the special avodah of Shabbos Shekalim!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 70.
