A vort from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת כי תשא. In the beginning of פרשת כי תשא we learn about the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. The Oybershter said that every Yid should give a half a shekel. The pasuk says, ונתנו איש כופר נפשו, every person should give a redemption for his nefesh, for his life. He should give a מחצית השקל, and the pasuk says that everyone is equal, everyone gives the same thing: העשיר לא ירבה, the rich man should not give more, והדל לא ימעיט, and the poor man should not give less.

The Rebbe says that this, that everyone is equal, explains a certain Gemara. The Gemara says in Megillah that גלוי וידוע לפני מי שאמר והיה העולם, השם knew שעתיד המן לשקול שקלים על ישראל, that Haman is going to give shekalim concerning Yidden. When Haman went to Achashverosh, he offered him a lot of money, all the shekalim, in return he would kill all the Yidden. So the Oybershter knew that he's going to give shekalim to kill the Yidden, לפיכך הקדים שקליהם לשקליו, so the Oybershter made his shekalim come before Haman's shekalim. That, in other words, the fact that the Yidden give מחצית השקל, that caused the nullification of Haman's gezeirah. And the Gemara says והיינו דתנן, this is what the Mishnah says, באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים, at the time of the Beis Hamikdash, the first day of Adar, they would announce that people should remember to give the מחצית השקל for the korbanot. Why is it the beginning of Adar? Because this comes before Purim, because Purim we celebrate the nullification of the decree of Haman, and the shekalim are the things that made the nullification of the shekalim of Haman. But the question is, in inyan, what is the connection between the shekalim and the story of Haman? Okay, we see here that he wanted to give shekalim, so the Oybershter had to give shekalim, so it's the same idea, but there must be some connection in תוכן, in contents of what each one means, that they have something in common: shekalim for the good side, and what Haman did for the bad side, but they have something in common. So the Rebbe explains the explanation is based on this idea that by מחצית השקל, everyone was equal. What was by the gezeirah of Haman, one of the things which we see stand out in the gezeirah of Haman, is that he made the gezeirah on every single Yid equally, as he says the lashon, he's going to kill מנער ועד זקן, young and old, טף ונשים, children and women. Other gezeirot, other times when there were decrees, was only on certain parts of the Yidden, like Paroh said, כל הבן הילוד היאורה תשליכוהו, any child that's born, so it's only boys, and only a child when he's born. By the Yevanim, by Chanukah, it was against frume Yidden, against people who kept mitzvot, but it wasn't against every Yid. But the gezeirah of Haman was for every single Yid no matter what his level is, how old and how young, how smart and how not smart, what his spiritual level was makes no difference, to kill all the Yidden.

So the Rebbe explains, so therefore the way to nullify the gezeirah of Haman is with something good which shows the same thing, and that's shown by מחצית השקל. By מחצית השקל we say every Yid gives the same. This shows the achdut of all the Yidden. Every Yid is the same. No matter what his madregah is, he gives the same. He has to give one matbe'a of מחצית השקל, and not more and not less, העשיר לא ירבה והדל לא ימעיט. So this represents the achdut of all the Yidden, that no matter what, the most important person and the less important person, they're all the same. Now, this positive achdut of all the Yidden was mevatel, nullified the gezeirah of Haman that also wanted to have the achdut in a negative way, in a terrible way of killing all the Yidden, a form of achdut. So the way to nullify that was the achdut of Yidden in a positive way. And that's what the Gemara means that the shekalim, the mitzvah of מחצית השקל is what caused the nullification of Haman, of the gezeirah of Haman, cuz the מחצית השקל shows the achdut of Yidden in a positive way, and that nullified what Haman wanted to do is because of the make achdut of Yidden but in a negative way, in a bad way, and the מחצית השקל ruined his plan.