Before Rosh Chodesh Adar is called שבת פרשת שקלים. If Rosh Chodesh Adar comes out on Shabbos, then that Shabbos is שבת פרשת שקלים. The reason is because the Mishnah says באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים. The first day of Adar, they used to announce that everyone should give the מחצית השקל. As we all know, that from the beginning of Nisan they had to bring the korbanot with the new money, from the new collection, and therefore, a month before, which is באחד באדר, they would start announcing that people should start giving the מחצית השקל. And because of that, the Shabbos of Rosh Chodesh Adar, or the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar, is called שבת פרשת שקלים, and we read in the Torah this special parashah that deals with the inyan of מחצית השקל. Also, it is specially connected to Purim, since Adar is the month of Purim, and we know that there is a special connection between מחצית השקל and Purim. As the Gemara says, Megillah דף י\"ג ע\"ב, and the way Tosafot explains there, that when Haman wanted to give a certain amount of shekalim to Achashverosh in order to kill the Yidden, so Hashem said that the Yidden were already מקדים, they already gave shekalim that will overpower your shekalim. And this is the inyan of the מחצית השקל. And this is another reason why, before we start the month of Adar, we have the inyan of פרשת שקלים which deals with the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. And that is also the reason why the מנהג ישראל is to give מחצית השקל in the time of Purim. Now, it's self-understood that it is not stam because the Yidden had the mitzvah of מחצית השקל that was able to overpower the shekalim of Haman, but there must be something special in the mitzvah of מחצית השקל that because of this mitzvah, Hashem performed a miracle and saved the Yidden. Not only because Haman happened to mention something about shekalim, and here we Yidden also gave shekalim, so those shekalim came before these shekalim, but there is something within the מחצית השקל that has the power that because of that Hashem performed a miracle and saved all the Yidden.

Concerning the inyan of מחצית השקל, the pasuk says that Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, זה יתנו etc. מחצית השקל, this they should give, a מחצית השקל. Whenever it says זה, it means that you point at it and you say this is it, as if you're showing it. In this case, it says in Yerushalmi in Shekalim פרק א הלכה ד, and also in Midrash in Bamidbar Rabbah פרשה י\"ב ג, and Rashi also brings it in the pasuk, that כמין מטבע של אש הוציא הקדוש ברוך הוא מתחת כסא כבודו, that Hashem took out from under his כסא הכבוד a coin of fire, looked like a coin of fire, והראהו למשה, and he showed it to משה, ואמר לו, and he said to him, כזה יתנו, like this you should give. And that's why it says זה יתנו, because Hashem actually showed him on a coin, on a מטבע של אש, that he took from under the כסא הכבוד, that this is what it is going to look like, this is what you have to give. So Tosafot in Chulin דף מ\"ב עמוד א explains that the reason Hashem had to show Moshe a מטבע של אש is not because Moshe didn't know what a מחצית השקל is, but because Moshe was wondering how is it possible for a person to give כופר נפשו. Hashem said you should give a מחצית השקל and this will be כופר נפשו, this will be the redemption for your life. So how can it be that giving a מחצית השקל should be the redemption of a person's life? As the Midrash says, מי יוכל ליתן כופר נפשו, who could give the כופר נפשו? The pasuk says in איוב ב פסוק ד, עור בעד עור וכל אשר לאיש יתן בעד נפשו, a person everything he owns will give for his נפש, and then it says ועדיין אינו מגיע, it's still not enough. And here we're saying that just a מטבע will bring the כופר נפשו. And as an answer to that, Hashem showed him the מטבע של אש. Now the truth is that we know that there are other things which are also כופר נפשו. For instance, קרבנות are also כופר נפשו. Now how is it possible that by bringing a קרבן, that should be a כופר נפשו? So בפשטות it comes out that Moshe's's wonder was not concerning the general concept of כופר נפשו. The question was, we know that the מחצית השקל was supposed to be a כפרה for the חטא העגל, for the עבירה of doing the עגל. As it says in שקלים פרק ב הלכה ג, also in תנחומא, פרשת כי תשא. Now חטא העגל was a very terrible עבירה. It was an עבירה of עבודה זרה. The question that Moshe had was, how is it possible that a מחצית השקל should be a כפרה of such a terrible עבירה? Other עבירות, they only affect a certain detail, because every mitzvah has a specific connection to the ייד, and brings about a specific connection between the ייד and the Eibershter, and Hashem. But avodah zarah, that affects the essence of the Torah, as the Shelah writes, in the beginning of Parashat Yitro, in the name of קדמונים, that אנכי and לא יהיה לך are כללות כל התורה. The אנכי השם אלקיך and לא יהיה לך אלקים אחרים, which is the concept of emunah in Hashem and the inyan of avodah zarah, that is the כללות of the whole Torah. So it comes out that worshiping avodah zarah affects the essence of the Torah, and it affects the essence of the connection between the Yid and Hashem. So how is it possible that for such an aveirah, just by giving a מחצית השקל you get a kaparah? And this was what Moshe Rabbeinu wondered, couldn't understand. What did Hashem do? As an answer to that, He showed him a מטבע של אש. Now the question is, what kind of answer was that? If the question was he couldn't understand how this could be a kaparah, then how does this question get answered by showing him a מטבע של אש? But the pshat is,

as it says in sefarim, and in some places they bring a mashal of the Baal Shem Tov on this, that once someone taught somebody else the trade of goldsmith. He told him all the details exactly what to do, etc., but one thing he didn't tell him, because he took it for granted that he would understand it, that you have to put a fire under the pot. So the talmid, the student, did everything as he was told, and nothing came out. He came to his teacher, he says, \"What happened? I did everything as you said, and nothing came out.\" So he told him everything he did, and he asked him, \"Did you put a fire under the pot?\" He said, \"No, you never told me to.\" So he says, \"Well, if you don't have the fire, then certainly nothing will happen.\" And the same thing is over here, too. Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu that takeh if you give a מחצית השקל, it doesn't do anything, it won't be kaparah. But if it's a מטבע של אש, if it's a מטבע, a coin, which is given with the fire of the neshamah, so to speak, with the fire of the essence of the neshamah, because a neshamah is compared to fire, as the pasuk says, נר ה׳ נשמת אדם, that the neshamah of a person is like the candle of Hashem, so it's like a fire. If you give it with the feeling of your neshamah, with esh, so then it is a kaparah even for the חטא העגל. But according to this peshat, it comes out that the inyan of מחצית השקל itself, the concept of giving a half a shekel, has nothing to do with the kaparah that it brings about. The main thing is that if you do it with the fire of your neshamah, so being it comes from the essence of your neshamah, it will forgive for the aveirah that you did which affected the essence of your neshamah. But really it could have been in any other mitzvah, because the whole idea is the esh of it. So Hashem could have said you should do any other mitzvah with the fire of your neshamah, and it will be a kaparah for the חטא העגל. Since Hashem specifically picked the mitzvah of מחצית השקל to be the kaparah for the חטא העגל, obviously there's something special, not only in the way you give the מחצית השקל, but in the מחצית השקל itself, in the fact that you give a מחצית השקל, that this itself is connected to the idea of the fire of the neshamah, and this itself has a connection to be to forgive for the aveirah of the חטא העגל. But we have to understand, what is so special about the inyan of מחצית השקל, of giving a half a shekel, that this has the power of forgiving for the חטא העגל?

To understand that, we have to look into the pasuk that speaks about מחצית השקל. The Torah says, Hashem says, זה יתנו, this is what you should give, and the pasuk continues, it should be a מחצית השקל, and then the pasuk says, עשרים גרה השקל, a shekel is made up of twenty גרה, so you have to give a מחצית השקל תרומה לה׳, half a שקל as a terumah to Hashem. Which means like this, first the Torah says you should give a מחצית השקל. In order to know the real amount of a מחצית השקל, the Torah explains that a שקל is made up of twenty גרה, a מחצית השקל is ten גרה, and that should be the amount you have to give as a terumah to Hashem. So we have to understand, why does the Torah have to go into all these details? The Torah could have said very short, give ten גרה. Why mention מחצית השקל, and then say a שקל is twenty גרה, and half of that is ten גרה, and that's what you have to give? The Torah could have said in in short, give ten גרה. And even if the Torah wants to mention for some reason that this is a half a שקל, the Torah could have said that you should give a half a שקל, which is ten גרה. Why do you have to mention that a whole שקל is twenty גרה? This shows that the whole idea is that we have to give half of a שקל. It's not the idea of giving ten גרה. The idea is that you have to give a half of a an מטבע which is called a שקל, and that's why the Torah goes out of its way to explain what a שקל is, and how much a שקל is, and tell us give half of that. In other words, the Torah here stresses the idea of it being a half of a complete שקל. But this automatically brings about a question, why should the Torah want us to give a half of a certain מטבע? Usually the Torah wants us to give more the better. The Torah says כל חלב לה׳, and as the Rambam says, you have to give your best to Hashem. So why does the Torah here want us to give a half a שקל? If the Torah wouldn't stress the point of it being a half a shekel, then we wouldn't have a question why does the Torah want us to give ten גרה. Every mitzvah has its shiur, its measurement, its amount, and we don't know the reason why these mitzvot have these shiurim, and the same here, the Torah wants us to give ten גרה, that is the shiur of the mitzvah. But here the Torah doesn't stress the point of ten גרה, the Torah stresses the point of it being half of a shekel. Obviously the Torah wants it to be a concept of half. Why should the Torah want the inyan of half? half when it comes to a mitzvah. And a mitzvah should be whole. Especially if we're saying מחצית השקל is a kaparah for the חטא העגל, חטא העגל is the denial, the kefirah in the achdut of Hashem, in the unity of Hashem. So we would imagine that the mitzvah that would be the kaparah for the חטא העגל should also have the concept of achdut of unity to express this idea of unity which it's going to forgive the person for not having the unity. And here the Torah says that you have to give just a half a shekel. And a half a shekel has to be, you can't even give him more, as the Torah says העשיר לא ירבה, the rich person can't give any more. And it's not that a half a shekel has no other name but מחצית השקל. We find earlier when Eliezer gave Rivka, he gave her a נזם, it says that the נזם was a בקע. And what is בקע? בקע is a half a shekel, and Rashi said this is a remez for the מחצית השקל. So it has another name. So why does the Torah have to stress the idea of מחצית השקל, of it being half? The answer to this is, being that this is a kapparah for the חטא העגל, which is avodah zarah, and the inyan of avodah zarah is that there is a belief in something other than Hashem, in a separate being. In order to show that we do teshuvah for avodah zarah, we have to show how we feel that there is nothing but Hashem. Which means a person has to show that his being in itself is nothing, and he is only a half a thing if not for Hashem. When is he complete? Only if he is united with Hashem. And when this happens, when a Yid shows Hashem and he feels that his whole being is nothing unless he's connected to Hashem, Hashem shows the same thing to him. Hashem shows that Hashem feels k'vayachol, so to speak, that His being is also a complete being only if it's connected to Hashem. Like it says in the פסוק, פתחי לי אחותי רעיתי יונתי תמתי. Hashem refers to the Yidden as תמתי. תמתי comes from the word תם, which means complete. Hashem says, תמתי, that we are His תם, we make Him k'vayachol complete. And as the Chazal say on the word תמתי, תאומתי. We are as if we are His twin. That the two twins really are one, split into two. The same thing k'vayachol Hashem says, you make Me complete. This is similar to the peshat that the Mezeritcher Maggid says on the פסוק עשה לך שתי חצוצרת כסף, which means pashut peshat, you should make to Me two trumpets of silver. So he says that the word שתי חצוצרת is made up of two words. חצוצרת is חצאי צורות, half of forms. שתי חצוצרת means שתי חצאי צורות. He says that each one is only like a half of a צורה. Hashem k'vayachol put Himself in this position that He is only a half if not for the Yidden, and the Yidden are only half if not for Hashem. And together it comes out to one thing. And this is what the meaning of מחצית השקל is. A Yid is supposed to feel that he is only half if not for Hashem, u'v'meila Hashem will show him that Hashem kivayachol will express the feeling that He is also only half if not for the Yidden. Like Hashem said, as the Gemara says, that בין כך ובין כך בני הם ולאחליפם באומה אחרת אי אפשר. Whether they're good or bad, they're My children, and I can't change them for somebody else. Hashem says kivayachol, I must have the Yidden. And this is expressed through the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. And that's why the pasuk says that a complete shekel is 20 גרה, so a half a shekel is 10 גרה. The number 10 represents, as it says in sefarim, the עשר כחות הנפש. We know that every person has 10 abilities, 10 attributes: three of his intellect and seven of his emotions. As the names are חכמה, בינה, דעת are the three from the intellect, and the seven from the emotions are חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, and מלכות. So these 10 make up the person. Hashem kivayachol also has, as it says in ספרי קבלה, עשר ספירות, which is also 10. Together it is so to speak 20, and that together comes out to one מציאות. And this is what the pasuk says, I want you to give a מחצית השקל to feel that you are only half. Really what I want of you is to combine yourself to Hashem, because I want to have one complete shekel which is made up of 20 גרה: 10 מלמעלה, 10 of Hashem so to speak, and 10 of the person. Together it becomes 20. So you have to give half, which is 10, and then Hashem will put His half, which is also 10, and together it'll become 20, it'll become one shekel. And this is the reason why when Hashem wanted the Yidden to do a mitzvah that will forgive them for the חטא העגל, and this reason He said it'll forgive is because it's a מטבע של אש, the fire of the neshamah. He could have done it concerning any other mitzvah. He specially did it concerning the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, because the mitzvah of מחצית השקל expresses the feeling of a Yid that he feels that he is only half and he wants to unite himself to Hashem. So the mitzvah of machatzis hashekel itself expresses the fire of the neshamah, and therefore it is davka through this mitzvah that Hashem says, I will forgive you for the חטא העגל.

And this is also the reason why we see in the Torah, in Parashat Ki Tisa, that after the חטא העגל השם said to משה, הנה אנכי כורת ברית. I am going to make a covenant with you. What is the idea of a covenant? As we find by the ברית בין הבתרים, that Hashem said they would cut up different things in half, and He would pass through. The idea of a covenant is to show a connection between two things. Now, if it's supposed to show a unity between two things, why did they cut it up? They should keep it whole, which show unity. The answer is, this is the whole idea: taking one thing and cutting it up, and showing that just like these two parts are only two halves of one, together they make up one, so too the two people or the two things that make this covenant, they, even though they seem to be two, really they should be united and be one. And this is why, after the חטא העגל, which was the time when the Yidden, so to speak, showed that they are away from Hashem, separate from Hashem, Hashem said, \"הנה אנכי כורת ברית, I'm making a brit that I'm taking two halves, myself and you, and we're putting it together, and together we become one.\" So it comes out from all this that the inyan of machatzis hashekel is the way a Yid expresses his true belief in Hashem, his true acceptance of kabbalat ol malchut shamayim, acceptance of the yoke of Hashem, which automatically brings out in a Yid to accept the Torah and the mitzvot, because this was given by Hashem. This is why this mitzvah specifically brought about the miracle of Purim. Because it says in the Megillah that קיימו וקיבלו היהודים, and the Gemara says that the Yidden at that time accepted upon themselves the Torah all over again. As the Gemara says in שבת, מכאן מודעא רבה לאורייתא, when Hashem gave the Torah by מתן תורה. So the Yidden could have still complained later, \"You forced us to take the Torah,\" because כפה עליהם הר כגיגית, Hashem forced them, He put the mountain over them and said, \"If you don't take the Torah, you're going to die right here,\" so they were forced to it. So the Yidden could always find an excuse and say, \"The reason we don't keep the Torah is because we're forced into it.\" But from after Purim on, the Gemara says, no more excuses, because then they accepted upon themselves with their own free will. So it comes out, the time of Purim, what brought about the nes, is the fact that the Yidden did such a strong teshuvah, that at that time, they mamash renewed their acceptance of the Torah with the essence of their neshamah, with the real truth, and that is why Hashem performed the miracle. And this is the reason why the miracle came about also in connection to מחצית השקל. Because as we said, מחצית השקל is the mitzvah that expresses the fact that a Yid is one with Hashem and wants to connect himself to Hashem. And this is what happened at the time of Purim. Especially according to the opinion that it says in the Gemara, in Megillah דף י\"ב עמוד א', that the reason there was a gezeirah on the Yidden was because השתחוו לצלם, because they bowed down to the idol, which is avodah zarah, so the way to forgive for that aveirah is by doing the opposite, and that is done through the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. And that's why there's a special connection between מחצית השקל and Purim. And this is one of the reasons why, in the beginning of Adar, which is the month of Purim, we have Parashat Shekalim, when we read about the mitzvah of מחצית.