This coming Shabbos is going to be פרשת שקלים. We know that this time of the year is when we start with what we call the ארבע פרשיות, four פרשיות, which in simple peshat means that certain times of the year, when we read the Torah in the שול on Shabbos, so in addition to reading the portion of the week, we also read an extra little bit. And that happens certain times. For instance, if Rosh Chodesh comes out on Shabbos, so then when you read at the end for מפטיר, we read an extra portion, and it is read in another ספר תורה, we take out two ספרי תורה. If Shabbos happens to be Chanukah, we read an extra portion, and different things. So too, there are four Shabbosim of the year, starting with the Shabbos right before ראש חודש אדר, that we have four פרשיות, which means there are four Shabbosim that every one of these four Shabbosim at the end, we read an extra portion. We take out two ספרי תורה, we take out two ספרי תורה, in the first one we read the פרשה of the week, and in the second one, we read an extra portion. And these four פרשיות, and they're not holidays, that's the whole idea. So when it's a holiday, it comes on a special day and there's a special קריאה, special thing to read in the Torah, that's one thing. But these are not holidays, but there are reasons why we have these four פרשיות. And the four פרשיות are: the first one is the Shabbos before ראש חודש אדר, which is this coming Shabbos, or if ראש חודש אדר happens to be on Shabbos, then we read an extra part at the end of the קריאה called פרשת שקלים. Then the Shabbos before Purim, we read an extra portion called פרשת זכור, and then we read פרשת פרה, and then we read פרשת החודש. And let me just explain for a moment what they are. פרשת שקלים, we read the portion that deals with the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, with the mitzvah of השם commanded us to give a half a שקל, and I'll explain that because that's going to be the subject of tonight's discussion. Then the פרשת זכור is the Shabbos before Purim, we read the portion about Amalek, because there is a mitzvah in the Torah where it says, זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק, we have to remember what Amalek did to us, so there is one Shabbos a year that's designated to be the Shabbos when we remember what Amalek did to us when we went out of Mitzrayim. And the Shabbos that was chosen was the Shabbos before Purim, because Purim is connected to Amalek, because Haman was a descendant of Amalek, and therefore before we celebrate the downfall of Haman, we read the portion of זכור remembering Amalek. And then we have the פרשת פרה, which is the parsha we read about the פרה אדומה. פרה אדומה was the red cow that they used to bring in the Beis Hamikdash, that after they burned it, they used the ashes mixed with water to sprinkle on a person who became impure, unclean spiritually, became tamei meis. He became tamei by touching a dead body. The only way he could become clean is by, besides going to the mikveh, but he had to be sprinkled with the water mixed with the ashes on the third day and on the seventh day. And then after that we read פרשת החודש, which is the parsha that deals with the mitzvah of korban Pesach, because before Pesach they would bring the korban Pesach. So before Pesach, we read the portion of פרשת החודש. Before that, we read פרשת פרה, because in order to be able to bring the korban Pesach, you have to be clean. Only a person who was clean, was tahor, was able to bring the korban Pesach, so we read that. Before that is פרשת זכור, and before that, the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar, we read פרשת שקלים. The reason we read פרשת שקלים the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar or on ראש חודש אדר is because that was the time of the year when the בית דין would announce, remind people to give the מחצית השקל. And I'll explain what that means. מחצית השקל literally means a half a shekel. Shekel was the coin in ארץ ישראל. מחצית השקל is a half a shekel. Every ייד was obligated every year to give a half a shekel to the בית המקדש for the sole purpose that this would be used for the קרבנות ציבור, for the public sacrifices that they would bring in the בית המקדש in the entire year. There are certain korbanot, certain sacrifices which were called קרבנות ציבור, they came from the public. Most of the korbanot that were brought were קרבנות יחיד, individual people would bring korbanot, whether it was donations, or it was because of a sin, or for whatever reason, those are called קרבנות יחיד, individual korbanot, and then a person would pay for his own korban. But then there were קרבנות ציבור, korbanot of the community, like for instance, every day they had to bring two קרבנות תמיד, which were two special korbanot, one in the morning, one in the evening, afternoon. And these were קרבנות תמיד. Tamid means constant, always. They always, every day of the year, no matter what. Then on Shabbos, there were special korbanot called קרבן מוסף, additional korbanot. On Yom Tov, there were קרבן מוסף. ראש חודש, there were קרבן מוסף. Now these korbanot were all from the public. Now how did the public bring these korbanot? Because it was paid by the public. How was it paid by the public? They would make a collection, and every Jew was obligated to participate. You can only give a half a shekel, you can't get give any more. Every person would have to give a half a shekel. Every year, from the first day of the month of ניסן, they would start using the new money. In other words, when they would make the collection, it the cycle started on ראש חודש ניסן. The first day of ניסן, they had to use already from the money that was collected, the new money that was collected. And that money was used for the korbanot for the entire year, till next ראש חודש ניסן. Even if there was some money left over, had to be put aside, used for other things, as it says in the Mishnah. But from next ראש חודש ניסן, they would have to use from the new collection that they made. In order to give ample time for people to be able to donate this this money and it should be able to reach the בית המקדש on time, so it says in the Mishnah, באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים. On the first day of Adar, the Beit Din would make announcements in all the cities that people should get ready to give their money for מחצית השקל. And on the 15th day of Adar, they would set up tables in different areas and that people would be sitting there receiving the money, and then the money would send be sent with the messenger all the way to Yerushalayim. And the truth is, even if money didn't get there on time, it doesn't matter, the korbanot that they would bring from ראש חודש ניסן on was the korban of all the Jews, those that already gave and those that will still give, they were all included in the korban. So therefore, even if a person did not manage, forgot or wasn't able to give till after ראש חודש ניסן and he would send his money later, it doesn't mean that he didn't have a share in the korbanot brought up to the time when he gave his money, because it was brought for all the Jews, for those that gave and those that will give. But the beginning of Adar, the first day of Adar, they would make the announcement of the people should remember to give the מחצית השקל. And that's why they established, the chachamim established that the Shabbos before the first day of Adar, they should read in the Torah the part portion of the Torah that deals with מחצית השקל. Now this mitzvah of מחצית השקל, which was then used for the korbanot, doesn't apply nowadays. Why? Because we don't have korbanot nowadays. We don't have a בית המקדש. We don't bring sacrifices. We'll do it again, though, right? We will do it again. Sure we will. Soon, soon Mashiach will come and then we'll have the בית המקדש again and we'll do it again. But so far, unfortunately, for over 1900 years, we don't have the בית המקדש and we don't have the mitzvah of מחצית השקל in the literal sense. Nevertheless, we do have something that we do as a zecher, as a remembrance of מחצית השקל. And that is, it says in Shulchan Aruch, that we should Some have a minhag on Purim, many have a minhag, like Lubavitch, to do it on Erev Purim or on Ta'anit Esther, which is usually the day before Purim, to give a מחצית השקל. That everyone gives for tzedakah, you give a half a shekel. Now what is a half a shekel? We don't have shekalim in America. To give half of the the coin, the accepted coin of the country. Like in America, it would be dollars, so here you would give a half a dollar. If it would be France, you'd give half of a franc, half of a no that's of No, how much is the big the big They're all goes by francs? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, well now it's euros, so it would be half a euro, right. Then it was a half a franc, right. And or a half of a peso, I guess, or half of a in Eretz Yisrael, half of a shekel. Half a לירה. You give a half of the coin of the country. And by doing that, we remind ourselves of the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, which is a zecher. So therefore, anything that we are going to talk about what the mitzvah of מחצית השקל stands for and it means spiritually, because as I always say, this class is not a class of halachah to explain the halachot of the different things that we talk about, but the inner meaning, the more the deeper pshat and what these mitzvot mean, or the different subjects, so when we will explain what the meaning the deeper meaning of מחצית השקל is, it will apply to us nowadays too, even though we don't have the literal מחצית השקל as it used to be in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, but still we do have the zecher. And the truth is, I must go say even more that even if we wouldn't have the zecher, even when we talk about those things that don't apply nowadays at all, they used to apply in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, the spiritual lessons of those mitzvot apply now too, even if we don't do anything about it. So even if we wouldn't do anything about מחצית השקל, we still have to learn what is the meaning of מחצית השקל and spiritually it has a lot of meaning to us. Certainly in this case when we do have a minhag of giving מחצית השקל, a custom, and we know a custom is as important as a halachah. All the questions will be afterwards. Questions will come after. So this all applies to us, so we have to look into it to see what is the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. In order to understand what is the true meaning of the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, we have to see where the mitzvah of מחצית השקל comes from. Obviously, it's from the Torah. But we have to look into the Torah, what does it say in the Torah concerning the mitzvah of מחצית השקל.

So it says in the Torah, as Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu in the time of the Mishkan, when the Jews were in the desert and they were going to build the Mishkan, Hashem said to משה כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל, that we'll count the Jews and let each one give a מחצית השקל. זה יתנו, this is what they should give, he said. That's the expression in the Chumash. Hashem said to Moshe, this is what they shall give. We should give a half of a shekel, and he explained a complete shekel has twenty גרה. There were twenty גרה's in a shekel, the pasuk says, give a half a shekel, which is ten גרה. That's what Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu. Actually, in the time of the Mishkan, Hashem commanded the Jews to give three types of donations. Two were half a shekel donations that everyone had to give equally, and then one was to give whatever you want, as much as you want, out of anything that you want of the objects that were needed for the Mishkan. The מחצית השקל, one of the מחצית השקל collections was used for the אדנים, was used for the foundation of the Mishkan, the sockets in which the walls of the Mishkan stood. They were taken from the מחצית השקל. The other מחצית השקל, collection of מחצית השקל, was used for the korbanot, because already in the desert they brought קרבנות ציבור, the public korbanot, they needed a מחצית השקל. So everyone had to give equally a מחצית השקל. The third one was a donation that you had to give for the building of the Mishkan as a whole, and there you could give gold, silver, copper, clothes, anything that you had that you were wanted to give and they would use that to build the Mishkan. So Hashem said to Moshe that concerning the מחצית השקל, he said כזה יתנו, like this they shall give a מחצית השקל. And the question that the Midrash asks and the Yerushalmi asks is, what do you mean like this you shall give? The only time you say זה, זה יתנו, זה means this, is only when you're pointing at it. If we're talking about something, we don't say this, we say that. So Hashem should have said to Moshe, let the Jews give a מחצית השקל, a half a shekel. Why did he say זה יתנו, this they shall give? So the Midrash answers, yes, Hashem took out a מחצית השקל, a half a shekel made of fire from under His כסא הכבוד, under His throne of glory, and He showed it to Moshe Rabbeinu, and He said, Moshe, you see this? This is what I want the Jews to give. זה יתנו, this is what they shall give. And the reason Hashem showed it to him is because Moshe didn't understand what Hashem meant. When Hashem said to him to give a מחצית השקל, he didn't understand. So Hashem had to show him. Like we find other places in Chumash where, not too many, but a few places where it says Hashem said to Moshe, זה, like it says זאת החיה, this is the animals you're allowed to eat. So Rashi actually brings it, Moshe Rabbeinu couldn't understand, Hashem listed to him every animal that's kasher, every animal that's not kasher. Moshe didn't understand which are kasher, which not. Hashem brought to the desert every single animal species in the world, and He said, זה, see? זאת, this you could eat, this you can't, this you could, He showed it. It says when Hashem told him קידוש החודש, about how to calculate the new moon, that when you see the moon in a certain position, you know that this is the new moon, so it says Hashem showed this. החודש הזה לכם, He said this is the new moon, because Moshe Rabbeinu didn't understand exactly at what position is it that you have to that you have to consider the moon as a new moon. Same thing here also. Moshe Rabbeinu didn't understand what Hashem meant when He said give a half a shekel, and Hashem showed him, took out a half a shekel made of fire from under the כסא הכבוד, showed it to him, and He said, כזה יתנו, this is what I want the Jews to give.

Comes Tosafot, there's a Tosafot, one of the commentators on the Gemara, Tosafot in Chulin, and Tosafot asks the question, what was so hard to understand? Imagine you tell somebody that I want you to give a half a dollar, so what's the big deal? The coin at that time was a shekel, and Hashem said to him, I want them to give a half a shekel. What's the problem? Why couldn't Moshe understand? You see the other things where we find is hard things to understand. Even by the moon, you have to know exactly what position, and it's very hard to describe in words, so you have to actually show it. There are sometimes things that you can't understand when you describe it, if you show a video of it, oh, then you see. But what's so hard about understanding what a half a shekel is? Everyone knows what a half a shekel is. So why was Moshe נתקשה, it says? Why was it hard for him to understand it? Hashem had to show it to him. So Tosafot answers, it wasn't that he couldn't understand what a half a shekel is. If you look in the Chumash, Hashem said, \"Let them give a half a shekel, and this half a shekel is going to be כופר נפשו. This will be redemption for their souls, for their life,\" which means in simple terms, the Jews had sinned. This came this commandment came after they sinned with the egel, they made the golden calf. And Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem to forgive, and Hashem forgave, and then Hashem said to Moshe, \"In order to make sure that their nefesh, their soul is forgiven and is redeemed, let them give a half a shekel, כופר נפשו, to redeem the nefesh, to redeem their life.\" Because otherwise you know what they need? They really have to be killed for what they did. Imagine, they worshipped an idol. For that is the death penalty. So Hashem said by giving a half a shekel, this will redeem them. This is what Moshe couldn't understand. How is it possible that a half a shekel should redeem your nefesh? And the Midrash even brings, there's a pasuk that says עור בעד עור וכל אשר לאיש יתן בעד נפשו, your skin off your body, and anything that you own a person is ready to give for his nefesh, for his life. And here you expect to get should get away with a half a shekel? Moshe couldn't understand. How is it possible that by giving a half a shekel this redeems their nefesh? That was the problem. And let me explain that in more detail before we get to the answer. Why is this different than the concept of bringing korbanot? We know that Hashem had told the Jews before the Mishkan yet, earlier, that for a sin that a person does, one of the ways to get a kaparah, to be forgiven, is bringing sacrifices. Why didn't Moshe Rabbeinu wonder there too? How is it that by just taking an animal and slaughtering it and bringing it as a sacrifice on the altar, that will bring a kaparah, that will forgive them for a sin they did against God? We don't find Moshe Rabbeinu wondered. So why over here all of a sudden did Moshe Rabbeinu wonder how a מחצית השקל could take care of the kaparah, of כופר נפשו? The answer is very simple. There are different levels of mitzvot and different levels of aveirot, different levels of sins. So if we're talking about a low level of sin, we could understand that for a small sin doing something small will accomplish the kaparah. But doing something so terrible as avodah zarah, something so terrible as idol worship, for that to get a kaparah, to be forgiven, you have to give something more substantial. You have to have something greater. Why would a מחצית השקל be enough? In other words, like this: it says in the Zohar that the mitzvot are called איברים דמלכא, they are limbs of God. In other words, we compare the mitzvot to the limbs. When we look at the limbs of a body, there are all kinds. There are some more important, everything is important obviously, but there are some very important, some are not that important. In the Gemara we find two categories. There is an אבר שהנשמה תלויה בו, and אבר שאין הנשמה תלויה בו. You have a limb that your life depends on, and then you have certain limbs that your life doesn't depend on. And amongst those limbs that your life depends on, there are some very general and some not. For instance, the brain is the most general one. The brain and the heart are the two most general limbs. Then there are other limbs that you can't live without either, but they're not as general as these two. So you have different levels. Since the Zohar compares mitzvot, and obviously the same thing is aveirot, because an aveirah means that you didn't do the mitzvah, and there's a mitzvah not to do an aveirah, so when we talk about mitzvot we also talk about aveirot, they're considered they're like limbs. So if we compare it to limbs, like we said, just like in limbs you have different kinds, you have different levels of mitzvot. You have some mitzvot, every mitzvah is important, like every part of the body is important, but some are the whole Torah depends on it, the whole life depends, the spiritual life, and some not. And some are very general. Out of all the mitzvot, the two most general mitzvot of the whole Torah, the two mitzvot that the whole Torah is based on, are the first two mitzvot of the עשרת הדברות, the first two mitzvot on the Ten Commandments: אנכי השם אלוקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים, \"I am God your God,\" and לא יהיה לך אלוקים אחרים, that you're not to have other gods. Those are the two main ones. It says in Tanya that all positive mitzvot, two hundred and forty-eight positive mitzvot, all stem, come out of the mitzvah of אנכי ה׳ אלקיך, which say you shall believe in one God. All negative commandments, all 365 commandments that you're not allowed to do, things you're not allowed to do, they all stem from לא יהיה לך, from do not have another God. So these are the most two important mitzvot. The Jews transgressed these two mitzvot, the most important mitzvot in the Torah. They made themselves an idol. So they stopped believing in the one God, and they did what Hashem said don't do, don't make yourself another God. For that, Moshe Rabbeinu wondered, how is it possible that just giving a מחצית השקל, just giving a half a shekel will take care of it? So by korbanot, when you say you do for certain aveirot, you bring a korban, so Moshe understood, okay, it's an aveirah, terrible thing, Hashem says bring a korban. But when it came to avodah zarah, and Hashem said for that you'll give a מחצית השקל, and for that you'll take care of the aveirah, כופר נפש, your nefesh, your essence of your soul will be forgiven for that by מחצית השקל, he couldn't understand it. That's why Moshe Rabbeinu had to be shown, because on his own he couldn't understand this. So Hashem took out the coin from under His throne, coin of fire, and He showed it to him. But the question is, how does that answer his question? So if there would be the simple peshat that he didn't know what it means, so then Hashem would take out a coin and show it to him. But if his question was not what a coin, what a מחצית השקל is, he knew that, he just wondered how is it possible for that to bring kofer nefesh, so how did Hashem answer his question by taking out a coin and showing it to him? The answer is based on a mashal, and some say this mashal is from the Baal Shem Tov, a mashal of somebody who was teaching a student how to become a goldsmith. And he gave him all the details, and he told him exactly what you're supposed to do, and how supposed to take this off, and put this, and put it on water, and put everything he told him, and give him the exact instructions. He went, followed the instructions step-by-step, nothing happened. He couldn't understand. He came back to the guy, and he said, \"Listen, I did everything you told me, but nothing happened.\" So he went through the whole list: \"Did you do this?\" \"Yes.\" \"Did you do this?\" \"Did you do this?\" Everything. So couldn't understand, why didn't it work? It should work. Then he realized there's one thing he didn't tell him, because it was so simple, like without that it's impossible, that he didn't even mention it to him: he forgot to put the fire under the pot. And he didn't even say it to him, obviously you're going to do it, that's the way to do it. So he asked him, \"Did you put the fire there?\" Says, \"No.\" He says, \"Well, obviously nothing's going to work. Without fire, nothing works. Fire is what makes it happen.\" And this is what Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu. He said to him, \"The מחצית השקל itself, the fact that you're giving a half a shekel won't really do the trick. If you give a half a shekel with fire of your neshamah, if you have the depth, the fire of the neshamah involved in the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, then it'll work.\" And that's what Hashem did. He took out the coin of fire, and He showed him, and He said, \"This is your answer to your question. It's with fire. And when you have the fire in it, that means that you involve your neshamah, your inner part of your neshamah in the מחצית השקל that you give, then it will take care even of the עבודה זרה.\" And I'll explain in a moment why, but even when it comes to the aveirah of worshipping an idol, the fire of the neshamah that's put into this will work, because the fire comes from the essence of the neshamah. Besides the fact that there's fire here, and we're saying now that how did the מחצית השקל work, because it has to do with the essence of your neshamah, and that's why it works, we also have to find within the mitzvah of מחצית השקל itself, not only in the feeling you have, but in the actual mitzvah, how it shows that this is done with the essence of your neshamah. See, so far it came out that the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, giving the half a shekel is an act like any other act. It doesn't mean much. It's your intentions that are behind it, that's what counts. But it must be more than that, because otherwise, you know what Hashem could have done? Hashem could have picked anything, and say, \"Well, if you do this, you do that, the main thing is if you put the fire of your neshamah.\" So why did it have to be a מחצית השקל? There must be something within the actual act of giving a half a shekel the way Hashem prescribed it that this itself expresses the fact that it comes from the essence of your neshamah. Besides the fact that you're doing it with fire, the mitzvah itself, the physical act of the mitzvah expresses what the meaning of the mitzvah is. Now where do how do we find in where do we see in the fact that you gave a half of a shekel for the korbanot or for the אדנים in the time of the מדבר, how does that express the fact that there is some connection to the essence of the neshama here more than by any other mitzvah? There must be something here special. Because there is something Hashem gave him this mitzvah in connection to forgiving for the chet, it must be that this act has something more than any other mitzvah. And as we'll and therefore, when we do the מחצית השקל now, we have that same specialty, the specialty of מחצית השקל that no other mitzvah has. Again, like I say every week, any subject we discuss, that's the most special mitzvah that we have. Yes, we're discussing that there's something special in מחצית השקל that no other mitzvah has, and it's connected to the fact that this expresses your עצם of your neshama. Where do we see it in מחצית השקל? Well, at first glance, we could have said that where do we see it in מחצית השקל in the fact it's tzedakah. It's like tzedakah, you're giving money. It says in sefarim, in Tanya it says, why is tzedakah so special? Giving charity is a very special mitzvah. As a matter of fact, in Yerushalmi, when it mentions the mitzvah without specifying which mitzvah, it means tzedakah. Tzedakah is the mitzvah, obviously is the most important mitzvah. Why is so important? So it says in Tanya, because when a person gives tzedakah, you're giving away part of your essence. How? How do you get the money? Well, we're talking about people who are honest, you work for a living, people work for a living. So if you work for a living, when you work, you put your whole self into it. And the money you earn from putting yourself into your work, that represents your true essence because you put your life into your work, and this is the result. So in every penny that a person owns, there is a really part of his essence in it. Then you take that money, and you give it away to a poor man because Hashem said so. So really you're giving away part of your essence to Hashem because you're doing because Hashem said so. And even it says in Tanya, even if a person did not work hard for his money, a person earned it easily, or a person inherited, a person won a lottery, but it says money to a person is something that you could buy with it things which are important to you. You could buy חיי נפש, you could buy life with money. And you take that money that you could have bought life, and you're giving it away to somebody else. That's called giving away part of yourself. That's why it says the expression in חומש, כל היקום אשר ברגליהם, which means anything that was holding them up, so the Gemara says, זה ממונו של אדם, that's money of a person that's מעמידו על רגליו, hold a person on his feet. So could be that this is the reason why מחצית השקל expresses the essence of the person, because it's giving away your money. But that's not only that, because in that case it's every tzedakah, it's not only מחצית השקל. We have to find something in מחצית השקל that expresses specifically the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. But then we could say it some other way. The מחצית השקל was used for korbanot. These korbanot, as we said before, were קרבנות ציבור, were community korbanot, not private korbanot of a private person. When it comes to the community, all Jews are part of the community, because all Jews are really like one. Why are all Jews like one? Every person is an individual, every person is different. The only reason we're all like one is because we all have a neshamah, and we all have the same neshamah, it's part of God. The differences that there are between one person and another is in outwardly things, superficial things. This person has a better head, this person is smarter, this person is has other talents. There, takeh, we're different. But when it comes to the essence of the neshamah, we're all the same. So when we talk about a community where it includes all the Jews equally, it's because that expresses the essence of every Jew. So therefore, we could say that this מחצית השקל, being that it was used for the korbanot, which was for the community, it expressed the fact that we are all equal, which can has connection to the person's neshamah. But this is still not enough to explain it because it is not מחצית השקל, it is what they bought with the מחצית השקל. It's what they used the מחצית השקל for, but in the actual giving of the מחצית השקל, we don't see how this expresses the essence of the neshamah. Then there's another way we could explain it. The fact that everyone had to give equally. Everyone had to give the same amount. Like I said before, the other left the other type of donations that were expected for the Mishkan, everyone could give whatever they wanted. So you give, if you're rich you give more, if you're poor you give less. But in מחצית השקל, it says a rich man was not allowed to give more, the poor man was not allowed to give less. Everyone's equal. Why was everyone equal? Because everyone is equal. Essentially, everyone is equal. So the mitzvah, the fact that everyone had to give an equal amount, expresses the fact that we are all essentially equal, so it's connected to our essence. But it's still not a 100% good explanation, because then it wouldn't make a difference what amount it would be. Hashem could have said that you should give ten shekalim, but everyone should give it equally. It seems as if the fact that Hashem said that you have to give this specific amount, that expresses the fact that we have a neshamah and there is an essence in our neshamah, and by doing it with the essence of our neshamah, which brings out the fire, that will forgive for the חטא העגל, for the sin of עבודה זרה.

So the answer is as follows: Let's look in the Chumash the way Hashem describes the mitzvah. As I said before, He says, \"I want you to give a מחצית השקל. A shekel has 20 gerah, and a half a shekel is 10 gerah.\" Why go to all through all these details in Chumash? Why didn't the Torah just say give a half of a shekel? And even if the Torah would want to describe how much a half a shekel is, they could have said, \"Give a half a shekel, which is, which equals 10 gerah.\" That's all. Why say give a shekel has 20 gerah, and I want you to give 10 gerah? Obviously the Torah is going out of its way to make sure that what He wants, what Hashem wants us to do, is to give half of a complete amount. That's what Hashem wants. It's not that Hashem wants us to give 10 gerah. Hashem wants us to give specifically half of 20, 10 which is half of 20. The question is why? Why would Hashem go out of His way to make sure that we know that this is a half? This seems to contradict everything else that we learn. We always know Hashem likes shleimut, complete. A sacrifice, a korban, had to be a tamim, had to be complete. A kohen, the person who brought the korban, could not have a blemish, had to be complete. When they filled the cups for oil, they had to be complete. Everything was complete. Why all of a sudden here half? Even our mitzvot, when we make kiddush, we have to have a full cup. We don't make kiddush on a half a cup of wine. We have to have a full cup. When we have לחם משנה, we have to have complete challot. Everything is complete. That's what kedushah is, complete. Why here does the Torah want us to give something specifically that's half, that's not complete? There must be some reason for it, especially if this is supposed to forgive for the chet ha'egel. And the chet ha'egel, which meant was that the Jews at that point denied in the unity of Hashem, in the oneness of Hashem. They started believing at that point that there are two powers, there is a sharing of power. They still believed in God, but they believe there is Hashem, and now we're going to make an egel which will help out Hashem. They wanted to make something else which will be a help to Hashem. So they believed in two halves. So wouldn't it make sense that the mitzvah should be you should give one whole thing to represent the fact that you're giving one thing to remind us that there is only one Hashem? Why here does the Torah stress that it has to be half, and saying there is 20 gerah in a shekel, and I want you to give half of that? The answer is, because this was supposed to forgive for the chet ha'egel, that's why Hashem wanted to give us half. Because they denied in the unity of Hashem, and therefore what did Hashem want of them? Hashem didn't want of them just to say, \"Well, because you didn't believe in Me, I want you to give Me everything that you own.\" That would be pretty fine, right? Now you'll give Me everything that you own, then I'll know that you trust Me, you believe in Me. But you know what would be then? It would be fine. It would show that you're giving everything to Hashem. But still, there are two entities: there is me, and I am giving all my possessions to Hashem, which is a great level, but that still leaves me with my own entity as a separate entity of Hashem. What Hashem wanted that they should do is they do something that represents their realization that they are nothing without Hashem. So you know what He said to them? \"I want you to realize that you are only half. Give half to represent the fact that you on your own are only half. You are not a complete being without Me.\" If you would tell them to give a a coin which is complete, it would be a mitzvah, and it would show they're giving away something to Hashem. But it wouldn't show in any way that they feel that their existence is not a real existence without Hashem. So Hashem said, \"I want you to give half.\" And you know what happens then? Hashem on His part says the same: \"I will start feeling that I, kivayachol, so to speak, am not complete without you, and your half and My half together makes up one unit.\" It's not that there is Me, there is Hashem, and then there are the Jews, and we say, \"Well, the Jews are close Close to Hashem, the Jews are, feel Hashem, believe in Hashem. That's not enough, because then you're still a separate entity. We want to say, like it says in the Zohar, ישראל וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד, the Jews and the, and Hashem are one. Together, they make up one unit. So Hashem said, you give half, and if you give half, I'll give my half, and together we'll make it into one. And we do find such an expression in Midrash, where Hashem says that I, on himself, am not complete if I don't have you. There's a pasuk that says, פתחי לי, Hashem speaks to the Jews and says, פתחי לי אחותי רעיתי יונתי תמתי, which means open up the door for me, my sister, my friend. Then he calls us תמתי. What does תמתי mean? So the Midrash says תמתי comes from the word תם. תם means complete. Means, he talks to the Jews, saying, you are the ones that make me complete. Kivayachol, not that God is not complete, but he says, I and you become one, that you without me are nothing, and I without you feel that I'm nothing, and only together we're one. It's similar to that Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to make two trumpets, שתי חצוצרות. In Hebrew, חצוצרות are trumpets. But the Mezritcher Magid has a very interesting interpretation. He says that the word חצוצרות is made up of two words: חצי צורה, half of an image. שתי חצוצרות means שתי חצאי צורות, there are two half of images. Who are the two halves? Hashem and the Yidden. Each one is only half, and together we make up a whole. And this is what Hashem said to them: I want you to give a half of a shekel to realize that you're only half. And then he explains, there are altogether 20 גרה, and I want you to give half. What's the idea of 20? 20 is two times 10. There are 10 כוחות הנפש. Every person has 10 attributes, we know that: three parts of the person's intellect, which is חכמה בינה דעת, then there are seven parts of the person's emotions. There are 10 parts of the person's כוחות, we call it. You know why there are 10 parts of the person? Well, well, that's how a person was born. True, that's how a person was created. Why was a human being created with such 10? Because in the higher worlds by Hashem, there are 10 ספירות. We learn in Kabbalah and Chassidus that in the higher worlds, starting from אצילות, there are the עשר ספירות. You have, you have חכמה בינה דעת חסד גבורה תפארת נצח הוד יסוד מלכות, 10 ספירות. So you have 10 ספירות by Hashem, and then you have 10 כוחות by the person. And what Hashem wants is for us to realize that only when we have the 20 together is there one unit. We have the 10 of Hashem, the 10 of us, and together they make up one. And that's what Hashem says in the pasuk. He said, I want you to give a half a shekel, you should realize you're half. And I'm telling you there are 20 gerah to a shekel, there are two times 10. There is my 10 and your 10, and I want you to give your 10, and then it'll combine with my 10, and together it'll be a whole shekel, but otherwise you're only half. And this is the way to bring the kapparah for the חטא העגל. The חטא העגל was the worst aveirah. In order to be forgiven for this worst aveirah, Hashem had to do something that the Jews should reveal the essence of their neshamah in order to be forgiven. And I'll tell you why. Because the only place in the, in the Jew that's not affected by avodah zarah is the essence of his neshamah. See, every aveirah, let's make it clear, every aveirah that a person does, every sin a person does, affects a certain aspect of the person's neshamah. It says that there are 613 strings that connect us to Hashem. Imagine, 613 strings. Every time, God forbid, someone does an aveirah, doesn't keep one of them, one of those strings are cut. Then there are certain aveirot which are so terrible that a whole bunch of them are cut together. And it weakens this connection. When you do avodah zarah, that cuts all the strings. That cuts off the Jew completely from Hashem. The only thing that's left is the essential connection. These 613 strings are not the essential. These are all details of how a person connects himself to Hashem in certain ways. But then there is the essential connection of a Jew to Hashem, which could never be cut. It's like a father or a mother with a child, that there are certain ways that the mother feels close to the child and the child feels close to the mother, to the father. And when the child misbehaves, some of these connections are cut, and the mother gets angry, and the father gets angry at things, and they could You know, separate completely. One thing can never be changed: the fact that this is the father, and this is the child, you can't change that. This is the mother, and this is the child, that can never be changed. The worst child is still a child. That's the essence. The essence of us being connected to Hashem, that can never be changed. So even if a Jew worships idols, he could cut himself off in every other way, but not in the essence. So therefore, in order to be forgiven for the חטא העגל, the only way it could be is if you reach into the essence. Any other level you will reach into won't do any good, because it's cut. See, when you do other aveirot, you say, well, I cut this part. So if I will reach into another part which was not cut, I will be able to bring back the connection, and then we'll reconnect. But when you cut everything, there's no place to go. The only place to go to reconnect is if you reach into the essence, that's the only thing that was not cut. So Hashem said, I want to give you a mitzvah where the essence of your neshamah will be revealed, and that will forgive you for the aveirah of avodah zarah. So He gave us this mitzvah of מחצית השקל, and He said, if you give מחצית השקל, that means if you do it with the proper kavanot, proper intentions, knowing what I mean, this is what I mean: I mean you should give a half. Half of the shekel means you give realizing that you're half, and you give Me away your ten כחות הנפש, every part of you you give to Me, realizing that your ten means nothing without My ten. And if that happens, it means that you realize that you are really nothing, that's the essential connection of a Jew to Hashem, then Hashem says, I will forgive you for the חטא העגל. And this is what the mitzvah of מחצית השקל was then, and this is what the mitzvah of מחצית השקל is every year, from then on. It's a repeat of the מחצית השקל that was given the first time. The mitzvah is to give a half a shekel, but in it lies such depth, the fact that you realize that you are only half, and you connect yourself to Hashem, Who is the other half, and then you are only one, otherwise you're nothing. That's the essence of the person's feelings.

This is the reason why it's connected to the month of Adar. We said before that the month of Adar, that's when they collected the מחצית השקל for the sake of the קרבנות in Nisan. The essence of the month of Adar is Purim. What happened on Purim? It says, why did the whole story of Purim take place, that the decree of Haman took place, is because there are two reasons in Gemara: one is because they bowed down to an idol in the time of Nevuchadnetzar, and the other one is because they had הנאה, they had pleasure at the party of Achashverosh. The first one certainly expresses the fact that they cut themselves off from Hashem completely. They bowed down to an idol, the same like the עבודה זרה. Even the second reason, which is having pleasure from the party of Achashverosh, it's not because they ate the non-kosher food, because they started thinking of themselves that what makes them have pleasure when they join the goyim? They forgot the specialty of a Jew, which is an essential problem. So what is there to fight what happened before the story of Purim is the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. And actually, we find in the Gemara that the mitzvah of מחצית השקל played a role in the salvation at the time of Purim. Where do we see it? It says when Haman came to Achashverosh that he should write the decree against the Jews, so Haman said, I will put into your treasury, I will put עשרת אלפים ככר כסף, 10,000 ככרים of silver, as payment for what you're doing for the Jews. And Achashverosh answered him, keep your money, and I'll make the decree anyway. But the Gemara says that when Haman said that to Achashverosh, a voice came out from heaven and said, you want your shekalim to cause the destruction of the Jews? The Jews already gave shekalim before you! So their shekalim will outweigh your shekalim. So it comes out that what outweighed the decree of Haman was the fact that the Jews gave the מחצית השקל all the years. Why? Because מחצית השקל is the complete opposite of what was the cause of why the decree came about. Because מחצית השקל represents the fact that we know that we are nothing without Hashem, we're only half, and everything that we own has to be connected to Hashem, and then we become something, otherwise we're nothing. And the reason that Haman's decree came is because they cut themselves off from Hashem. So we see that this was the reason why the decree was nullified, because they gave the מחצית השקל. And here we see something else also. We find in Chumash, in Parashat Ki Tisa, that after Hashem gave the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, and after the חטא העגל, tells us of the story of the חטא העגל, השם says, הנה אנכי כרת ברית, I am going to make a covenant with you. The way they used to make a covenant in those days was they would take an animal, let's say, and cut it into two pieces, into half, and they would both, people who were making the treaty, would walk through between the two pieces. We find by the ברית בין הבתרים that Hashem made with Avraham Avinu, he said, \"Cut the animal in pieces and walk through.\" Now, why would that be a symbol of making a treaty? Making a treaty means that you're taking two people and you want to combine them, you want to make the two people become friends. A treaty means we will be friends. So why would they cut it into half? Should be the opposite, they should take something that's one to represent that we are becoming one. The answer is very simple: the way to show that we are really one is by to show that we are each half. It's one of the reasons that we break a plate by a chatunah. There are different reasons. One reason is to remember Yerushalayim, but one of the reasons is that these two people are getting married, and when they get married they're becoming one unit. It's not like they're going to be two people who are joining to live together; two people are becoming one unit. The way to symbolize that we're becoming one unit is by each one realizing that they're only half. So, that's what you do, you break a plate to show, you see these two pieces? These two pieces, each one is only half of something, and only together do they make up one. So, that's what they do by a chatunah. And this is what Hashem said, \"הנה אנכי כורת ברית, I am making a covenant,\" which takes two halves and putting it together, because that's what Hashem wanted. After the חטא העגל, when they separated themselves from Hashem, Hashem said, \"I want you to be now in such a way that you realize that you are only half. And I will tell you,\" Hashem said, \"I also realize I'm only half, and together we are one.\" And this is the true meaning of the mitzvah of מחצית השקל. That's why we give a half a shekel, that we all show that we are half. One more point in מחצית השקל and I have to mention that is, that in other sefarim it says that the two the same idea of two halves, but it says that besides Jews being half and Hashem the other half, there's another point here: one Jew with another Jew. Each Jew has to remember that he cannot be complete if he doesn't combine himself, connect himself to other Jews. All Jews are one unit, and each person has to feel himself, himself as only being a half. And when you put the two halves together, the two Jews together, then you become one. So that's the hint to the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael. And the truth is the two concepts are the same, because realizing that we're one with Hashem and realizing that we're one with all other Jews is basically the same idea. Because Hashem is one with the Jews, so by being one with other Jews is really being one with Hashem, because every Jew has a neshamah and it's all Hashem is within every Jew, etc., etc., so it's really the same idea. But this is the main idea. And one more hint in the word מחצית השקל: the word מחצית has מ, ח, צ, י, ת. The צ is the middle letter. The two letters on the side of the צ, the two close ones, makes חי. The two letters far from the צ makes מת. צ is the middle. ח, י: if you're close to a tzadik, then you're חי, you have life. If you're far from the tzadik, then it's מת, then there's death, that means spiritually. And this is a remez not only that you have to be close to Hashem, close to other Jews, you have to be close to a tzadik. You have to realize that you have to be mekushar, connected to a tzadik, and the tzadik leads us and teaches us and guides us how to be close to Hashem. And as chasidim, we know that, and even after ג' Tamuz we know that the Rebbe still keeps guiding us through all his sefarim and all the teachings and everything that he taught us that we have plenty and plenty for hundreds of years to continue. And it won't be hundreds of years, it won't be long, because Mashiach is coming soon, I'm saying, but there's so much there that we could have that and we could be connected to the tzadik. So by all these things together, when we give the mitzvah of מחצית השקל, we have to have that in mind. And this brings out within us that fire that a neshamah has. And that's what Hashem showed Moshe Rabbeinu. He took out the coin, said, \"Here's a coin of fire.\" Fire is the point here! And the fire is expressed in the fact that it's half, and then you show that you're half with Hashem, and then Hashem forgives us for חטא העגל and for every aveirah we does we do, chas veshalom, and Hashem gives us everything that we need. Yes? Is it mentioning, I think, כסא הכבוד, כסא הכבוד? What is the כסא הכבוד of Hashem? Hashem's chair. In Kabbalah it's the עולם הבריאה, but in peshat it's Hashem's throne. Okay.