Commento su Esodo 30:13

זה יתנו THIS SHALL THEY GIVE — He (God) showed him (Moses) a kind of fiery coin the weight of which was half a shekel and said to him, “Like this shall they give” (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 9).

HALF OF A SHEKEL AFTER THE SHEKEL OF HOLINESS. Moses our Teacher instituted a silver coin in Israel, for he was a great king.⁴⁴See Deuteronomy 33:5. See also Ramban above, 15:25. He called it “shekel” [literally: “weight”] because that whole coin was a perfect weight, it had nothing defective in it and the silver contained no dross. And since the standard shekel of Valuations³²If a person vows to give to the Sanctuary his “Valuation,” the sum is fixed by the Torah on the basis of years for a male and for a female (Leviticus 27:1-7). These years then are not counted according to the era of the creation of the world, but are calculated astronomically. and the redemption of the firstborn,⁴⁵Numbers 18:16. which are holy matters, were given in that coin, as also all shekels mentioned in connection with the Tabernacle, and all moneys the amount of which is exactly specified in the Torah,⁴⁶Such as thirty shekels if an ox kills a slave (above, 21:32), etc. therefore Scripture calls it the shekel of holiness.
I hold that this is the same reason why our Rabbis call the language of the Torah “the Sacred Language,”⁴⁷Sotah, 32a. because the words of the Torah, and the prophecies, and all words of holiness⁴⁸A reference to the third section of the Bible which contains the Writings. were all expressed in that language. It is thus the language in which the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with His prophets, and with His congregation [when He said], — I am the Eternal thy G-d, etc.⁴⁹Above, 20:2. and Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,⁵⁰Ibid., Verse 3, and Makkoth 23b. and the other communications of the Torah and prophecy — and in that tongue He is called by His sacred names: E-il, Elokim, Tze-baoth, Sha-dai, Ya-h, and the Great Proper Name [i.e., the Tetragrammaton]. In that tongue He created His world,⁵¹Bereshith Rabbah 18:4. and called the names shamayim (heavens),⁵²Genesis 1:8. eretz (earth)⁵³Ibid., Verse 10. and all that is in them, His angels and all His hosts — He called them all by name.⁵⁴Isaiah 40:26. The names of Michael and Gabriel are in this Sacred Language.⁵⁵Michael [mi kamocha E-il] signifies “who is like unto Thee, O G-d.” Gabriel [gabri E-il] means “my strength is from G-d.” In that language He called the names of the holy ones that are in the earth:⁵⁶Psalms 16:3. Abraham,⁵⁷Genesis 17:5: but thy name shall be Abraham, for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. Isaac,⁵⁸Ibid., Verse 19: and thou shalt call his name Isaac [of the Hebrew root meaning “to laugh”]. Jacob,⁵⁹Ibid., 25:26: and He called his name Jacob [“one that takes by the heel”], the word vayikra (and He called) referring to G-d (Rashi quoting the Midrash). Solomon,⁶⁰II Samuel 12:25: And he called his name Jedidiah, for the Eternal’s sake. and others.⁶¹See I Kings 13:2: Josiah will be his name.
Now the Rabbi [Moshe ben Maimon] has written in the Moreh Nebuchim:⁶²Guide of the Perplexed III, 8. Ramban is following the text of Al Charizi’s translation [and not that of Ibn Tibbon]. “Do not think that our language is called the Sacred Language just as a matter of our pride, or it be an error on our part, but it is perfectly justified; for this holy language has no special names for the organs of generation in male or female, nor for semen, nor for urination or excretion, excepting in indirect language. Be not misled by the word sheigal [to take it to mean the act of intercourse; this is not the case,] but it rather denotes a female ready for intercourse. It says yishgalenah⁶³Deuteronomy 28:30. In Tibbon’s translation there is here a completely different text. in accordance with what has been written on it, and it means that ‘he will take the woman as a concubine.’”⁶⁴I have found this interpretation in Jonah ibn Ganach’s Sefer Hashorashim (under the root: shin, gimmel, lamed): “The most appropriate of the interpretations on it is that it is used in reference to a concubine.” Now there is no need for this reason [why Hebrew is called the Sacred Language], for it is clear that the Hebrew language is most holy, as I have explained. And the reason [Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon] mentioned is in my opinion not correct. The mere fact that [the masters of the Masorah] have circumscribed the word yishgalenah [to be read as] yishk’venah (he will lie with her), shows that the word mishgal is the term for sexual intercourse itself. Similarly the fact that they circumscribed the expression, to eat ‘et choreihem’⁶⁵II Kings 18:27. [to be read eth tzo’atam — “their dung”] shows that choreihem is an indecent term. And if the reason were indeed as the Rabbi [Moshe ben Maimon] has said, they should have called [the Hebrew language not “the Holy Language” but] “the modest langauge,” similarly to that which we have been taught [in a Mishnah]:⁶⁶Sanhedrin 68b. “until he grows a beard — the lower one and not the upper one [is meant], except that the Sages spoke in modest language.” The Rabbis have further said:⁶⁷Bereshith Rabbah 86:6. “Save the bread which he did eat,⁶⁸Genesis 39:6. — this is a refined expression [for it refers to his wife],” and so also in many places.
Now Scripture explained that the shekel is twenty gerahs, of silver. Onkelos translated gerahs as mo’ah, for the gerah was, in his opinion, a name for a coin which in Aramaic is called mo’ah. And so did Yonathan ben Uziel translate la’agorath keseph (a piece of silver):⁶⁹I Samuel 2:36. l’mo’ah d’chsaph (for a mo’ah of silver). So also did Onkelos translate after the shekel of holiness as sil’o, for such is the name of the [shekel] coin in Aramaic, and its measure is also known in the Talmud.
Rashi wrote:⁷⁰In Seder Mishpatim 21:32. “A shekel weighs four gold coins, making half an ounce according to the correct weight of Cologne.” Now when the Rabbi [Rashi] found it clearly written in the Gemara⁷¹Baba Metzia 34 b; Shebuoth 43a. that a [silver] sela [which is equivalent to the shekel] is four [silver] denars, he deduced [that a gold shekel is also equivalent to four gold denars], for the weight of the silver denars is as the weight of the gold denars. Thus he wrote in his commentary to the Gemara of Baba Kamma:⁷²Baba Kamma 36b. “A [silver] denar weighs as much as a gold [denar], and in Constantinople they even call the gold coin denar.” All this is correct. But as to the Rabbi’s estimation, that in terms of the gold coins found in his generation and in our generation the shekel is equivalent to half an ounce, as he mentioned — that is not so, for the kings of the peoples have lessened [the weight of] the gold coins. We find it already mentioned in the words of the author of Hilchoth Gedoloth⁷³See in Seder Mishpatim Note 70. and the first Gaonim,⁷⁴Following the close of the Talmud [in the year 500 of the Common Era] the recognized spiritual heads of Jewry were the heads of the Sura and Pumbeditha academies in Babylon. The recipients and interpreters of the traditions of the Rabbis of the Talmud, the Gaonim were active for over a period of five hundred years — during the height of the Moslem empires. that the denar mentioned throughout the Talmud is the denar shashdang,⁷⁵A small coin (Kohut, Aruch Hashalem). and it is so written in Tractate Kiddushin in the Halachoth (Laws) of our Rabbi [Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasi] who said that “[the zuz⁷⁶A zuz is the same as a denar (ibid., zuz). shashdang] is the gold denar of the Arabs.” Now according to these estimations found in the words [of the Hilchoth Gedoloth and the Halachoth of Alfasi], the denars of the Talmud were larger than the gold coins current in our times by almost a third, and the shekel weighed three fourths of an ounce according to the weight of that country [and not as Rashi wrote that the shekel weighed four gold coins, making half an ounce etc.], and that is “the ounce” that the Rabbi [Rashi], of blessed memory, mentioned.⁷⁷At this point see the Addendum which Ramban added to the end of his commentary after he arrived at Acco and found some ancient Hebrew coins which when he weighed them he found that the result corroberated Rashi’s explanation.
Know that the shekels [mentioned in] the Torah are these s’laim [mentioned in the Talmud], each sela being four denars. But the shekel mentioned in the words of the Sages — such as that which we have been taught in a Mishnah:⁷⁸Shebuoth 43a. [“if a man lent his fellow money on a pledge, and the pledge was lost, and the borrower said,] ‘You have lent me a shekel on it and it was worth a sela [and therefore you owe me two denars],’ or [the lender said,] ‘I lent you a sela on it and it was worth a shekel [and therefore you still owe me two denars]’” — [this shekel] is two denars, half of a sela. The reason for this [change in the meaning of the term shekel — the shekel of the Torah being four denars whilst the shekel of the Sages is two denars], is that the people called the half-s’laim [which were each two denars] “shekels,” since they used them every year to pay the [half-] shekel to the Sanctuary. And so it was adopted by the Sages in the style of the Mishnah. Therefore a man would say to his friend, “You have lent me a shekel,” that is, the “shekel” which Israelites give to the Sanctuary.⁷⁹Thus the shekel of the Torah is really four denars, but since the Torah enjoined the giving of a half-shekel, that half-shekel came to be called “shekel,” as that was the coin the people gave yearly to the Sanctuary, and hence the Sages adopted the usage of that term — so that when people say “shekel” they really mean a coin worth two denars. It is possible that in the time of the Second Sanctuary they actually made a silver coin of two denars, so that it should be available to be given to the Temple treasurer, and they would not have to give an allowance [for exchanging the full shekel of the Torah into two half-shekels]. That coin they called “shekel,” and the shekel of Moses which is the shekel of the Torah they called sela, as Onkelos translated it. Some scholars⁸⁰I have not identified them. say that the reason [they called the shekel of Moses sela] is because of what the Rabbis have said:⁸¹Bechoroth 5a. “The maneh⁸²The maneh is a weight equal to the sixtieth part of a talent. of the Sanctuary was double [as much as the common maneh],” and so also were all the coins. But this is not correct, for the [thirty] shekels that the owner of an ox who killed a slave must pay⁸³Above, 21:32. and the [fifty] shekels that the violator⁸⁴Deuteronomy 22:29. and seducer⁸⁵Above, 22:16. See Ramban here. must pay, were not connected with the Sanctuary.

זה יתנו, "This is what they shall give, etc." We are told in Tanchuma on this verse that G'd showed Moses a coin of fire situated beneath His throne. It appears strange that G'd did not rather inform Moses of the weight of the coin in question. This would have been easier to comprehend than a coin made of fire. Any image such as that described by the Midrash could at best have given Moses an approximation of the size of that coin.

TWENTY GEIRAH. It is a kind of coin.

מחצית השקל, “half of the coin known as ‘shekel.’” Nachmanides writes that in common with other important Kings, Moses designed a coin called “shekel” [from the word משקל, weight] to symbolize that it was of pure silver, without any dross. Seeing that this coin became the standard for the redeeming of the firstborn, all of whom were redeemed in terms of whole shekalim, the coin itself was called שקל הקודש, i.e. a silver coin used to redeem something holy. In Leviticus 27 we have a whole chapter dealing with the use of this coin in redeeming various kinds of vows made by man. Whenever the Torah speaks of definitive amounts of silver, the quantity referred to is expressed in terms of multiples of that coin. This also explains why the language in which the Torah has been written is called לשון הקודש, “the Holy Tongue,” seeing that so many subjects dealing with holiness and sanctity have been recorded in the Torah. This is also the language in which G’d communicated with the Jewish nation through His prophets. It is also the language in which His holy nation, when praying to Him utter His Holy name, the tetragram, the language He used when He created the universe and issued directives to His creatures. All the phenomena He created both in heaven and on earth were named in that language.

The likeness of a coin made of fire. . . [Rashi knows this] because it is written זה , implying that God hinted to Moshe [to look at] a certain object.

V. 13. זה יתנו, nicht mit der konkreten Summe seiner wirklichen Leistungen, sondern mit dem symbolischen Ausdruck seiner ihm bewussten Leistungsobliegenheit hat er Gott sich zu nahen in dem Augenblick, in welchem er עובר על הפקודים sein soll, in welchem er aus dem Kreis der Nichtgezählten "hinübergehen" soll in den Kreis der Gezählten. Es gibt keinen höheren Adel und auch kein höheres Seligkeitsbewusstsein, als zu den פקודי ד׳, zu den für Gott und von Gott Gezählten zu gehören, in dem unscheinbarsten Kreis der bescheidensten Lebensstellung mit dem verschwindendsten Moment des vergänglichsten Daseins eine Stelle einzunehmen in Gottes Register, mit zu zählen in Gottes Heer. Nur mit dem gelobenden Bewusstsein der vollen Leistung seiner Pflicht geht man über aus der bedeutungslosen Schaar der egoistischen Menge in den geadelten Kreis der von Gott Gezählten, in das beseligende Bewusstsein, von Gott gezählt zu werden.

מחצית השקל, “a coin worth half a shekel.” This was to atone for the half day they had been guilty of not doing something to destroy the golden calf, as explained in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 89. According to Rabbi Akiva there the word boshesh in Exodus 32,1 usually translated as “tarried,” can be read as בשש, “at six hours,” i.e. at midday Moses came down from the mountain. The coin known as shekel (a silver coin) is valued as twenty geyrah, (copper coins). They had been guilty of transgressing all of the Ten Commandments, as transgressing the prohibition of idolatry is equivalent to transgressing all of the commandments of the Torah. The Talmud in tractate Z’vachim, quotes the oldest kabbalistic text, Pirke de rabbi Eliezer, chapter 48, where Rabbi Yishmael describes the five “fingers” on G–d’s right hand, as all involved in the process of redemption. His smallest finger was used for that purpose when He said to Noach (Genesis 6,15) וזה אשר תעשה אותה, “and this is how you are to construct it” (the ark), which would save him and his family from the deluge. The second smallest finger was used by G–d at the redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt (Exodus 8,15) as the sorcerers of Pharaoh recognised when they described the third plague, the vermin, as אצבע אלוהים, “a finger of G–d.” G–d’s middle finger, known as amah, אמה, was used when G–d inscribed the text of the Ten Commandments on the Tablets (Exodus 31,1) i.e. והלוחות כתובים באצבע אלוהים, “and the Tablets had been inscribed by the finger of Gd.” G–d’s fourth finger, known as bohen, בהן, next to the thumb, was used when He showed Moses the new moon (Exodus 12,2) also using the word: זה, “this”; and the fifth finger of G–d’s right hand, known as gudal, גודל, was used by Him when showing Moses the half shekel coin of which our portion speaks here. Finally, G–d will use His entire hand when in the future He will wipe out the descendants of Ishmael and Edom, as prophesied by the prophet Micah 5,8: תרום ידך על צריך וכל אויביך יכרתו, “Your hand will prevail over all Your foes, and all Your enemies will be cut down.”

כל העובר על הפקודים, “everyone that passes as recorded in the census, etc.;” at the time when the census took place, the individuals being counted had to pass through a door leading outside. (Bechor shor)

העבר על הפקדים [EVERY ONE] THAT PASSETH AMONG THEM THAT ARE MUSTERED — Scripture uses the expression כל העבר על הפקדים instead of merely saying כל הפקדים because it is the practice of those who count animate beings to make these pass before them one after the other, counting them as they pass. Similar are: (Leviticus 27:32) “whatever passeth (יעבר) under the rod”; (Jeremiah 33:13) “the flock shall pass again (תעברנה) under the hands of him that counteth them”.

The weight of the shekel which I set aside for you. . . Rashi is answering the question: מחצית השקל בשקל הקודש seemingly implies they should bring a half-shekel, along with a whole shekel. But if so, Scripture should have written, “A shekel and a half”! Thus Rashi explains [that בשקל means]: “Based on the weight” of the sacred shekel.

Moreover, why was G'd interested in a half-shekel? He should have at least asked for a full shekel! Why did G'd forbid the wealthy to contribute more and the poor to contribute less than the half-shekel?

Der symbolische Ausdruck der Leistungsobliegenheit eines jeden ist aber מחצית השקל, die Hälfte eines Schekels. Objektiv wird auch die höchstvollendete Leistung des einzelnen nie das Ganze, nie ein Ganzes schaffen können, Bruchstück bleibt jedes Einzelwirken, es bedarf der gleich hingebungsvollen Hingebung des Bruders, um ein Ganzes herzustellen. Es wird auch von keinem einzelnen das Ganze gefordert, לא עליך המלאכה לגמור. Aber es sei ein Beitrag zum Ganzen, auf der Waage des Heiligtums gewogen: zwanzig Gera zählte der Schekel, und zehn, somit an sich, subjektiv, ein gerundetes Ganze, sei, was der einzelne leiste. Sein Ganzes sei es, gewissenhaft habe er es abgewogen; welch kleinen Bruchteil seine Leistung auch im Verhältnis zu dem zu schaffenden Ganzen bedeute, er habe nichts unterlassen, keine Kraft, keine Fähigkeit, kein Vermögen, die das Heil des Ganzen fördern könnte, habe er zurückgehalten, obgleich לא עליך המלאכה לגמור, so doch ולא אתה בן חורין להבטל ממנה (Aboth 11, 21). Sein halber Schekel wiege zehn Gera auf der Waage des Heiligtums.

מחצית השקל, the “half” shekel symbolised the fact that the dancing around the golden calf had occurred at midday. (Daat Zekeynim)

מחצית השקל בשקל הקדש THE HALF OF A SHEKEL AFTER THE SHEKEL OF HOLINESS – i. e. after the weight of the shekel which I have appointed for you as the standard by which to weigh the shekels used for sacred purposes, as, for instance, those shekels mentioned in the section dealing with estimating things dedicated to the Sanctuary and with “fields of possession” so dedicated (Leviticus ch. 27).

It now clarifies for you. . . I.e., the shekel was mentioned before, in parshas Mishpatim, but there Scripture did not clarify for us how much it is. And “it now clarifies for you how much it is.”

There are mystical elements involved in this legislation which are not evident to the average person. The Midrash alluded to this when it described the manner in which G'd explained the appearance, i.e. significance, of the coin in question. The very expression זה יתנו of which our verse speaks begs the question. G'd told Moses that the visible element in the legislation is secondary to the invisible element. This is why the coin described as being shown to Moses is presented as only an image, not as the real thing. We have mentioned several times that the Presence of G'd is usually referred to by our sages as the Throne of G'd's Glory. This "Throne" and its location are determined in large measure by the conduct of the Jewish people. The prophet Isaiah refers to this in Isaiah 50,1 when he describes G'd telling the Jewish people that not He had divorced them, but their iniquities had resulted in the alienation between them. Solomon uses a similar hyperbole in Proverbs 16,28 when he describes quarrel-someness as alienating one's friends. The alienation between Israel and its G'd resulted from the episode of the golden calf which affected the roots of all the Jewish souls. G'd therefore commanded that the people give a "half-shekel" to symbolise that their previous action had resulted in something whole having become divided. The contribution of this half-shekel was to repair the damage done to the whole through the people's participation in the sin of the golden calf. When G'd showed Moses the coin of fire as being immediately beneath the throne of G'd, He drew his attention to the mystical dimension of this legislation. Payment of a ransom is not merely a transaction in this material world, but has far-reaching effects in a spiritual domain. Performance of G'd's commandments is predicated on the participation of the heart of the performer in his deed, i.e. רחמנא לבא בעי. Every מצוה is meant to close a gap that may exist between man and G'd. This is why the Torah added the words את תרומת השם, the contribution restores one's closeness with G'd.

עשרים גרה השקל A SHEKEL IS TWENTY GERAHS — Having stated that it must be a holy shekel it now tells you exactly how much it is.

For an אגורה of silver. . . אגורה , too, means מעה .

We can now understand that if the wealthy person were allowed to contribute more, the whole purpose of the half-shekel would be denied. The same applies to the prohibition for the poor to contribute less than the half-shekel. The symbolic meaning of the "half" was paramount in drawing people's attention to what was to be accomplished. The Torah wanted to stress this element and that is why it first stressed the details about the amount. Ordinarily, the Torah should have spoken about a תרומה, a gift, a contribution, and only afterwards about the size of the contribution. The Torah changed its regular syntax in order to draw our attention to the primacy of the amount of the gift.

גרה in Hebrew denotes what is called a מעה, a coin of small value, in Aramaic. And in this sense we find it in the book of Samuel (I Samuel 2:36) “[every one that is left] shall come and crouch to him for a piece of (אגורת) silver and a morsel of bread” which the Targum renders by למעה דכסף.‎

תרומה לה', “an offering for G’d.” The expression תרומה, gift, heave-offering, occurs three times in this paragraph. The Torah wanted to remind us that there were in fact three distinct such gifts. The first gift was the contribution of the materials for building the Tabernacle. The second contribution was the half-shekel mentioned here; the third תרומה, contribution, was the money (shekel) for the public offerings on the altar in the Tabernacle. I have already mentioned the details of this in connection with 25,2.
The half-shekel mandatory contributions mentioned here were the ones from which the silver sockets containing the beams of the Tabernacle were constructed. Each socket was made of a whole talent of silver (38,27) so that between the 100 talents of silver contributed by 600,000 men over the age of 20 almost all of it was used up for these sockets, seeing each beam had two sockets and there were a total of 48 such beams. The pillars supporting the dividing curtain, four in number, also had one such socket each. Any overage, i.e. the shekels of the 3000 plus people over the number 600,000 was used to support the hangings of the curtains around the courtyard of the Tabernacle.

A whole shekel. . . Rashi is answering the question: First it is written מחצית השקל . Why then is it written עשרים גרה השקל , implying they should give a whole shekel? Rashi answers: “A whole shekel.” I.e., a whole one is twenty geirah, of which they give half, which is ten geirah.

If we are looking for a moral-ethical dimension in this paragraph we may find in it an answer to the age-old problem of why some outstandingly pious and valuable people die prematurely. At first glance such people appear to share the same fate as that of confirmed sinners to whom G'd does not grant a normal lifespan. When the average individual reflects on this phenomenon he is apt to arrive at one of two conclusions. 1) He will deny our system of reward and punishment and conclude that there is no point in living a life dedicated to the service of the Lord. 2) Or, if he is not daring enough to accuse his mentors of having misled him and of having taught him a set of illusory values, he will conclude that the person who died prematurely was a charlatan and that his "piety" was only make-believe so that G'd punished him by having him die early. The result of such an attitude is that one would deny anyone who died prematurely the good reputation he had established while alive. The Torah counters such thinking by saying: כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל, "when you elevate i.e. remove to a higher world, a leader of the Jewish community through premature death," לפקדיהם, "and he does not live a normal lifespan," then the reason is ונתנו איש כפר נפשם, that "the people who have now been deprived of the leadership provided by such a person have to pay for their sins by being deprived of the presence of the pious person in question." We have used the word לפקדיהם in the sense that the Torah used it in Numbers 31,49 when it means becoming a casualty. The idea of the leader serving as atonement for the multitude is taken from our sages' interpretation of Song of Songs 1,14: אשכול הכפר דודי לי, "the person who combines within him every virtue serves as atonement for me for my beloved (G'd)." The expression לפקדיהם may also be understood in accordance with the comment of Zohar Chadash on the words כל העובר על הפקדים in verse 13. The Zohar translates these words as: "anyone who transgresses the commandments, etc." This means that the reason for the premature absence (death) of these pious people we referred to are the sins of their contemporaries. Let no one draw negative conclusions about the character of people who die prematurely and have led an exemplary life as far as their contemporaries were able to judge.

עשרים גרה השקל A SHEKEL IS TWENTY GERAHS — For a full shekel is four zuz and a zuz was originally five meahs (consequently a shekel was twenty meahs or gerahs); only that they increased it (the zuz) by one sixth and so raised its value to six meahs of silver. Now THE HALF OF THIS (the original) SHEKEL of which I have spoken to you SHALL THEY GIVE AS A HEAVE OFFERING TO THE LORD.

One sixth was added. . . Rashi added this comment so we will not object: The verse says the shekel is twenty geirah, but really it should be twenty-four, for a whole shekel is four zuz, and a zuz is six מעה . Thus Rashi explains, “One sixth was added. . .”

G'd said that inasmuch as it is their contemporaries who have caused the premature death of such pious people, the ones they left behind have to pay a ransom for having been the root cause of this early death by the righteous. This is the meaning of ונתנו איש כפר נפשו. We find this concept spelled out in greater detail in Isaiah 57,2: כי מפני הרעה נאסף הצדיק, "the righteous has died because of the evil (sins)." This can mean that: a) the premature death of the righteous acts as a catalyst for the people whom he left behind to mend their ways, or, b) the righteous was removed from the earth before his time in order that he not share the retribution G'd will bring on his contemporaries. One of the ways in which the survivors express their repentance is the payment of the half-shekel as a ransom for their own sins.

The words: בפקוד אותם, mean that the process of repentance had to commence immediately, i.e. when they were being counted." In the event that they would be tardy in doing so, G'd threatened the people in question with the plague as punishment for their participation [even though passively, seeing the active participants had already been executed by either the Levites or by the hand of G'd. Ed.] It is an historic fact (according to Sanhedrin 113) that whenever pious people died prematurely in order to awaken the survivors to do Teshuvah, failure by the survivors to do so resulted in almost immediate mass retribution by G'd. The author cites occurrences in his own time as proof of this theory.

When the Torah commences with the words: זה יתנו, this introduces the manner in which atonement is to be achieved. The word זה is a veiled reference to the Torah scroll which is described as זה in Joshua 1,8: לא ימוש ספר התורה הזה מפיך. Our sages also say that just as the Torah commanded the king to always have a Torah scroll with him (Deut. 17,19), so G'd Himself always has a Torah scroll in front of Him. This is the mystical dimension of G'd pointing with a finger and saying to Moses: "This is what they are to give!" G'd must have referred to something which lies in front of Him all the time, seeing He did not define the "This" further. The message is that the atonement will accrue to the people to be counted by means of their immersing themselves in the study of the Torah and in the performance of the commandments which are written therein. According to Menachot 110 Torah study protects a person, assures him of atonement for his sins, and it is the single most potent factor in amassing merits in this world. It is an effective antidote against punishment even if the person studying Torah had been guilty of many sins previously. The Talmud there interprets the verse in Leviticus 7,37: זאת התורה לעולה, למנחה, ולחטאת ולאשם to mean that if one concentrates on the study of Torah this is equivalent to one's having offered all the kinds of sacrifices listed in this verse in order to achieve atonement. The relationship of זה and כל העובר על הפקדים is that anyone who has violated the orders (of G'd) will be able to rehabilitate himself by means of the Torah. The words כל העובר על הפקדים may also be read as belonging to what follows, i.e. that they should contribute a half-shekel each. Seeing that not everyone is capable of "immersing" himself in Torah, we have here an allusion to the traditional partnership of Zevulun and Yissachar, the former supplying the latter with the financial means to enable him to devote himself to Torah without the need to worry about making a livelihood (compare Sotah 21 on the subject). There are many people nowadays who allocate half of their money (חצי שקל) for the scholars who toil studying Torah.

The words בשקל הקודש may be translated as "for the sake of the holy shekel, i.e. Torah." Alternatively, the meaning could be that people who contribute of their money to enable scholars to study undisturbed thereby acquire a merit similar to those who do the studying. Perhaps this is what Solomon referred to in Kohelet 7,12 כי בצל החכמה בצל הכסף, "for to sit in the shelter of wisdom is to sit in the shelter of money." Were it not for the money supplied by generous donors the scholar could not afford to sit in the academy and study Torah. Concerning the "holy shekel" and the misleading term בקע לגלגלת, we are taught in Bechorot 5 that the holy shekel comprised twice the weight of silver in an ordinary shekel. There is a profound moral significance in this dual use of the word shekel. If a scholar who is subsidised by a layman should feel that inasmuch as he "shares" the merit of his Torah study with the donor he does so at the cost of "losing" part of the merit accumulated by his study, and both of them would wind up with only "half a shekel's worth of merit," this is not so. Inasmuch as the "holy shekel" is worth twice what an ordinary shekel is worth, both parties individually enjoy the full merit due to their respective input.

When the Torah describes a full shekel as consisting of 20 geyrah, this is an allusion to the two units of ten [the standard symbol for anything holy, as the author has mentioned on occasion, Ed.] which together form the concept of שכינה, the Presence of G'd, i.e. His throne and His sitting on it in His capacity as King of Kings. These two units are intended to fuse, just as the ideal personality of a human being is achieved through his studying Torah on the one hand and his practicing its precepts on the other. The combination of these two factors leads to the ideal possible. When the Torah emphasises מחצית השקל תרומה לה׳, this is an allusion to the damage caused to the union of G'd and His throne through the sin of the golden calf the Israelites had become guilty of. This damage can be repaired only through Torah study and performance of its precepts. Even when two people combined in fulfilling these two requirements, each one will receive the reward for having fulfilled both parts of the commandment as we already pointed out in connection with the respective roles of Zevulun and Yissachar.

העשיר לא ירבה means that he who donates his half-shekel in this world should not view himself as having made a substantial donation, begrudging it, and thereby reducing its moral value. On the other hand, והדל לא ימעיט means that a person should not use the excuse of his poverty to refrain from making his fair contribution. In both instances the consideration that must be uppermost in the heart of either the wealthy or the poor is לתת תרומת ה׳ לכפר על נפשותיכם, that this relatively insignificant gift to G'd counts as a ransom payment and atones for the capital sin committed during the episode of the golden calf. Considering that we have it on the authority of Satan in Job 2,4 that man willingly sacrifices all his material possessions in order to save his life, the amount G'd demanded is very paltry indeed.

The Torah stipulates that the minimum age at which a person had to make this half-shekel contribution was from twenty years and up. The Torah revealed a secret here when it did not demand that males from the age of 13 and up had to make this contribution. Seeing that males are considered as adults from the age of 13, why would teenagers not have been liable for this ransom? They also had participated in the golden calf episode! The Torah told us here that a person's personality (נפש) has not matured until age 20 as he has not had time to absorb and comprehend the various spiritual components which make up a true Israelite until he has reached that age. This is the mystical dimension of Psalms 2,7: "You are My son, I have fathered you this day." Compare what the Zohar Mishpatim 98 has to say on that verse. [The Zohar on Exodus 21,9 writes that man is called בן from the age of 13, and בן להקב׳ה from the age of 20. Ed.] There is a sound reason why man should not be liable to punishment at the hands of heaven until he has reached that age, seeing that he has not yet matured emotionally and intellectually. Such maturity is essential to enable us to successfully battle the evil urge and to appreciate G'd's message to man. By the time man has reached the age of 20 he is considered as fully equipped to cope with all kinds of temptations.