תְּקֵ֑ל תְּקִ֥ילְתָּה בְמֹֽאזַנְיָ֖א וְהִשְׁתְּכַ֥חַתְּ חַסִּֽיר׃
데겔은 왕이 저울에 달려서 부족함이 뵈었다 함이요
Rabbeinu Bahya
A kabbalistic approach: The mystical dimension of the atonement by means of a “half” shekel was to parallel the attempt to divide between what the people had seen (i.e. the fire), and what they had heard (the thunder and G’d’s voice) at Mount Sinai. The sin of the golden calf was that they related incorrectly to the two phenomena they had seen at Mount Sinai. [Remember the Torah spoke of the people having “seen” sounds, Ed.] The root of the sin at the golden calf episode was doubting or undermining the Unity of G’d, His indivisible nature, in spite of the manifold ways in which He manifested Himself. Seeing that the sin involved one of the TEN commandments it was appropriate that the act of atonement would be performed by a coin worth TEN geyrah, by a half-shekel and not by a whole shekel even if it had the same weight as this half-shekel. The reason that the silver for the shekel was also described as בקע, “valley,” was that they had made a bottom of the head and a head out of a bottom when they became guilty of idolatry. [According to Torat Chayim, quoted by Rabbi Chavell, the words “making a head of the end and an end of the head,” refer to reversing the meaning of the letters of the attributes of G’d in His tetragrammaton. By committing idolatry the final letter ה in the tetragrammaton had been treated as separate, treated entirely out of context in which it had been when spelled correctly. Ed.]
As a result of such considerations, the silver given for this census was used to construct the sockets (bottom) of the walls (upright beams) of the Tabernacle in order to serve as an ongoing warning how the people had committed a theological reversal in worshipping the golden calf, or considering it as a symbol of the attribute of G’d which had taken them out of Egypt (compare what we have written on Exodus 38,28). Seeing that the Israelites were “weighed” in terms of the “sacred shekel,” they were found wanting. This is perhaps best illustrated by a verse in Daniel 5,27: תקל תקלתא במאזניא והשתכחת חסיר, “you were weighed in the scales and found wanting.” (the meaning of the writing on the wall in Belshazzar’s palace). Seeing the sin committed by the Israelites at the golden calf episode had been so grievous an error, they were required to give this sacred half-shekel to G’d in atonement for their souls.
As a result of such considerations, the silver given for this census was used to construct the sockets (bottom) of the walls (upright beams) of the Tabernacle in order to serve as an ongoing warning how the people had committed a theological reversal in worshipping the golden calf, or considering it as a symbol of the attribute of G’d which had taken them out of Egypt (compare what we have written on Exodus 38,28). Seeing that the Israelites were “weighed” in terms of the “sacred shekel,” they were found wanting. This is perhaps best illustrated by a verse in Daniel 5,27: תקל תקלתא במאזניא והשתכחת חסיר, “you were weighed in the scales and found wanting.” (the meaning of the writing on the wall in Belshazzar’s palace). Seeing the sin committed by the Israelites at the golden calf episode had been so grievous an error, they were required to give this sacred half-shekel to G’d in atonement for their souls.