Parshas Shekalim 5786 "This they shall give, half a shekel" - Giving over the ten powers of the soul to Hashem

00:00 One of the sons of the Tzemach Tzedek was Reb Yosef Yitzchak. Reb Yosef Yitzchak was the Rebbe of Ovrutch. He married the daughter of Reb Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas. It was all within the family: they were descendants of the Rebbe of Chernobyl. Reb Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas was a son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe, and later lived in Cherkas, which was associated with Chernobyl. His daughter married Reb Yosef Yitzchak of Ovrutch, one of the sons of the Tzemach Tzedek. Reb Yosef Yitzchak later remained in Ovrutch and was one of the tzaddikim, one of the rebbes of Chernobyl. He was the Frierdiker Rebbe’s grandfather. Reb Yosef Yitzchak of Ovrutch’s daughter was Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, who married the Rebbe Rashab, and the Frierdiker Rebbe was named Yosef Yitzchak after the Rebbe of Ovrutch. There is a story the Rebbe told several times: When the wedding of Reb Yosef Yitzchak of Ovrutch to the daughter of the Rebbe of Cherkas took place, the Rebbe of Cherkas knew that in Lubavitch they davened at length. So one of the conditions he set for his son-in-law, the groom Reb Yosef Yitzchak, son of the Tzemach Tzedek, was that he daven with the congregation. And he

01:55 said, “Yes, he should daven with the congregation.” Well, the wedding took place there in Cherkas, and then came the Shabbos of sheva brachos. They went to daven, the minyan finished davening and was already about to make Kiddush, but the groom still was not ready. He was still davening. They waited a little longer and saw that it was going to take time. Meanwhile, they began Kiddush, and the groom went on davening and davening, arriving very late. Naturally, his father-in-law was not at all pleased and complained that he was not davening with the congregation. When the groom, Reb Yosef Yitzchak, arrived, his father-in-law asked what had happened and reminded him that he had undertaken to daven with the congregation. The Rebbe of Ovrutch said that he had heard from his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, what davening with a congregation means among chassidim. What does davening with a congregation mean? A congregation is a minyan of ten. We need to gather a congregation together—to gather the soul’s ten faculties and daven with them. That is what davening with a congregation is about. And gathering the soul’s ten faculties and davening with them takes time; it takes a great deal of time. So it is davening at length, but that does not mean he is not davening with a congregation. He is davening with a congregation, only it is the congregation he learned about from his father: a congregation means the soul’s ten faculties. And the Rebbe tells this story several

03:39 times, also to show what davening with a congregation means in the way of Chassidus: the congregation refers to the soul’s ten faculties. And we find this idea of ten on this Shabbos, Shabbos Parshas Shekalim. In Parshas Shekalim, the Torah says that when [unclear], “everyone who passes among those counted” is to give a half-shekel, and we need to give a half-shekel. The Torah also says that “the shekel is twenty gerah.” Every shekel is twenty gerah, so a half-shekel is ten gerah. [unclear] What is the significance of these numbers? [unclear] The half-shekel. [unclear] “The sacred shekel” is twenty gerah, so half of twenty is ten gerah. [unclear] In the plain sense. [unclear] But it is also ten gerah. [unclear] The half-shekel. What is this? And this is [unclear]. First [unclear]. The half-shekel. [unclear] The shekel is twenty gerah, and half is ten. That is its plain meaning. [unclear] The half-shekel represents the general and central principle in the service of a Jew. What is the half-shekel? [unclear] It is [unclear]. [unclear] The matters of the half-shekel. [unclear] About this congregation. [unclear] The mitzvah [unclear] the half-shekel. [unclear] Receiving the congregation.

05:32 Throughout the discourse, what is the half-shekel about? It is about atonement: “to atone for your souls.” The general, central subject of the parsha that says, “When you take a census of the Children of Israel,” is the half-shekel. This is the meaning of “when you take”: raising up the heads of the Children of Israel. This is the secret explained concerning the half-shekel. It is the overall pattern of a Jew’s service of Hashem. And this is where the meaning of the half-shekel lies. It tells the whole story of the [unclear] between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is why it is called a half-shekel: there is the whole shekel and the half-shekel. It is explained that the Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are two halves—the Jew is one half, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the other—and together they become a whole shekel, one single entity. This is explained through a teaching of the Maggid. What does the Maggid say? He explains the verse, “Make for yourself two silver trumpets.” The Maggid says that the word for “trumpets,” chatzotzeros, can be read as chatza’ei tzuros, “half-forms.” That is the idea of the half-forms: the Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the two halves, together become something whole. He explains that the Jew, the human being, is incomplete. He is half of something, and together they become whole. As the Rebbe explains, this is the meaning of adam, “man”: this is the secret of adam. Adam is alef-dam. The alef alludes to the Master of the World, while dam alludes to the human being, who is flesh and blood. And dam is an acronym for dibbur and maaseh, speech and action. When a Jew davens, through the service of

07:36 davening, the alef is added to dam. On the verse “You shall not eat over the blood,” the Gemara says: “Do not eat before you have prayed for your blood.” In other words, before davening a person is dam, blood. He is dam; the alef is missing. There is only blood. There is a soul, flesh and blood, the person’s material, physical vitality. “His soul is in his nostrils, for what is he worth?”—do not read it as “what,” but as “a beast.” When it remains on the outside, the soul is only “in his nostrils,” and then “what is he worth?”—he is a beast, a beast with a sense of self and independent existence, because the G-dly soul has not yet penetrated his physical being. At that point, the person is in a state of dam, and before davening the verse says “over the blood.” [unclear] For the person cannot yet elevate his eating; on the contrary, eating will drag him down. Then comes the next stage: in davening, the person connects to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and cleaves to Him, and thus becomes adam—alef-dam. The person and Hakadosh Boruch Hu become one. Then it is something whole. That is what is meant by the half-shekel: the Jew, with his [unclear], is one half, and above there is another half. Together they form the whole shekel. Through davening, the Jew cleaves to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And this is why we speak of twenty gerah. What are the twenty gerah? Chassidus explains that they are

09:24 the soul’s ten faculties, which a person must reveal by devoting himself [unclear] Hashem, so that [unclear] Hashem shines within him. In this way, he reveals his ten gerah. Above, there are also ten sefiros—the ten sefiros above. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya that the soul’s ten faculties are derived from the ten sefiros above, from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The mitzvah, the Torah, tells us that a Jew reveals and gives his ten gerah, doing so with the feeling and understanding that all his service is only half: I am only half of something, and everything I do is only half, because I must wait to be given something from above—for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to give me the half from above, the ten sefiros above. That is why the Torah says, “This they shall give: a half-shekel.” The Jew must give his half, recognize that he is only a half, and devote himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How does this find expression? By giving the ten faculties of his soul through his service, through his davening. He gives his [unclear]. And through this, he is given from above the ten sefiros above, the ten gerah from above. Thus the whole shekel is formed: something whole, one single entity, a sacred shekel. The holiness

10:52 of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is drawn to him, and it becomes one holiness, one single entity. Through this comes “to atone for your souls”—atonement from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is also the meaning of “when you take a census of the Children of Israel.” Chassidus explains “when you take a census of the Children of Israel” this way: one must take the head, meaning faith, and bring that faith inward. [unclear] Faith, because faith is something a Jew has by the nature of his soul, something we inherited from our forefathers, from Avraham Avinu. But faith can remain on a level that surrounds a person. A person can have faith, yet it can remain hidden. As the Gemara says, [unclear]. He learns Torah and believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and nevertheless holds on to his sense of self. For example, when he comes up with a novel Torah insight, he feels his own importance because he came up with that insight, and it becomes a source of ego and pride. How does this show itself? He has no time to see to his own davening with the congregation, to daven regularly, with everything that entails, because he is preoccupied with his sense of self. That is how it can be in Torah study. And among businesspeople, a person knows that Hakadosh Boruch Hu provides all these things, yet when he succeeds in earning a living, for example, he thinks, “My strength and the might of my hand have brought me this wealth.” This is where Moshe Rabbeinu’s role comes in. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to him: You, Moshe, “when you take”

12:13 “The head of the Children of Israel.” This is accomplished through the work of prayer—that is, by contemplating G-dliness. Moshe Rabbeinu is the faithful shepherd, the one who teaches understanding. He is the one who grants the faculty of daas. Moshe Rabbeinu, the level of ruach and neshamah, the level of daas, is the faithful shepherd. He brings faith inward, so that it finds expression in a detailed knowledge of G-dly matters—in the intellect, the emotions, and thought, speech, and action. And because he is the head of the Children of Israel, he elevates faith and reveals its source, which is rooted even higher. That is why faith can enter into a detailed understanding rather than remain an encompassing influence. What was encompassing descends inward and permeates all ten powers of the soul. This is the meaning of communal prayer: one must gather all ten powers of the soul during prayer. When we gather those ten powers, contemplate the greatness of Hashem, and take in the light that Hashem shines upon us, we devote all ten powers of the soul. This draws down something further from Above, and a person is granted what he cannot attain on his own. Chassidus explains that there is what a person accomplishes through his own service, according to reason and understanding—as much as he can grasp of Hashem with his intellect and his own faculties. Then he is granted something more from Above: love and awe, the bond with Hashem. This is the whole concept of going beyond reason and understanding: the power of mesirus nefesh, a love beyond reason and understanding, which he cannot

13:49 attain through his own efforts. When the ten powers below are devoted to this work, the ten powers Above are drawn down: first, love based on reason and understanding, and then love beyond reason and understanding. The same applies to serving Hashem with joy. Chassidus explains that joy has two levels. There is joy that comes from contemplating Hashem’s greatness: a person becomes joyful—“Serve Hashem with joy”—because he sees that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is good and that engaging in His service is worthwhile and sweet. “Taste and see that Hashem is good”—there is pleasure in serving Hashem. All of this is service with joy based on reason and understanding. Through it, a joy is drawn down from Above, a joy beyond measure and limitation. When Shabbos Mevarchim for the month of Adar arrives, and “when Adar begins, we increase in joy,” we receive the strength: by devoting our ten powers, we are granted the ten powers from Above. A person offers his joy, his love, and his service—as much as he can achieve on his own. That is one half, the half-shekel, and from it comes a whole shekel, something complete. Yes, it becomes something complete. This is the power of the faithful shepherd, Moshe Rabbeinu—and, in plain terms, of the Moshe in every generation. Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Moshe Rabbeinu that every year, when Parshas Shekalim is read, it is

15:24 as though you are standing there and raising the heads of the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu brings the work of the head, the powers of the head, into action by drawing faith inward. This brings about the whole shekel, the service of Hashem in its fullest perfection: each one is a half, half a form, and together they become one whole being. In this way we enter the month of Adar and fulfill “when Adar begins, we increase in joy.” May it be a joyful month of Adar, and may we merit the true joy, the joy of the true and complete Geulah: “Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.”