The Fire Hidden Within Every Jew - The Secret of the Half-Shekel in Light of Chassidus

00:00 Listen to a wonderful Midrash on Parshas Shekalim. The Midrash says, in Midrash Tanchuma on Parshas Ki Sisa, that Moshe Rabbeinu said to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: What will happen after I pass away? Will people remember me? Hakadosh Boruch Hu answered him: By your life, just as you now stand in Parshas Shekalim and lift up the heads of the Jewish people—“When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel”—so too, every year, when the Jewish people read Parshas Ki Sisa in the Torah, you will be there as well, and you will lift up the heads of the Jewish people. The Midrash derives this from the verse “When you lift up.” It does not say “Lift up the heads of the children of Israel,” referring to a single action. It says “When you lift up,” meaning that this will happen every year. When we read Parshas Shekalim, Moshe Rabbeinu lifts up the heads of the Jewish people. At first glance, this Midrash is puzzling. What happened specifically with Parshas Shekalim that made Moshe Rabbeinu suddenly wonder, “What will happen to me? Will people remember me?” And what exactly does Hakadosh Boruch Hu answer him? What does it mean to lift up their heads? What does “When you lift up the heads” mean? What are we talking about here? At first glance, the mitzvah in this week’s parsha, Parshas Shekalim, is the mitzvah of the half-shekel. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu that the Jewish people must bring a half-shekel. The half-shekel was used for the communal offerings that had to be brought, and there was also the half-shekel they brought at that time for the sockets, the foundations of the Mishkan. That is what this is about. So why does it say, “When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel”? What do those words mean? And what does it mean that Moshe Rabbeinu lifts up their heads? Why is it specifically in this parsha that Moshe Rabbeinu wonders what

02:09 will happen to him, and whether people will remember him? So today we will talk about the deeper meaning of the half-shekel and try to understand the root of the matter. What is really so important, so remarkable, so special about this mitzvah? So much so that it is a Jewish custom to give a half-shekel, especially at this time, as we enter the month of Adar. We have the halachah concerning the four special Torah readings: on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar, we begin by reading Parshas Shekalim. Why? Because in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, this was when they would carry out this mitzvah. As the Mishnah in tractate Shekalim says, “On the first of Adar, announcements are made concerning the shekalim.” In other words, from Rosh Chodesh Adar they would begin encouraging people to fulfill the mitzvah of the half-shekel. During Adar, Jews would bring their half-shekel to the Beis Hamikdash, and the communal offerings for the entire year would then be purchased with that money. And we know that there is a special connection between the mitzvah of the half-shekel and this time of year, beyond the simple fact that this was when the half-shekel had to be brought. It is also connected to the time of Purim. That is why the custom, as also recorded in halachah, is to give a half-shekel on the eve of Purim. The reason for this is also given in the Midrash. When Haman came with ten thousand talents of silver to bring about the terrible decree with which he wanted to “destroy, kill, and annihilate” all the Jews, Hakadosh Boruch Hu answered him, as the Gemara in tractate Megillah says, “Their shekalim have already preceded your shekalim.” In other words, because the Jewish people had already fulfilled the mitzvah of the half-shekel, that had, so to speak, come first and nullified the power of the silver Haman gave for

04:15 the decree. That Midrash also needs to be understood. It shows us that there is a special connection to this time of year, but here too we need to understand what this exchange about the shekalim really meant. Haman comes and wants to persuade Achashverosh to sign the terrible decree to destroy the entire Jewish people in one day. What does he bring him? Ten thousand talents of silver. Through that money, he wants to show that he has the power to decree against the Jewish people. And what is the answer? That the half-shekel the Jewish people bring had already come first and broken that power. What is it about the half-shekel the Jewish people bring that breaks the power of Haman, who wants to destroy them? What is its connection to the story of Purim? We will try to understand all of this in today’s class. Now, when we speak about “When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel,” it is a very interesting expression. The passage is talking about a count, about taking a census. Why does it say, “When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel”? Based on the Midrashim, Chassidus explains that “when you lift up” also means to raise someone’s head, to elevate it. “When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu: Your task is to lift up the heads of the Jewish people, to elevate their heads. What does it mean to elevate their heads? When we speak about the head of the Jewish people, we do not mean only the physical head. We also mean the spiritual head. The Alter Rebbe explains that the head refers to the power of faith. A Jew’s faith in Hakadosh Boruch Hu is, in fact, the Jew’s head. If we look at the word Yisroel, our name as the Jewish people, the children of Israel, its Hebrew letters can be read as “li rosh”—“I have a head.” In other words, at the very core of a Jew is this quality of “li rosh.” A Jew’s head is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the power of faith that every Jew possesses, which we inherited from our forefathers. Avraham Avinu was the first of the believers. Every Jew is called a believer descended from believers. We have faith; we have already inherited it. So what was Hakadosh Boruch Hu telling Moshe when He said, “When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel”? Don’t we already have faith? What exactly do we need Moshe to lift up? If we look at what happened, at the point in history we are discussing, we will understand what this is about. The mitzvah of “When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel,” as the Midrashim tell us and Rashi cites, was “to atone for your souls,” as the verse says, in connection with the sin of the Golden Calf. The Jewish people had committed the most severe sin. Forty days after receiving the Torah, they stumbled into an extremely grave sin, one connected with idol worship and with attributing divine power to something else. They asked for the calf. After the sin of the Golden Calf—such a grave sin, for which Moshe Rabbeinu had to struggle and work so hard to bring about Hashem’s forgiveness of the Jewish people—a rectification was needed. And the half-shekel was “to atone for your souls.” It came to atone for that terrible sin. Here the well-known question arises: How could a half-shekel atone for such a grave sin? As we said, the sin of the Golden Calf was a sin involving faith. The Jewish people’s faith had been damaged. There was a deficiency in their faith. The Hebrew word for “sin” also connotes a deficiency. The Jewish people stumbled into the terrible sin of idol worship forty days after

06:13 The Jewish people, the children of Israel—Yisroel can be read as the letters of “li rosh,” “a head for Me.” In other words, in his very essence, a Jew has this quality of “a head for Me.” A Jew’s head is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the power of faith that every Jew has, which we inherited from our forefathers. Avraham Avinu was the first of the believers. Every Jew is called a “believer, the child of believers.” We have faith; we already received it as an inheritance. So what, then, did Hakadosh Boruch Hu mean when He told Moshe, “When you raise up the heads of the children of Israel”? If we already have faith, what exactly do we need Moshe to raise up? If we look at the history—what happened, and what period we’re talking about—we’ll understand what this means. After all, the commandment to “raise up the heads of the children of Israel,” as the Midrashim tell us and Rashi cites, was “to atone for your souls,” as the verse says, in connection with the sin of the Golden Calf. The Jewish people had committed the gravest of sins. Forty days after receiving the Torah, they stumbled in an extremely grave sin, one involving idol worship and associating another power with Hashem. They asked for the calf. And after the sin of the Golden Calf, which was so grave that Moshe Rabbeinu had to struggle and make an enormous effort for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to say, “I have forgiven, as you have spoken,” and forgive the Jewish people, a remedy was needed. The half-shekel was given “to atone for your souls.” The shekel came to atone for this terrible sin. And here the well-known question arises: How could a half-shekel atone for such a grave sin? The sin of the Golden Calf, as we said, was a sin against faith. The faith of the Jewish people was broken here. There was a deficiency in their faith—the Hebrew word for “sin” also means a deficiency. The Jewish people stumbled into the terrible sin of idol worship forty days after

08:18 they had seen the revelation of the Shechinah at the Giving of the Torah. They had no room for doubt anymore. They had witnessed the revelation of “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” They had heard directly from the Almighty, “I am” and “You shall have no other gods.” Nevertheless, forty days later they stumbled into the sin of the Golden Calf. A rectification was needed. What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu say? The half-shekel will atone for this terrible sin. Tosafos asks this question. In tractate Chullin, on page 42, Tosafos cites the Yerushalmi. The Yerushalmi says that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Moshe Rabbeinu that the Jewish people had to bring a ransom for their souls, Moshe Rabbeinu was puzzled. He wondered: How can this atone for their souls? He asked: How exactly is a half-shekel going to bring atonement? He had difficulty understanding the half-shekel. Tosafos explains that Moshe Rabbeinu’s difficulty was not in understanding what a half-shekel was. A half-shekel is a coin. The Midrashim tell us of several things Moshe had difficulty understanding: the Menorah and other things. In those cases, you could say that there are simply so many details and fine points that it is hard to understand how to make them. They can also be explained on a simple level. But what is so complicated about a half-shekel? It is half a shekel. Here, though, Tosafos tells us that the question is much deeper. Moshe Rabbeinu wondered, Tosafos says: How can a half-shekel bring atonement for a person’s soul? The deeper question is that, as we said, we are talking about a sin—and not just any sin, but one that struck at the essence of a Jew, that damaged faith, a Jew’s essential bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the question is: How can you atone for that with a half-shekel? What is the answer to that

10:26 The Midrash? Hakadosh Boruch Hu took out a coin of fire from beneath the Throne of Glory and said to Moshe Rabbeinu, “This is what they shall give—one like this.” Wonderful! But what is the question here? What is this coin of fire? What does it mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took a coin of fire from beneath the Throne of Glory and told him, “One like this they shall give”? How does that answer the question? Moshe Rabbeinu asks a simple question: How can half a shekel given to charity, for the offerings, for the Mishkan, for the Beis Hamikdash, atone for your souls? These are two utterly different things. They don’t seem to connect at all. And what is the answer? He took out a coin of fire from beneath the Throne of Glory and said, “One like this they shall give.” What does that explain? And how does all this connect to “When you raise the heads of the Children of Israel”—elevating the heads of the Jewish people, elevating their faith? Here the Baal Shem Tov offers a teaching. He explains it with a parable. Once there was a father who wanted his son to learn a trade so he could earn a living. He sent him to a skilled silversmith and goldsmith to learn how to work with silver and gold and make objects from them. The son went to this expert and spent a long time with him. The craftsman showed him how to take a piece of raw silver or gold and work it, using the most delicate tools: cutting here, rubbing there, working on this part and that, until suddenly a raw piece of metal became a beautiful piece of jewelry or a finely made object. He taught him the entire craft. The boy learned

12:45 all the rules and all the techniques. He learned very well and then came home. His father gave him a piece of silver, the tools he needed, and a table—everything, down to the last detail, that he needed to begin working. The boy tried, but nothing worked. He couldn’t cut it or rub it down; he couldn’t make anything, not even a single groove. What was going on? It turned out that he had forgotten to learn one very simple thing. The craftsman kept a fire burning beneath his table. It heated the material lying on top, and when the material was hot, it became softer. Then it was easy to cut it, rub it down, make grooves, shape it, and turn it into an object. But without a fire, you may have everything else, yet you’re missing the fire beneath the table. No one had lit it for him. The craftsman had forgotten to tell him that one detail—a seemingly minor detail that was actually the essential part of the whole process. So the poor boy worked and worked but couldn’t make anything. What had he forgotten? One small detail: you have to light a fire for it all to work. The Baal Shem Tov says that this is what Tosafos is trying to explain. What was the exchange between Moshe Rabbeinu and Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Moshe Rabbeinu asks: How can You tell a Jew to bring a silver coin, a piece of silver, “to atone for your souls”? How can that atone for souls harmed by such a grave sin—a sin involving faith? And what does Hakadosh Boruch Hu answer him? A coin of fire.

14:51 It isn’t the material itself that does it. It has to have fire in it. When a Jew gives a coin to charity, there is a Divine fire within the Jew who gives it: the fire of the soul, its passion, its vitality. The deed itself can be very small, and that is the wonderful message of the passage about the half-shekel. There must be a deed, because we live in a world of action. Our world is a world of deeds. But it can be the smallest deed, a simple act: giving a half-shekel. When that half-shekel is a coin of fire—when the Divine fire in the soul joins with the deed—then that coin of fire is a ransom for the soul. This is where the extraordinary power of a Jew’s faith in Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed. That, says the Baal Shem Tov, is the deeper meaning of the Midrash. We need to understand a little more, to work out what the message really is. At first glance, it seems very simple: of course, a Jew has passion, and that passion is what matters. No. Two things are being said here. On the one hand, there must be a coin; on the other, it must be a coin of fire. And the Midrash teaches us that Hakadosh Boruch Hu took the coin of fire from beneath the Throne of Glory. What does it tell us that the coin of fire comes from there? It helps us understand the power a Jew possesses. As is known, the Midrash says that the souls of the Jewish people are hewn from beneath the Throne of Glory. A Jew’s soul is “literally a part of G-d above,” as the Alter Rebbe teaches us in Tanya. What is special about the Jewish soul’s connection to the Throne of Glory? What does the Throne of Glory represent? On one level, it is the place, the throne, the realm of the throne, where Hakadosh Boruch Hu sits. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the King of kings, sits

17:09 upon His Throne of Glory. Of course, when we speak of a throne in relation to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, we mean something spiritual. What does the idea of a throne tell us? When a king sits upon his throne, so to speak, he brings himself down and takes his seat in order to govern his people. The king himself is utterly exalted. He is set apart, removed, holy, elevated. And when we speak of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the King of kings, He is certainly above everything. But He wants to bestow goodness, kindness, and bounty upon the world. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, sits upon the throne, the Throne of Mercy. From His seat upon His royal throne comes everything He bestows. In other words, the throne is the point of connection between the king and his kingdom, between the king and his people. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Throne of Glory is the connection between Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, so to speak, and the world. Through it, He provides for all creation and gives of His great goodness, with grace, kindness, and mercy. The souls of the Jewish people are engraved beneath the Throne of Glory. This tells us that the Jewish people, the souls of the Jewish people, have this extraordinary connection and this extraordinary power. The soul is literally a part of G-d above. The Alter Rebbe said: What does “literally a part of G-d above” mean? On the one hand, it is a part of G-d; on the other, it is “literally”—something tangible, here below in the physical world. Only the Divine soul has the power to join this physical world with Divine light. Only a Jew has the ability, here in this physical world, to connect the highest thing—a part of G-d above—with the most physical thing: the body and the animal soul. That is why it is a coin of fire from beneath the Throne of Glory.

19:14 A Jew has a special power, and it is revealed through the half-shekel: a Jew can take a physical coin, money that could be used to buy all sorts of things a person wants to enjoy in life, material things, and give that money to the Beis Hamikdash. He gives it to tzedakah, to a holy purpose. He turns the coin into fire. He brings his faith in G-d, the actual part of G-d above within him, into the tangible, material reality of this world. That connection is what brings atonement for his soul. It reveals the inner essence of a Jew: that a Jew is never separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And that is the message of the mitzvah of the half-shekel. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu, “When you raise up the heads of the Children of Israel.” The Children of Israel need to be raised up. They have faith. As we said, that faith is part of a Jew’s nature, part of his very essence. Every one of us inherited it from Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov—the G-dly soul. As the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, “The patriarchs are the chariot.” The patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, passed on to their descendants, to every Jew, the capacity for love, for faith, and for self-sacrifice that every Jew possesses by nature. That is why Jews are believers, the children of believers, by nature. They do not need proofs or arguments or explanations. A Jew is inherently connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But sometimes that faith is covered over. It can remain deep, deep inside without being visible, and in his actions he can behave contrary to his faith, as happened with the sin of the Golden Calf. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu:

21:21 You, Moshe Rabbeinu, have this power. Moshe Rabbeinu is the one addressed by “When you raise up.” You lift them up. We know Moshe Rabbeinu’s role: as the Zohar says, he is called raya mehemna, the shepherd of faith. This is explained in Chassidus. In the maamarim on Ki Sisa, the Alter Rebbe explains that Moshe Rabbeinu is called raya mehemna not only because he is a faithful shepherd—which is the straightforward meaning, a faithful shepherd of the Jewish people. Raya mehemna also means the shepherd of faith. He is the one who sustains, feeds, and nourishes faith. As we said, faith is within us, but it can be covered over, so that it does not find expression in everyday life. A Jew can even live contrary to his faith. That is what happened with the sin of the Golden Calf. The Jews did not stop believing even while they sinned. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya: “Even at the time of sin, she remained faithful to Him, blessed be He.” The soul is always faithful. It always remains in complete faith with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But faith can be so covered by the layers of materiality and physicality of this world that a person lives his everyday life contrary to it. That is Moshe Rabbeinu’s role as raya mehemna: “When you raise up.” You elevate and reveal that faith, lift it higher, and then bring it out so that it becomes one with every part of the soul, every part of the person. That is the mitzvah of the half-shekel. Moshe Rabbeinu can reveal in every Jew that even a simple physical act—giving tzedakah, giving the half-shekel—can express the G-dly fire of the soul. And once that G-dly fire is kindled, it becomes clear that he was never disconnected. He was connected all along. This was Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s message to Haman as well, when Haman came to accuse

23:38 the Jewish people. What happened in the Purim story? Haman came to accuse the Jewish people, and what did he say? “There is one people, scattered and dispersed among the peoples.” In other words, Haman claimed that this one people was no longer one; it was scattered and dispersed. This people is meant to be one people, the people of the One. “Hashem is one and His name is one.” They are Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s people, but in practice they are scattered and dispersed. You cannot see their oneness, their Jewishness, or their faith. Look at what happened to the Jewish people at that time: they enjoyed that wicked man’s feast; they bowed down to an idol. As the Gemara explains, these were the sins in Haman’s time. In other words, the conduct of the Children of Israel in those days made them appear “scattered and dispersed among the peoples.” They were beginning to mingle with the other nations and forget the One, forget their simple faith. Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to him, “Their shekels preceded your shekels.” A Jew is never separated. All that behavior is not his true self. It is something external, a kelipah; it is not the truth. It is not his true Jewish essence. The half-shekel shows that even when a Jew performs a simple act, suddenly you see the light of his soul ignite. We can see this in everyday life today. Look at what happens now: sometimes you stop a Jew on the street or somewhere else and say to him, “Come put on tefillin.” You do not need all the introductions, explanations, and interpretations—“Come study in a yeshivah, and afterward I’ll explain it to you and you’ll understand, and after all the detailed arguments and explanations, then let’s put on tefillin.” No. You see it tangibly, just as the Rebbe taught us. You approach a Jew, help him put on tefillin, and the light of his soul—the fire—is kindled. The spark is kindled even by the simplest act of putting on tefillin, of lighting

25:40 Shabbos candles, of doing a mitzvah. A simple act has the power to kindle the light of the soul and reveal a Jew’s true essence: that a Jew was never really separated from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, even when he was in the deepest mire. This, then, is the power that comes with Shabbos Mevarchim Chodesh Adar, the Shabbos before the month in which their sorrow was turned to joy and their mourning to a Yom Tov. That is when we read Parshas Shekalim. And as the Midrash tells us, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu: This is not only during your lifetime. Every time a Jew reaches the month of Adar, every year when we read Parshas Shekalim, it is “When you raise up.” You, Moshe Rabbeinu, are the raya mehemna. You have the power to elevate a Jew’s faith, to reveal it and bring it inward, to instill and nourish it—to be the shepherd of faith—so that faith permeates his inner being and all the powers of his soul. Then, when people look at that Jew, they will see the G-dly fire burning within him, a coin of fire, and it will bring “atonement for your souls.” And just as the mitzvah of the half-shekel brought about the Purim miracle, when everything was turned around, may we too merit to see that reversal this year: “The Jews themselves ruled over those who hated them,” and the complete Geulah, with joy—true joy, the joy of the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.