Parashat Ki Tisa

Parshat Ki Tisa opens with a familiar story that we will be reading both this week and next week—the story of Moshe collecting the half-shekel from each member of Bnei Yisrael.  Next week is Parshat Shekalim, where we recount specifically this collection of the Machatzit HaShekel.

The purpose of this collection was to take a census of the people so that Hashem will know how many people there are.  All the silver collected will be used for the construction of the Mishkan, to make sockets for the beams of the walls, or other implements requiring silver.  

Part of the command of the collection is that “הֶעָשִׁיר לֹא יַרְבֶּה וְהַדל לֹא יַמְעִיט” — the rich may not give more and the poor may not give less.  This is a very reasonable request.  If one person gave two whole shekels while another person gave a quarter of a shekel, an accurate census would be impossible! 

The Da’at Zekenim brings another simple, but thought-provoking idea: if the rich person gave more than the poor, the rich man might say “I have more of a portion in the Mishkan than you.”  A statement like this could make the poor person embarrassed about his stature, and even afraid to go to the Mishkan.  After all, he only contributed a tiny bit, while this rich benefactor gave much more. 

Why would Hashem listen to the poor person who barely scraped together anything when this other person did such a hiddur mitzvah by giving a lot?  Because of this, Hashem required that everyone must give the same amount for this census.  In this way, Hashem shows that everyone is equal in His eyes.  We all have a portion in the Mishkan, His resting place among the people, and we can all go there to give offerings.  Nowadays, this still applies; Hashem listens to all of our prayers, whether we have been praying every day, or it is our first time opening a Siddur.  We are all equal in His eyes.

** Dvar Torah behind one week due to publication delay.