This Shabbat we read the first of four special parshiyot that are read over the next five weeks – Parashat Shekalim. Parashat Shekalim describes the one-half shekel contribution that each member of b’nei yisrael was commanded to give to the operation of the mishkan . For the purposes of this contribution, individuals were not permitted to contribute more or less – irrelevant of their financial capability. Each member of b’nei yisrael gave exactly one-half shekel. By taking the sum of the total contribution and dividing by two, this half-shekel was used to calculate the population of b’nei yisrael – it served as the mechanism of conducting a census. The Torah cautions us not to create a plague – a negef – on b’nei yisrael through the census. Our commentators struggle to explain the reason for this drastic outcome. Rabbi Yitzchak Arama – the author of Akedat Yitzchak – suggests that there is a danger in a census. Counting people – one, two, three, etc. – conveys the sense t...
Rabbi Benjy Owen, Dean, Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, Memphis, TN