B"H

Thursday, 16 Adar 1, 5776 / February 25, 2016 – HAKHEL YEAR

In the beginning of this week's Parsha, Ki Tisa, G-d tells Moshe that when counting the Jewish people to know their amount, instead of counting them directly, each one should contribute a "half Shekel." By counting the contributions, Moshe knew the count of the Jewish people. The shekels were then used for the Mishkan (Tabernacle).

According to Jewish tradition it is forbidden to count people directly. King David once counted his soldiers directly and a plague broke out and many died. Jews are careful to be counted in a non-direct way. For example, in synagogue, when we want to count if there are ten Jews in attendance for a Minyan (quorum), we count them by using a verse which has ten words in it.

Rabbi Yitschak Elchanan Spector, Rabbi of Kovno, was once collecting charity to provide food and wood for heating for the poor. He came to the home of one of the wealthy people in his community, who was also a Torah scholar.  Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan told him the reason for his coming and asked for his contribution.  The wealthy man gave a small donation.  When the rabbi remarked how small the sum was compared to what he could afford to give, the wealthy man replied, "As you know I spent much of my time studying Torah.  This is my contribution to our community.  Let other wealthy people, who don't study Torah, help fulfill this community mitzvah."

The rabbi replied, "Your answer reminds me of the following story;  During the Russian-Japanese war, every Russian citizen  was called to contribute a minimum of ten rubles to the war chest. 

Officers of the Czar came to collect money from the citizens of one of the villages. Everyone gathered in the town hall and the officers told them how important it was to contribute. One after the other the peasants announced their contributions of ten rubles. One poor peasant got up and announced that he is giving 100 rubles!  Everyone was shocked.

"How can you manage to give such a large sum?" they asked. 

The peasant explained, "A while ago I was brought before a judge and fined ten rubles.  When I told the judge that I didn't have the money, he sentenced me to a month in jail.  Now, I figured if a month in jail is worth 10 rubles, then 10 months in jail should be worth 100 rubles!  I'm ready to sit 10 months in jail which should count as my contribution of 100 rubles to the Russian army!"  Upon hearing this everyone in the room burst out laughing.

"The same is with you", concluded Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan. "Your studying Torah will help the poor of our city like that peasant's sitting in jail will help the Russian army! True, studying Torah is very important, but it will not make one needy person less hungry or warmer during the winter.  One cannot excuse himself from giving charity by opening a Talmud, one must open his pockets and give!"

"This is also the lesson from our Parsha," continued the rabbi.  "When it came to count the Jewish people G-d told them to give a half-Shekel coin. In order to be counted one must contribute!"

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY