What a bargain!

What can you buy with half a shekel?  Certainly not a sheep or a bull.  Yet, when the Holy Temple stood, the Jews would contribute a half-shekel coin to a general fund which made them participants in the hundreds of communal offerings that were offered daily in the Temple – including Shabbat and the holidays.  What a deal!

This is not the subject of this week’s Parsha, Mishpatim.  But in addition to the weekly Parsha, we read an additional Parsha this week – Parshat Shekalim. This is the first of the four special Parshas relating to Purim and Pesach.  

Parshat Shekalim relates the Mitzvah incumbent upon every Jewish household to give a half shekel annually to the Temple to be used for the public offerings.  Because this donation took place during the month of Adar, we read this special portion on the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Adar.  (If Rosh Chodesh Adar falls on Shabbat, we read it on that day.)

The Torah says (Exodus 30:12):  …each one shall give the ransom of their soul… This is what they shall give… a half shekel…  A rich person shall not give more and a poor person shall not give less.  Now let’s analyze this.  A single animal sacrifice cost much more than half a shekel.  There were hundreds of animals offered, plus flour offerings, wine libations and more, all paid for by the half-shekel fund.  In other words, with a mere fraction of the cost, each person had an equal share in all the offerings throughout the year.

There are many discussions in Torah about the meaning and significance of the half-shekel, and the lessons that can be learned.  I want to focus on one point – how much one can do with a very small amount of money.  

Donating half a shekel is not the same as a typical joint effort, where this person does this and that person does that.  For example, it is our custom for every community to learn the entire Talmud every year.  Each member studies one tractate, and together we complete the entire Talmud.  It is a joint accomplishment, but each person on their own only learns a small part of the whole.  With the half-shekel, however, each person has a portion of every single offering.

Each of us has our own unique mission and purpose, but together we are repairing and improving the world, making it a home for Hashem.  The message we take from the half-shekel is that each small action we do is a necessary part in the collective service of transforming the world.  My little deed doesn’t just affect me.  It is combined with all the other Mitzvot everyone else in the world does and brings us closer to redemption.  There is no such thing as an insignificant Mitzvah!