The Power of Half - Ki Tisa 5786

We just celebrated Purim, the downfall of Haman and his colleagues. Haman was a descendant of Amalek and inherited his genetic hatred of Jews. He became extremely powerful, the effective leader of Persia with the King Achashverosh (himself a Jew hater) under his thumb. All of his power was concentrated toward wiping the Jews off the face of the earth. 

He had lots of excuses. The Jews are scattered all over the kingdom, they don’t follow the rules, they are no benefit to the king, and the big one that Mordechai would not bow to him. But it was always to justify his hatred which preceded all of that. 

When he first came to the king with his plan, Haman offered to pay 10,000 silver coins to the treasury for the privilege. Our sages taught that the money was a mystical way to gain the spiritual power to fulfill his diabolical plot. (Hard to explain.)

Hashem said: the Jews preceded you with their half Shekels. Since the giving of the Torah, every head of household gave half a shekel annually to the Holy Temple and thereby participated as an equal partner in all the public offerings, as we read in this week’s Parsha. The merit of this great Mitzvah overcame any possible benefit that Haman’s money could achieve. 

While certainly Hashem could just save us without any action on our part, He created the world in a way that everything depends on human action. So our half-shekel donation was our part in helping foil Haman’s plot. But Hashem had commanded this many centuries before Purim. 

We are commanded to observe the Mitzvot in order to connect to Hashem and to make the world a home for Him. At the same time, the Mitzvot provide tremendous benefits for us, far beyond anything we might imagine. And it often is not apparent until we receive the benefit, so that we are doing the Mitzvah with a pure intention. 

This particular Mitzvah of the half shekel has a direct effect on our enemies’ intent, applying today as always. The Torah emphasizes that we need to give a half shekel coin. The Mitzvah is not fulfilled with change adding up to the coin’s value. It has to be specifically a half shekel coin. 

One of the explanations is that it is important to recognize that we can’t go it alone. Each of us is only a half, and complete with the participation of another. In other words, to achieve closeness to Hashem that is the purpose of the offerings in the Holy Temple, we need unity. 

Haman told Achashverosh “ there is one nation that is spread out and scattered among the nations.”  His point was that there was no unity among them and they were therefore vulnerable. Hashem’s response was that they give the half shekel. With their actions they unite. 

The fact that “their rules are different from all other nations, another of Haman’s claims, is actually a reason for them to be protected. Yes, we follow the Torah. We are united in our path that is guided by Hashem in the Torah, and we therefore have a special measure of protection. 

We are in the midst of another Purim style miracle. We have seen the downfall of another Haman and his Hashem guided the hand of the strongest nation on earth to assist in that downfall. We pray for the safety of the troops, the safety of Israel, and of good people around the world. 

And we remember the lesson of the half shekel. Everything we do to promote Jewish unity helps strengthen the hand of our soldiers and overcome the pure evil of Amalek. That means very practically to take real steps to promote friendship and unity, to let go of animosity and to pull together despite our differences. And the greatest unity comes by connecting with Torah and observance of Mitzvot. 

May the world be rid of our haters and may true peace be achieved. This will ultimately happen with the coming of Moshiach, who will finish the job of eradicating Amalek and usher in the time of true harmony and the revelation of Hashem’s light throughout the world.