The Half-shekel

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: When you take the sum of the Children of Israel, according to their number, then every man shall give a ransom for his soul unto the Lord … This shall they give, everyone who passes among those who are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary – the shekel is twenty gerahs – half a shekel for an offering to the Lord.  The rich shall not give more, nor the poor give less than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the Lord, to make atonement for your souls.                                      Exodus 30:11-13,15

          Rabbi Yehonatan Eybschutz explains the Torah’s insistence on the use of the half shekel in taking a census, as well as its insistence that each individual give the exact same amount. Israel is a single, united people, and therefore, the nation is indivisible. Thus, the use of the half shekel conveys the message that no individual is complete.  Without his fellow man, the Jew is considered as only half a person, and requires another Jew to become whole. The insistence that the rich may not give more than half a shekel teaches that no matter how personally successful an individual Jew is, he is still dependent upon his fellow Jew. Correspondingly, the poor may not give less than half a shekel, teaching that each Jew is equally important, even the individual who appears to be totally unsuccessful.

          Ultimately, each Jew has infinite value as a person, regardless of his/her personal success or lack thereof. This concept is demonstrated by the halacha that if gentiles surround a city and demand that a single Jew be sent out to be executed or they will kill the entire population, no Jew may be sent out. A common criminal may not be handed over to the gentiles in order to save the greatest sages of the generation. This halacha is understandable only in light of the axiom of the value of each Jew as a Jew.