Reciprocity: The Temple and Israel's Unity

 

This they shall give, everyone who goes through the counting: half a shekel according to the holy shekel. Twenty gerahs equal one shekel; half of (such) a shekel shall be an offering to the Lord.                                                                       Exodus 30:13

You shall take the silver of the atonements from the children of Israel and use it for the work of the Tent of Meeting; it shall be a remembrance for the children of Israel before the Lord, to atone for your souls.                                                          Ibid. v.16

The half-shekels collected annually were used for the operation of the Tabernacle/Temple, as Maimonides codifies:

What are terumat halishca (the half-shekels) used for? From (these funds) they would purchase the daily perpetual offerings (tamid), the additional offerings (musaph) offered on Shabbat and the holidays), all other communal sacrifices, and the wine libations. Similarly, (these funds were used to purchase) the salt that was placed on all the sacrifices, and the wood for the altar, if no wood was provided and it was necessary that it be purchased. (They were used to pay also for) the incense and the wages of those who prepared it, the showbread and the wages of those who prepared it, the omer, the two loaves, a red heifer, the goat sent to Azazel and the scarlet thread tied between its horns.       Laws of Shekalim, 4:1

By definition, communal sacrifices must be brought from the collective Israel in its entirety; they were therefore purchased from the half-shekels of the Israelites “so the hand of all will be equal.” [Jerusalem Talmud, Shekalim 1:1] Purchasing the communal sacrifices with the funds of the half-shekel guaranteed that those sacrifices indeed came from each individual within the collective Israel.

The half-shekel which was given equally by every (adult male) Israelite, without regard to his actual wealth, expresses the unity of Israel, and on some level it is Israel’s unity which empowers the Kohanim to perform the Temple service.

Rebbe Natan, the spiritual successor of Rebbe Naḥman of Breslov, comments that it is within the Tabernacle/Temple that “all Israel gathers as one individual.” Two and a half centuries prior to Rebbe Natan’s days, Maharal of Prague wrote “All Israel was united through the Temple, which had a single (High) Priest, and a single altar. There were no divisions or separations within Israel.” [Netzaḥ Yisrael, chapter 4]

Thus, there was a reciprocal interaction: on one hand, the unity of Israel empowers the Temple service, while on the other the Temple unites the Nation of Israel.