Raise the Head of Every Jew

Parshat Shekalim is read every year on the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Adar, ushering in the festive season that will climax with Pesach. The Torah teaches that Moshe was commanded to “raise the head of Bnei Yisrael, each as they are counted” (Shemot 30:12). The Ohr HaChaim notes the redundancy of this phrase: Every head is raised, and every individual is enumerated. And he wonders why it is necessary to refer separately to these two methods of singling out individuals.

He explains that Moshe is dealing with a reality unique to the generation of the Wilderness, to those who now carry the guilt of the Golden Calf (although we won’t learn of that episode until later in the parsha – an example of the Torah not being chronologically linear). Counted among the children of Israel are many who have gravely transgressed, others whose faults are perhaps less apparent, and still others who might seem to an outside observer to be pure and blameless. Hashem is impressing upon Moshe that all must be uplifted and all are to be redeemed. The head is lifted because the one who is guilty hangs his head in shame; he looks at the floor and doesn’t make eye contact.

But counting, we find, is always a dangerous act and can easily lead (G-d forbid) to catastrophe, as the Torah alludes to here and as we see with Shaul and David when each of them took it upon himself to count Israel. The purpose of counting with the half-shekel is to ameliorate this potential for disaster, and to achieve the necessary purpose of unifying all of Israel – the wealthy must not give more, nor the poor less (ibid. 15). The Ohr HaChaim cites a midrash in Tanchuma that the half-shekel was cast in the form of a flaming ingot from under the Throne of Glory. From this he learns that through the agency of the half-shekel that we bring, we reaffirm our commitment to affirming the Divine Will and submitting ourselves to Hashem’s authority. In raising our heads, we make ourselves subordinate to the Throne of Glory.

This is only possible when we act in unison and break down the divisions between us and the pride and arrogance in our hearts – when we are all equal before Hashem and instruments of His will. The count is of those who are twenty years or older – of military age, ready to march to battle. This is an allegory for the broader assembly of Israel: falling into ranks, preparing to face the enemy of our evil inclination and the perils of hedonism, idolatry, and materialism that confront us. We perform this ritual so that we may be judged favorably and redeemed; such is how we kick off our holiday season just before the spring.

Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzera (the grandfather of the Baba Sali) characteristically approaches this problem from a more esoteric perspective. He explains that the number of Israel, as counted in the census of Parshat Shekalim, was always preordained from the beginning of Creation to be 600,000. This number corresponds to celestial and angelic forces that are in alignment with the redemption as it unfolds here on earth. This is alluded to in a verse from Yirmiyahu where the navi says, “I have planted you as a reserved vineyard, all of wholesome vintage, so how did you become wretched wild grapes of unknown origin?” (Yirmiyahu 2:21). Rabbi Abuchatzera explains that both the reserve (sorek) and the wild grapes (surei hagefen) signify the number 600,000 through different numerological devices. The difference is in the first letters of each word – shin and samech. Shin is an anagram for the Hebrew word meaning sixty (using different forms of equivalency), whereas samech is the numerical value of sixty. The fundamental difference between these words is that the shin represents the radiance of the Divine Will as it is manifest in us when we are faithful to His Torah. It is also a component of the name of our patriarch Yisrael, who was a prince with mastery over gods and men (sar), as are we when we follow in his example. But to “sar” from the proper path – with a samech – means to stray or to deviate.

Rav Abuchatzera says we should never assume that by virtue of the fact that Hashem preordained our redemption and singled us out among Creation for glory, we are inherently entitled to receive His bounty simply as part of this lineage and destiny. When Israel came out of Mitzrayim, we were “princes,” embodying below the attributes of our Creator on High. When we deviated and strayed from the proper path, we became a wild weedy patch of grapes, fit only to be burned out so that the land may be cleansed and the true vintages planted again. It depends on us, on our choices and our behavior, what sort of vineyard we wish to be.

As we embark on this journey to Pesach and to the Exodus from exile, we hope to be counted and marked as the fine vintage of Hashem that He will want to plant in the vineyards of the land He promised to our father Yisrael, never to be uprooted again.