You Count
Written on February 7, 2010 from the desk of Rabbi David KomerofskyBeing one student among 50,000 can sometimes feel like you don’t count. But the Torah portion for this Shabbat says something else.
Exodus 30:11 – 34:35
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: When you take a census of the Israelite people according to their enrollment, each shall pay the Lord a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled. This is what everyone who is entered in the records shall pay: a half-shekel by the sanctuary weight — twenty gerahs to the shekel — a half-shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is entered in the records, from the age of twenty years up, shall give the Lord’s offering: the rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than half a shekel when giving the Lord’s offering as expiation for your persons. You shall take the expiation money from the Israelites and assign it to the service of the Tent of Meeting; it shall serve the Israelites as a reminder before the Lord, as expiation for your persons.
These verses will be read around the world this weekend for Shabbat Shekalim, the Sabbath preceding the beginning of the month of Adar. Adar is a month of joy of celebration that includes the festival of Purim.
The central message of these verses for Shabbat Shekalim is simple – every member of the community bears equal responsibility for the building of the tabernacle. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch commented on this text that the mission of Israel is dependent on the unity of the whole. We are whole as a people when we see ourselves as personally responsible, not relying on others to do what needs to be done.
Every generation of Jews has been building community – tabernacles at which we can worship and to which we can flock for celebration – by making personal investments in the well-being of the whole. How much better the whole world would be if every person did his or her part! Small acts of kindness and generosity can make all the difference, and the instruction in the verses for this Shabbat are clear: do what you must not because it is convenient or makes you feel good, but because the world depends on you.