“Love of money is the root of all evil,” goes the adage. But yet, our Sages say that tzaddikim love their money more than their own bodies. What is the truth? It’s actually quite simple: money makes an excellent servant but a terrible master.
This Parsha begins with the half-shekel the Jews were commanded to give as an atonement for their souls. When one loves money because he loves himself, it leads to evil. When he loves what it can do to help others and bring good to the world, it is greater than his own body as it can go much farther than he physically can.
With special thanks to Danny Azarfar, we’d like to share two concepts on the half-shekel which can make each of us more whole and greater than the sum of our parts. He asks: Why does the Torah call the half-shekel that averts a plague “machatzit” (מחצית ) and not “chatzi” (חצי)?
There are two fantastic answers to share, both of which are built around the same premise. The word machatzit is five letters. The center letter is tzadi, a reference to the tzedakah one gives with his money. The two letters flanking this tzedakah are chet and yud, which spell, chai – life. One whose life revolves around tzedakah will find life and goodness. Outside those letters are the letters mem and tav, which spell Mait – death. The letters it surrounds are chet, tzadi, yud, spelling chatzi, or half. One who spends life thinking he only has half of what he needs and is constantly seeking out more ways to help himself is essentially dead inside. So, if we focus on tzedakah, we will have a life worth living.
The second approach is that the letter tzadi in the center represents the tzaddik, the righteous person. Those who ensure they are close to righteous people are “chai,” living. Those who distance themselves from the tzaddik are choosing “mait,” death.
The Machatzit HaShekel enabled us to give money for a holy purpose and join together with others doing the same mitzvah. It activated both of these forces for good to bring us to “life,” and thus it could avert a plague and atone for our souls.
