A Fiery Coin
It states (30:13) השקל מחצית ...יתנו זה, "This they shall give...a half a shekel..." The word זה implies that Hashem pointed to it. Rashi explains, של מטבע כמין לו הראה ,יתנו זה יתנו כזה לו ואמר ,השקל מחצית ומשקלה אש, "Hashem showed Moshe a vision of a coin of fire that weighed half a shekel and said, 'This is what they should give.'"
The Midrash Tanchuma (9) explains this in greater detail, "Hakadosh Baruch Hu took a coin of fire from under His throne, He showed it to Moshe and said, יתנו זה, 'This is what they should give.'" We can explain that Moshe didn’t have difficulty understanding what a machatzis hashekel was. Moshe’s question was how it was possible for half a coin to accomplish so much. How can such a small donation raise the heads of the Jewish nation and grant them atonement for the egel?
Hashem showed Moshe a fiery coin. This means it is the fire and the hislahavus that Klal Yisrael have when they perform this mitzvah, which is so precious to Hashem.
The Chidushei HaRim zt'l was once in Germany, and he heard the Rav of a beis medresh ask in his drashah, "Why did Hashem show Moshe a אש של מטבע, a coin of fire? Hashem could have shown Moshe a true silver coin! The answer is that Hashem did not only show him the size and weight of the coin. Hashem showed him the way the coin should be given. It should be given with a fiery hislahavus."
Towards the end of parashas Mishpatim, it states (24:17), ההר בראש אוכלת כאש 'ה כבוד מראה, "The appearance of the glory of Hashem was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop before the eyes of Bnei Yisrael."
The Kedushas Levi (Mishpatim) teaches, "If a person wants to know whether Hashem enjoys his service, he should check to see if he has a yearning and hislahavus to serve Hashem like a burning fire. If he does, this is a clear sign that Hashem enjoys his service. Heaven helps him and sends into his mind holy thoughts [of hislahavos so Hashem can enjoy his mitzvos]."
Desire
The Mishnah Berurah (685:2) explains that every year, in the month of Adar, it was announced in Jewish cities that they should donate a half shekel towards the purchase of the korban tamid of the following year. This is because every year, from Rosh chodesh Nisan until next year's Nisan, the korbanos had to be bought from a new collection of half-shekels, as it states (Bamidbar 28:14) זאת בחדשו ...עולת, "This is the olah...in its newness." The collection began in Adar. Today, we don't donate the half-shekalim because we don't bring the korbanos. However, by reading about the donation of the shekalim in the Torah, together with our desire to perform the mitzvah, it is considered as if we brought the half-shekel to the Beis HaMikdash, as it states (Hosheia 14:3) ונשלמה שפתינו פרים, - our words should be instead of korbanos. This is why we read parashas Shekalim from parashas Ki Sisa this week.
The Sfas Emes (Shekalim 5633) explains that the specialness of the korbanos, which are so beloved by Hashem, is the strong desire the Yidden have to serve Hashem. "This desire exists today, and perhaps even more than before." We desire to bring korbanos, we want to serve Hashem, and therefore, our reading about the machatzis hashekel and our desire to do Hashem's will is so precious to Hashem.
Chazal (Yalkut Yeshayah 391) states, "In the future, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will come to Har Tavor and Har Karmel to build the Beis HaMikdash on these mountains. They merit this because these mountains wanted the Torah to be given on them. The Satmar Rebbe (Shavuos p.127) says that if this will be the reward for domeim, inanimate matters, a great reward will certainly come to a human being who desires to receive the Torah.
The Midrash (Shmuel Rabsi 3) states that before Shmuel was born, a bas kol came forth and announced that soon a child would be born. His name will be Shmuel, and he will merit receiving nevuah from Hashem. What did Bnei Yisrael do? They all named their children Shmuel. Only Shmuel, the son of Chanah, became the navi. Nevertheless, since they wanted and desired to bear this holy child, they merited that their children also had at least one moment of nevuah in their lifetime. The Chida in Yosef Tehillos says that this is the meaning of בקוראי ושמואל שמו. Since they called their children Shmuel, they merited prophecy at least once. This shows us the great virtue of desire and what it can accomplish.
The Midrash (Mishlei 12) states, "Whoever sleeps on his bed at night and thinks, 'Tomorrow I will wake up early, and I will do a favor for this person and for that person,' in the future world he will be happy with the tzaddikim in Gan Eden." The Midrash doesn't say that he is rewarded for helping those people. He deserves credit because he genuinely desired to do chesed for them.
The mashpiah Rebbe Mendel Futerfas zt'l told the following story at a Chassidic farbrengen. A Lubavitcher chasid was sent to a Siberian prison surrounded by huge mountains. For several months a year, it was dark there. As usual, his "crime" was teaching children Torah. He didn't have sefarim or any item of kedushah, and his heart was broken. On his first Shabbos afternoon in this prison, he went outside and was surprised to hear someone singing zemiros. The singing came from a distance, but he could hear it clearly because it was so quiet, and there weren't many trees around to block the sounds. He followed the sound of the singing and found a Yid with long hair singing Yedid Nefesh with passion, his eyes closed. He was so involved in the song that he hardly noticed that he had a visitor. They sang songs together for a long time, and then the man with the long hair opened his eyes and greeted his guest joyously. He said, "I am so happy to see you. I have been in Siberia for twenty years now, and this is the first time I've seen the face of a religious Jew." And then he said anxiously, "I don't have talis or tefillin, and I don't have a shofar. Did you bring an item of kedushah, a mitzvah to perform?"
The chasid replied, "All that I have is tefillin shel yad. They saw the tefillin worn on my head, and they confiscated that, but they didn't know that I had tefillin on my arm. Tomorrow, I will bring the tefillin shel yad to you so you can put it on."
The next morning, this Yid put on tefillin for the first time in twenty years with immense joy and hislahavus. He said the brachah with all his heart, he said the first pasuk of Shema, and when he uttered the word אחד he was niftar.
Reb Mendel Futerfas repeated this story at a farbrengen, and then said, "Everyone should ask himself how he would look after twenty years of living in Siberia. Would he sing Yedid Nefesh and other zemiros on Shabbos afternoon, or would he forget about his connection with Hashem? Will he be searching for an opportunity to perform mitzvos?" Reb Mendel concluded, "And now that we can keep all the mitzvos, we should certainly keep them all with joy and hislahavus!"
Chazal (Tana d'Bei Eliyahu 22:2) say, "A person is obligated to say, למעשי מעשי יגיעו מתי אבותי, 'When will my actions be like the deeds of the avos [Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov].'" But how can we reach those great levels?
One common answer is that יגיעו means to touch. We want our deeds to at least touch and have a drop of similarity to the deeds of our forefathers.
Rebbe Bunim of Peshischa zt'l said that יגיעו could be translated as interests or motives. For example, there is a term in Chazal called בעדות נוגע, which means one can't give testimony when he has personal needs and intentions. So, נגיעה is a person's interest, the motivation behind his deeds and words. Rebbe Bunim of Peshischa said that we must yearn for our deeds to have a יגיע, motivation, similar to the motivation of the avos. We shouldn't perform mitzvos out of rote; rather, we should yearn to perform the mitzvos with heart and soul as our avos would serve Hashem. We should have a sincere desire to serve Hashem.
