This week we read an extra section from the Torah, called “Parshas Shekalim”, about each Jew giving a half-Shekel coin. In the time of the Beis Hamikdash (Holy Temple), may it be immediately rebuilt by Moshiach, every year each Jew would contribute a half-Shekel towards the communal sacrifices. In exile this is commemorated by giving three half-dollar (or half of the local currency) coins to Tzedakah on the day before Purim.
Why specifically half of a Shekel? It teaches us that alone, one is only a half, and in order to be whole, one must unite with another Jew, and with every Jew. The Mitzvah to love a fellow Jew like oneself applies not only to Jews close to you but even to a Jew at the end of the earth. Every Jew has a soul that is an actual part of G-d, so all the Jews are truly one being. Even if we need to negate someone’s negative behavior, the most effective way is to influence him in pleasant and peaceful ways.
The first step to unity in the world and in the Jewish People is to unite with G-d. Every Jew is truly united with G-d. The first step is to realize that each of us is one with G-d, for we are an actual part of Him.
(See talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita, Vayakhel 5752 (1992))
