Yaakov Avinu told his son Yosef that every yid will bless their children that they should be like Efraim and Menashe. Why do we mention both names? In Sifrei Chasidus there is a concept of sur m’ra, leaving the bad, and aseh tov, doing the good. Menashe represents the concept of sur m’ra. Why? Because Yosef said, “I called him Menashe because Hashem made me forget”. Yosef was saying that he went through many difficulties in his life, but when he had Menashe, Hashem made him forget those tzoros and move on. This represents “sur m’ra” – forget the bad. Efraim comes from the lashon of “peru urevu” – create – and that represents “aseh tov”. We bentch our children to be like both Efraim and Menashe because we need to do both sur m’ra and aseh tov, to leave the bad and to do the good.
My father, Rav Noach Isaac Oelbaum shlita says that the avoda of a person is to be like Efraim, to achieve more and more. However, if a person feels that he is on a high madreiga, he might not feel that he has to do more. And so, we need to also have the attitude of Menashe, which means to forget. Forget everything you did up until today and that way you will always want to achieve more. That’s why we bentch our children to be like both Efraim and Menashe.
Says the Beirach Moshe, the idea of a machtzis hashekel and not a full shekel is to teach every yid the way to succeed in our avodas Hashem. We need to view ourselves as a machtzis, a half, that we are never done reaching the level of lishma. We view ourselves like we are still in the category of serving Hashem shelo lishma. If a person will constantly view himself as one who is only on the level of shelo lishma, then he will come to reach the madreiga of lishma. You always have to feel like you haven’t yet reached shleimus. That’s the idea of machtzis hashekel.
That is the meaning of “Ki sisa es rosh bnei Yisroel”– if you want to raise up the yidden, then the attitude should be “lifkudeiham” – which is a lashon of lacking. A yid has to feel that he’s always lacking in shleimus. This is the secret of giving a half of shekel, a reminder that we are to view ourselves as only half-way there. There is always a long road ahead of us in our avodas Hashem.
