A famous question on this mitzvah is asked. Why is every Jew to only give a half-shekel? If one wants to give more, he may not; and if one wants to give less, he also is not permitted to do so. Why only a half-shekel, no more, no less, and why not a whole shekel per person?
Just as famous as the question is the answer: every Jew must realize, internalize, and accept that on his own, he is only ‘half.’ Only when we join together with our fellow Jew, are we complete. One Jew and his half, and another Jew and his half, come together to make a whole. When we bind ourselves together with our fellow Jews, then we have shlaimus, completeness, wholeness and fulfillment.
I recently heard a novel, and very beautiful, idea from Rabbi Zev Leff shlita. He noted that when a Jew says to his fellow Jew “shalom aleichem,” in essence, what he is saying is: my shalom, i.e.:my shleimus - my wholeness and completion, is aleichem - depends upon you, my fellow Jew! On my own, I am incomplete. Hence, when we greet each other, we say: shalom aleichem. I recognize I am only complete with you, aleichem is my shlaimus.
And when his fellow Jew answers back “aleichem shalom,” he too is acknowledging the same. Upon you, aleichem, the fellow replies to the first Jew, is my completion and wholeness, shalom! Hence, each member of klal Yisrael, with humility, ahavas Yisrael and understanding, recognizes that we are all interdependent, one man upon another.
This, says Rabbi Leff, is the meaning of “vayichan sham Yisrael neged ha’har - ki’ish echad b’lev echad.” At the time of Matan Torah, Israel - as one nation - camped opposite Har Sinai, like one man with one heart (Shemos 19:2 with Rashi). Since no single Jew can fulfill all 613 mitzvos - for a man cannot fulfill the mitzvos of a woman, a kohen cannot fulfill the mitzvos unique to a Yisrael (and vice versa), a king cannot fulfill the mitzvos unique to a commoner (and vice versa), and so on and so forth - we understand that in order to accept the Torah, we must be b’shlaimus. We must come together to complete each other.
As we stand on the eve of Purim - the yomtov when Amalek rose to destroy, annihilate and kill es kol ha’Yehudim - each and every Jew, from youth to elderly, babies to women (Esther 3:13) - we surely are all cognizant that the descendants of Haman-Amalek are baring their fangs today, intent on doing the same thing Haman plotted to do.
When we join together as one - אֶחָד-עַם יֶשְׁנוֹ (ibid., v.8) - internalizing the message of the half-shekel, recognizing the beauty of ‘shalom aleichem,’ and standing united to hear the voice of G-d in our lives, and the voice (and cries R”L) of our fellow Jew, then surely G-d’s great mercy will be aroused.
We will then merit the great salvation that was extended to the Jews of Persia and Medes: וִיקָר ,וְשָׂשֹׂן ,וְשִׂמְחָה אוֹרָה הָיְתָה ,לַיְּהוּדִים - to the Jews there was light (Torah) and gladness (yomtov), joy (bris milah) and honor (tefillin) (Esther 8:16, with Megillah 16b).
שלום ושבת ,טוב חודש ,טובות בשורות בברכת