"Their Shekalim Preceded His"
Student Summaries of Sichot of the Roshei Yeshiva
Yeshivat
Har Etzion
PARASHAT PEKUDEI-SHEKALIM
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The
Yeshiva wishes a warm mazal tov to Rav Menachem and Thea Leibtag
and Rav
Shuki and Efrat Reis upon the birth of their grandson,
born to Leah and
Yedidya.
May they be zocheh to raise him le-Torah, le-chuppa, u-le-ma’asim
tovim!
SICHA OF HARAV YAAQOV MEDAN
"Their
Shekalim Preceded His"
Adapted by Shaul Barth
Translated by Kaeren Fish
This
week, we read the first of four special readings, Parashat Shekalim. It begins:
When
you take a head-count of Bnei Yisrael by their number, then each man
shall give a ransom for his soul to God when you count them, so that there will
be no plague (negef) among them when you count them. (Shemot
30:12)
What
is the meaning of the warning, "so that there will no plague among them"? What
plague is being referred to here, and why would it befall Am Yisrael if
they are not counted in the manner that God commands here?
Civilian
Census or Military Head-Count?
The
above question directs us to an instance where Bnei Yisrael did
indeed suffer a plague upon being counted, during the period of King David. In
II Shmuel chapter 24, we read:
And
God's anger yet burned against Israel, and He incited David against them saying:
"Go, number Yisrael and Yehuda." So the king said to Yoav, the captain of the
host, who was with him: "Go, I pray you, through all the tribes of Israel, from
Dan to Beer Sheva, and count the people, that I may know the number of the
people…" And Yoav presented the sum of the census of the people to the king, and
Israel numbered eight hundred thousand mighty men who drew the sword, and five
hundred thousand men of Yehuda.
And
David's heart struck him after he had counted the people, and David said to God:
"I have sinned greatly in what I have done; and now, Lord, I pray You – take
away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted most foolishly…" So God sent
a pestilence among Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and there
died of the people from Dan to Beer Sheva seventy thousand
people.
In
order to understand what sort of plague the Torah is warning against in
parashat Ki Tisa, we must first understand why David was deserving of
such a plague in his time. Seemingly, the text gives no explanation for the
great sin involved in counting the nation – such a grave sin that it brought
about 70,000 deaths (more than the deaths in most of the wars for the conquest
of the land!).
A
closer look at the verses shows that David's count was not an ordinary census,
but rather a military head-count conducted by the "captain of the host." Quite
simply, this count was intended for military purposes.
Indeed,
a review of David's political situation at the time reveals that he had just
emerged victorious from what could almost be called a "world war": the king of
Assyria had allied itself with all the surrounding kings – approximately eleven
kingdoms – with a view to defeating the kingdom of Israel. David had succeeded
in defeating them, instead, in a heroic battle in the north, close to the Hermon
mountains (see II Shmuel 21:15-22, and Tehillim 68). This victory
had brought about a significant expansion of the borders of the Israelite
kingdom. More importantly, though, after this battle the rest of the world was
more or less "open" to conquest by David's army. David was now faced with the
temptation of trying – like the kings of Greece, Persia and Rome who came after
him – to seize control of the entire known world. With this in mind, we may well
imagine that David asks the chief of staff of his armed forces to carry out a
military head-count with a view to launching a war of
conquest.
"Let
Them Build Me a Temple"
Once
we perceive that David's census was actually conducted in the context of
preparations for war, we are able to go through Tanakh and discover that
a count of this sort is always somehow connected with war. The census at
the beginning of Sefer Shemot precedes the war against Amalek, while the
census at the end of Bamidbar is taken in preparation for the entry into
the land and the war of conquest against the Canaanite nations. However, we have
not yet answered the question: what is so bad about this?
If
we continue reading the account in II Shemuel, we find that immediately
after David's punishment for the census, there are several chapters devoted to
the gathering and preparation of materials for the building of the Temple.
Included in this process is the purchase of the threshing-floor from Aravna the
Jebusite. The important point here is that David needs to buy this
all-important, most-holy site from a Jebusite. In other words, while David is
counting his soldiers with a view to setting out to conquer the entire world,
there is a part of Jerusalem that belongs – at least in narrow, legal terms – to
the Jebusites: the very site of the future Temple!
Perhaps
this is the very reason for David's punishment. At a time when Eretz
Yisrael is not yet firmly and completely conquered, organized and
established, there is no room for entertaining thoughts of conquest for
conquest's sake. The path taken by most of the great historical world leaders
included attempts at world-wide conquest while their own countries were falling
apart. Their conquests were intended to bring glory to the rulers, whose might
and glory were measured by the number of territories that they could claim. This
is not the way of Israel. God punishes David because while he is planning his
conquest, to bring glory to himself, God still has no dwelling place, and His
city is not yet conquered. It is therefore clear why, following the punishment,
David repents and spends the rest of his life involved in preparations for the
building of the Temple.
A
similar process can be traced in Megillat Esther. According to
Chazal, Achashverosh ruled between Koresh (Cyrus) and Daryavesh (Darius).
This view of the chronology of the period hints to us that the story of Esther
took place in between Koresh's declaration, permitting the return of the Jews to
Eretz Yisrael and the rebuilding of the Temple, and the reign of
Daryavesh, during which the returnees from Babylon actually rebuilt the
Temple.
This
delay explains Chazal's criticism of the Jews' participation in
Achashverosh's banquet. Although the Jews who were there were under no pressure
to relinquish their faith, they nevertheless permitted themselves to partake of
decadent feasts while the Temple lay in ruins. For the same reason,
Chazal criticize Mordechai, whom -
on the basis of certain proofs – they identify as a senior officer in
Achashverosh's army. How, they ask, could Mordechai aid Achashverosh in his
conquest of the world, while the King of the universe remained "homeless" and
His people exiled?
All
of this serves to explain the reason for the terrible decree that Haman passed
against the Jews. At a time when they should have been making their way back to
Eretz Yisrael and rebuilding the Temple, they continued to enjoy
the luxuries of living in exile.
"So
That They Will not be Stricken before their
Enemies"
Despite
all of this criticism, Am Yisrael were saved – because they had an
important merit that stood in their favor. Chazal teach us that when
Haman cast the lot to choose a date for the annihilation of the Jews, he
believed that the bribe he had given to Achashverosh would be sufficient to
guarantee his success ("I will weigh out ten thousand talents of silver … to
bring into the king's treasuries," Esther 3:9). However, they continue,
the antidote to this had already been prepared: "God knew that Haman would weigh
out shekalim against Israel; therefore, He made [Israel's]
shekalim precede [Haman's]" (Megilla 13b).
In
light of the above discussion, we can now understand the deeper meaning of this
aggada. While it is true that Am Yisrael had not yet gone back to
Eretz Yisrael and rebuilt the Temple, they had contributed their
shekalim for the purposes of the building, and the first stages of the
building (the first row of stones – see Ezra 4:1-6) were in fact
undertaken during the reign of Koresh. While they were guilty of foot-dragging,
the fact that real contributions had been made and that this minimal building
effort had been undertaken was enough to save them from complete
annihilation.
Let
us now return to parashat Ki Tisa. Here, too, the shekalim that
were to be collected from Bnei Yisrael were meant for the "base sockets
of the Mishkan" – the very foundation of the structure, paralleling the
shekalim given by the Jews in the time of Mordechai and Esther, which
facilitated the first row of stones for the Second Temple.
At
the outset we asked why Am Yisrael were not punished when Moshe counted
them. Now we can answer that it is
because the Moshe's census expressed the opposite idea of David's. Moshe counted
Bnei Yisrael for the purposes of building a Mishkan for God, not
in order to conquer territory for his own glory or that of the nation. We may
add that the word "negef" (plague) suggests not only a physical plague,
but also the idea of military defeat (hinagfut). God is warning Moshe
that if the census is meant for personal conquests or unnecessary wars, Am
Yisrael will suffer a "negef" and they will lose their battles for
the conquest of the land.
(This
sicha was delivered on Shabbat parashat Ki Tisa 5762
[2002].)