You're Not Whole Alone: The Half-Shekel Unity [Parsha Pearls: Ki Sisa] 5786

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My dear friends, thank you and enjoy the episode.

You're listening to Rabbi Arya, we'll be of torch in Houston, Texas.

This is The Partial Review Podcast.

Welcome back, everybody.

Welcome back to The Partial Review Podcast.

This week's Partial's Partial's key seesaw.

Such an incredible parasha, as you see, the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people,

how like always when we get to comfortable, it's the beginning of our downfall.

We see this with Haman that one of the reasons we'll see in our thinking Talmudist episode,

one of the reasons that Esther invited him to a party with Akhashweru is to get him comfortable.

Because immediately you get comfortable, you're about to fall really, really well.

You're going to fall, the Jewish people just received the Torah a few portions ago.

The Jewish people receive all the Mishpatim, all of the laws, not all, but many of them.

And then the Jewish people get instructions and had to build the tabernacle.

They get instructions and had to put together all of the garments of the high priest.

And now what's going to happen?

They send the sin of the golden calf.

But what happens at the beginning of the Torah portion?

Something so incredible, right?

And Hashem spoke to Moses, saying,

When you take a head count of the children of Israel,

according to their numbers,

they shall give every man shall an atonement for his soul to Hashem,

Bifko-do-sum when counting them,

Velo-ye-bo-hem-ne-gif-bifko-do-sum.

So, that there should not be among them a plague when counting them.

So what's the solution?

Everyone gives the half-shekel,

we count the half-shekels, and that's the next verse.

They eat, no, color, over-up al-Pekudim.

This shall they give everyone who passes through the census,

Mahati-sashekal, a half-shekel-bashakal akhodesh

of the shakal of the sanctuary,

Esterim-gayra-twenty-gayras is the shakal.

Mahati-sashekal-trumala-shem, a half-shekel

as he raised up portion to Hashem.

Okay, so how are you going to count the Jewish people?

Count them with the coins.

Everyone's going to give a half-shekel,

and then what are you going to have?

You're going to have a count.

You'll be able to count the coins,

and like this, you know how many Jews there are.

That's the census, but don't count them by number.

Don't count the people by number,

because then what's going to happen is going to be a plague.

Now, I ask you, what's the difference?

What's the difference if I count the people,

or if I count the coins?

By the way, this is a law that's applicable to each and every one of us today.

When you go to a synagogue and they're counting how many people there are for a minion,

they don't count the number.

They count in either the verse of Hoshia eta-mecha,

which is ten words in the verse,

or they count the blessing of Hamotsi-lecha-menarats,

which is Baruch-hata-shem,

al-Ukain-um-melecha-ulam,

Hamotsi-lecha-menarats.

There's different ways you can count,

but you don't count ten people.

You want to know if there's a minion?

You don't count the people.

You have a different way to count.

Why?

Why is this such an important thing for us?

Our sadists tell us something so magnificently important.

It's important for us to be individuals.

It's important for every individual to know their specialty.

It's important for every individual to be unique,

because we are, we are all unique.

Not one person in this room, not one person in this world

is identical to any of you.

Maybe it looks, perhaps, doppelganger,

similarities,

complexion,

but in reality there's no two people that are the same.

Every single person in the world is unique.

However,

it's important.

It's vitally important for us to be part of a community,

to be part of a congregation,

to not be isolated,

to not be only independent where it's just me.

We should find a way for us to be part of our community.

Don't separate yourself.

We see stories throughout our sadists

where people were asked,

who are you and they were unique people?

They're like, no, no, I just want to be part of everyone.

I don't want to be recognized as a unique,

independent individual.

I want to be part of a community.

I told about the Rosh Hashiva of the Meer Yashiva,

which is the head of the Yashiva stand throughout the year,

stands at the front.

He prays at the front.

On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur,

he sits with everybody else.

He wants to be counted with the congregation.

Does it want to be isolated?

It's such an important thing for us to understand.

Our say just tell us

that this is also important on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

more than the rest of the year.

Why is it important for us to not be

isolated and independent?

Because then our judgment is isolated and independent.

And we don't want that.

So for example,

if one person comes and asks you for a favor,

well, you're based on the merit of that individual,

you'll make your decision.

But if 10 people come,

you're not going now after the individuals.

It's a whole group.

It's a whole big unit.

And it's a different story.

You're more likely to acquiesce and to fulfill their wish

because they came in a big group.

That's exactly why

we don't call a synagogue,

a base phila.

We call it a base kinesis.

A kinesis is a place of gathering.

The kinesis in Israel is a place of gathering.

It is not that you go pray.

I go pray independently.

You go pray independently.

You go pray.

No, we go and pray together.

It's a place of

heat-consuit where we all come together to pray.

So now our prayer is much more powerful.

It's not me asking for a private request.

It's us asking all of our prayers are not as independent people.

Our prayers are all in plural.

So let me see.

Do you have the right merits?

Do you deserve this?

Is this coming to you?

But when you're part of a community like,

okay, okay, okay, take whatever you want.

You got it.

You guys got it.

It's so essential.

We know that the Jewish people,

what does it say about us

when we receive the Torah?

We receive the Torah

as one nation, one soul

that we're all united.

It wasn't 600,000 individual men between the age of 20 and 60.

It was the women and the men and the older and the younger.

They were all one unit.

That's the essence of who we are.

Yes, we have individuality.

But let me ask you an even better question.

Why are they giving a half-shackle?

Let them give a full-shackle.

Why are you giving a half-shackle?

It's not like it's so much.

It's like 50 cents.

You know what I'm saying?

It's not the end of the world.

So you give it a dollar.

You're not whole if you're not with someone else.

The half-shackle represents that you are not whole alone.

Alone, you're just a half-shackle.

You combine it with others.

Now it becomes whole.

This is the essence of our responsibility.

Our responsibility.

My grandfather brings over here.

He has an entire chapter.

Preparing us for Rosh Hashanah?

This is the name of the chapter.

I'm not going to read the whole chapter.

He says,

Mi Chiu Wei Hadin Li Yot Ish Klaal.

You want to know how to win judgment on Rosh Hashanah?

Be a person of the public.

Don't be just isolated.

It's just me.

I'm taking care of myself.

I'm being responsible for me and my family and that's it.

You have to be part of a community.

Because our say just tell us something very important.

Before a person is taken from this world.

Who is judged?

The person is judged.

Whether or not they need to bring their soul back to heaven.

Not only them though.

Everyone who will be affected by it is judged.

So when someone passes away, do you know who gets judged?

Everybody who is impacted by that news.

If they didn't deserve to have that bad news.

If they didn't deserve to have that loss, that person wouldn't have been taken.

Now if a person is responsible for a community.

If a person is responsible for a city, for a state, for a country,

it's a very big judgment before God takes them.

But it's a judgment on everyone.

It's less likely that a person will be taken prematurely

if they have a big influence.

But the big problem that we have today.

We mentioned influences influencers.

How do people become influencers today?

What can I do unique and different than anybody else in the world?

And be crazy or be special in my own unique way?

And if you ask people who have become influencers,

they become extremely isolated.

They don't have people they trust.

They don't have people that they can communicate with.

They don't have people that they can be neighbors and friends with because everybody's,

oh, do you know that person is?

They have a gazillion followers.

Do you know that person is?

That's that famous person and they become so isolated.

And they're not part of the community.

And they're not part of being unified with others

in their isolation.

It's a big, big challenge.

Our responsibility is yes to recognize that we have individual abilities.

We have unique talents.

We have unique skills.

We have unique responsibilities.

Notwithstanding that, we also have a responsibility to be part of a community.

To not isolate ourselves.

To not separate ourselves.

You know, we talk about the

incense every morning in our prayer.

We talk about the special ingredients that were put together to make the incense in the temple.

Part of the service.

One of them, Arsage tell us,

had a really repugnant smell.

The Chalbana.

It's odor was awful.

So why is that?

One of the ingredients included in the incense.

Arsage tell us because

when it's mixed with other things, it has a beautiful scent, has a beautiful aroma.

You know, even if you have somebody who, on their own, is not such a good person.

They're not such a good person.

Perhaps the way they act is not so great.

But when they're now immersed with other good people,

they have an influence of becoming a better person.

This is our Torah portion telling us.

Don't be isolated.

Don't be alone.

Be part of the community.

You know what it says in Halacha, very, very frightening, Halacha.

Talmud says, and Halacha confirms this.

That someone who has a synagogue in their community, and they don't attend that synagogue,

it's a really, really, really terrible thing.

Because you're separating yourself from the community.

You have an opportunity in your community to be part of something that is

a community, and you isolate yourself.

It's a terrible thing.

Therefore, if someone has a congregation in their community,

I'm a member here.

You can go to other places, even if you're not a member.

Be part of a community.

I'm saying this for myself that I have four synagogues

in walking distance to my house, five,

six.

There's a bunch of synagogues.

I try to make it my business to go at least once a month to each synagogue,

even if it's for one prayer.

Don't be isolated.

Oh, I have my place.

I have my thing true.

Be part of a community.

Be part of other people.

Don't separate yourselves.

So now we think in a world where there's antisemitism from the far left, from the far right,

from the left, from all these interesting people and personalities,

so I saw someone suggest I got an email yesterday.

For safety concerns, we shouldn't stand out as Jews.

Excuse me.

We're going to hide our Judaism.

We're going to hide our Yamakas.

We're going to hide our Tzitzis.

We're going to, we can't hide.

And we should never hide.

The Jewish people in Egypt were in far worse persecution.

And what saved them?

They didn't change their names.

They didn't change their language.

They didn't change their clothes.

That's what saved them.

They stayed a community within the Jewish people.

We're not trying to be a community with the rest of the world.

We're trying to be a community within our people.

We can never take a step back from being proud of our Judaism.

We can never take a step back from being at the front lines of representing what it means

to be God's people.

That's our responsibility.

Our job is to, we are on the front lines.

Representing what it means to be God's people.

Not to hide from it, not to shy away from it,

not to ever feel that we need to

cower in front of these anti-Semites.

We stand tall, we stand proud, united as a people.

And we're able to overcome anything in the world.

Because unity is the key to success.

You know, the example given by our sages,

if you take one straw, you crack it.

But try to take 100 straws and cracking them.

It doesn't work.

But it's just a little straw.

It's nothing.

When you have 100 together,

it's unbreakable.

Each one of us independently could be cracked.

But as a community, we cannot.

A Shem should bless us to have an amazing Shabbos.

Thank you, my dear friends.

You've been listening to Rave Arya will be on a podcast produced by Torch.

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Thank you, Rabbi.

I understand there's a fundraiser going on.

Why would listeners want to donate to Torch versus other organizations?

So a very, very good question, very valid question.

I want to tell you something like this.

Torch is here for one reason.

Torch is here to share the word of Torah with the world.

Any one of you listeners out there listening on a podcast, listening in a video,

last year alone, our videos grew, our video exposure grew 295%.

If I told you that there was an investment

in the stock market that is going to grow 295%.

Everyone would invest.

I am telling you, my dear listeners,

that last year our YouTube videos alone grew 295% by our viewership.

Our podcast, there are many podcasts that grew by well over 200% as well.

This is a great investment.

I really believe so.

I really feel this, my bones.

I know myself that I keep a very meticulous log of all of our videos.

Last year in 2025, we published 1092 videos.

I don't know about you, but I think that's a lot of videos.

Bor Hashem.

To me, it's an exceptional privilege to be able to teach and learn Torah together

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It's unbelievable.

We'll go on over there.

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I don't say it as a cliche.

Oh, we're partners, da-da-da.

I really, we cannot do it.

We can't keep these lights on.

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We can't do any of this without the support of our partners.

And therefore, this one week that you have,

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We're here not to raise money.

We're here to teach Dora.

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Right, what happened to the temple?

They said enough, enough donations.

I'm ready to do the same.

Please help us, my dear friends.

Givetorch.net, givetorch.net.

Thank you, Mark. I appreciate your question.

Now, I want to talk about giving to Torch.

Okay.

We are so blessed that God has given us.

And it's not just for us, it's for the whole world.

As a matter of fact, our choice being chosen

is to be a light to the nations,

to bring Torah to everyone.

Okay, they don't have to all do the commandments.

But this is, as you have often said,

the owner's manual for living.

And for those of us who grew up at a time

where a good Jewish education was not available to us.

Now, there's a little bit here, a little bit there.

I am so grateful that I get to come here four times a week.

But more importantly, as a good friend of mine once said,

if you could learn everything from a video or a book,

there would be no universities.

And here at Torch, not only can you come and participate,

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we take people on Zoom who ask questions.

And I don't know any other organization

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in a long distance with a rabbi.

So studying Torch is like trying to eat an elephant.

You do it one bite at a time.

How do you learn Torah one bite at a time?

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You go to some places every single week.

They pass the pot and try to get money out of you.

But here they wait once a year.

They don't bother you.

They don't send out a give me give me give me once a year.

That's all we ask give Torch.net.

All my friends are my friends from class and my rabbis.

They're my friends.

That is my solicitation from y'all to please contribute, give Torch.net.

Thank you for letting me speak.

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Support Torch if you can.

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