Perashat Ki Tissa

Perashat Ki Tissa

Much ado has been made over the past few years about the "one-percent" population in this country - those who are literally rich beyond measure.  Many politicians have raised a hue and a cry over the fact that the rich are a privileged class and are recipients of disproportional benefits due to their economic station in society. 

This week's perasha discusses the missva of bringing the half-Shekel; a missva that applies equally to everyone - rich and poor alike.  Among the many reasons offered for the contribution of the half-Shekel was that it served as a "kappara" - an atonement for sin.  The Torah instructs us that, "The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than the half-Shekel to provide atonement for your souls."  [Shemot 30:15] 

Rabbi Y. Frand refers to a very interesting question posed by Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin in his classic commentary, Oznayim LaTorah. Rabbi Sorotzkin maintains that it is a great spiritual challenge for a poor person who is struggling to put food on his table to give the half-Shekel donation. On the other hand, this same amount of money is considered to be small change for a rich person. Rabbi Sorotzkin therefore asks: How could the Torah mandate the a missva offering identical atonement for all - which at the same time, is  a major challenge for a poor person, yet a trivial matter for a rich person, to fulfill?  This does not seem right!  

Rabbi Sorotzkin suggests that this missva was indeed a challenge for a rich person as well. In general, rich people do not like to be treated the same way as poor people are treated. Someone who is wealthy does not like to be put in the same category as someone who does not have money. The "one percenters" want to be treated as if they are Very Important People [VIPs] who deserve better and different treatment.

Thus, a rich man who is required to donate the very same half-shekel as the pauper, regardless of the vast differences in their financial assets, experiences a challenge, no less than that of the poor person who feels the pain of making a half-shekel donation. Rabbi Frand says, that when it comes to the fulfillment of this missva of the half-Shekel,"That which the poor person experiences financially, the rich man experiences psychologically."

Whatever our station in life, may we all be "privileged" to  witness the rebuilding of the Bet HaMikdash in our lifetime and participate as a united people, rich and poor alike, in the missva of the half-Shekel.