The Torah (Exodus 30:13-15) commanded: “This they shall give … a half shekel for the shekel of the sanctuary … everyone … from twenty years old and above shall give an offering to God. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less that half of a shekel … to make an atonement for your souls.”
Each person was required to give exactly one-half shekel. The rich could not give more and the poor could not give less. It was a small amount which everyone could afford to pay. The money raised was used for sacrificial offerings and repairs to the Temple. In this manner, every Jew was represented equally in the daily communal offerings and in the upkeep of the Temple itself.
“Let me tell you something so beautiful. The Ten Commandments are a whole shekel, and the broken commandments are half a shekel, it is a broken thing.You know, every person has whole commandments which he didn’t break yet, and then everybody has little-broken commandments deep down in their souls. And you know what a good friend is? Somebody who puts his broken tablets and my broken tablets together. To a lot of people I often openly show my good commandments, but the broken tablets I’m afraid to show. But then between such good friends, we share our broken commandments.
Here I want to share something with you: when you kiss somebody, you close your eyes. Do you know what it means? What do you do when something breaks your
heart – you close your eyes: can’t see it, don’t want to see it – it’s too deep. You know, when you kiss somebody, you know what you tell them – I love you so much – but I love you so much, it breaks my heart. Why do children close their eyes when they are born? They want to know how much their parents love them even when they don’t see them.
You know why the Jewish people count after the moon? The sun is beautiful, the sun is always whole. The real light is the moon – it’s full, and it’s also broken. You know the Talmud begins with page two. Page one – the blank paper – it’s a broken page – nothing’s written on it. And you know when you finish learning, when you learn a little bit when you study with the deepest depths of your heart and your soul – you kiss the blank paper because real learning, the real understanding is so deep.
Want you to know: Once a year there was a collection for the sacrifice of the Holy Temple. And everybody was giving half a shekel – a broken shekel. And this is how we kept the Holy Temple going.” (Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach)) “My sacrifice to you is a broken spirit; God, you won’t spurn a broken, chastened heart.” (Psalm 51 18-19) “How blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs!” (Matthew 5:3)
