SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

G

iving is transforma-
tive — and not just 
to the recipient. In a 
2012 survey of studies linking 
altruistic behaviors to improved 
health, researchers from the 
University of 
Michigan con-
cluded that giving 
time and money 
to organiza-
tions, providing 
social support to 
friends, family 
and community, 
caring for the elderly or the 
handicapped, and cultivating 
compassionate attitudes and 
traits is associated with high-
er psychological well-being, 
including increased happiness 
and self-esteem, and decreased 
loneliness and depression.
Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, in 
a famous essay, wrote that 
there are two forces in this 
world, giving and taking, and 
correspondingly, two kinds of 
people, givers and takers. (He 
also explained how some peo-
ple actually give by taking, and 
others take by giving — so the 
dynamic is obviously not so 
simple.) Furthermore, he said 
one of the great transformative 

goals of the Torah is to nurture 
us into being givers rather than 
takers. He also explained that 
giving is the foundation of all 
relationships — the more you 
give to a person, the more you 
love them. This is quite a par-
adigm shift. The conventional 
wisdom is that we give to those 
we love. Rabbi Dessler says it 
is exactly the reverse: we love 
those to whom we give.
On this Shabbos, apart from 
the weekly portion, we read 
a special section of the Torah 
dealing with an archetypal act 
of giving — the mitzvah of the 
half-shekel coin. In the wake of 
receiving the Torah at Mount 
Sinai, the Jewish people were 
called on to each donate a 
half-shekel silver coin. The col-
lection of these coins had a dual 
purpose: they functioned as a 
census of the people (each coin 
corresponded to an individual) 
and also as a contribution to the 
Mishkan, the sanctuary in the 
desert where the Jewish peo-
ple gathered to connect to the 
Shechinah, the Divine Presence. 
It is significant that both 
these functions were joined in 
one act. The message seems to 
be that, through the process of 

giving and contributing to a 
worthy initiative, people earn 
the right to be counted as part 
of society. And that’s exactly 
what a society is: a group of 
individuals, who, through their 
specific contributions, create a 
community, a collective that is 
greater than the sum of its parts.
Also significant is that the 
mitzvah of the half-shekel coin 
was given at this formative 
moment in the history of the 
Jewish people — in the midst of 
a series of momentous events: 
the Exodus from Egypt and all 
of the miracles that accompa-
nied that, and the revelation at 
Mount Sinai, which is regarded 
as the central event in the for-
mation of the Jewish people. 
The giving of the half-shekel 
— and the concept of giving in 
general — is foundational to 
who we are.

THE IMPORTANCE OF 
CONTINUALLY GIVING
The mitzvah continued during 
Temple times: each year, from 
the beginning of the month 
of Adar, and in the lead-up 
to Pesach, a national cam-
paign was launched whereby 
half-shekel coins were collected 

from people across the land of 
Israel, which went toward the 
running costs of the Temple. 
Crucially, the offerings brought 
to the Temple could only be 
purchased with the coins col-
lected that year and not with 
coins from previous years. This 
signifies the importance of con-
tinual giving and also connects 
the act of giving with the sacred 
service of the Temple.
A remembrance of the 
half-shekel continues to this 
day. In addition to commem-
orating the mitzvah with this 
special Torah reading, there 
is a further commemoration 
on Purim, with each person 
required to give three coins — 
half the denomination of one’s 
national currency, so three 
50c pieces, for example — to 
charity.
In Biblical times, the 
half-shekel went toward the 
Mishkan and later the Temple. 
And similarly, the mitzvah 
symbolizes our responsibility 
to build the institutions that 
help us connect to God in 
today’s times — shuls, schools, 
yeshivas, houses of Torah 
learning. And, like the Biblical 
commandment, the impact is 

What Happens 
 When We Give?

Chief Rabbi 
Warren 
Goldstein

40 | FEBRUARY 24 • 2022