Photo by Patricia Serna on Unsplash
By Rabbi Loren Berman
Shabbat Shekalim “Shabbat of the Shekels”
How many people showed up? How many “uniques” were there? What really matters, anyway?
This week’s special Torah reading – called “Parashat Shekalim” because it recounts the half-shekel contribution made by each adult male to support the sacrifices in the Tabernacle and Temple – offers an answer. The reading says that “when you take a census of the Israelites…each shall pay [a half-shekel]…and no plague shall come upon them…” Apparently, the way to take a census is not by counting heads themselves, but by counting the number of half-shekels donated (one half-shekel per head). But why? How could a census of counting people, rather than shekels, lead to a plague?
Rabbi Norman Lamm, a 20th Century leader of American Modern Orthodoxy, explains that “when we are only concerned only with quantity, when we are obsessed with numbers, there must be a plague… the index of blessing is substance and quality and content, not size and quantity and number.” In other words, it’s not how many Israelites there are that matters, but the impact of being a part of the people, and the commitment they demonstrate – measured by how many give this half-shekel. For us, we are challenged to celebrate our success by measuring not just the number of bodies who come into our homes – but the impact of our programming and their experiences in our homes, how transformed they are when they leave our homes, and their excitement to come back and play a role in helping others share those experiences as well.
How do you want your programs to impact your community members?
What meaning do you want to bring to their lives?
Where can you empower them to give back as an expression of their connection to the community?
