RABBI GROSSMAN: Coronavirus (& Political Stalemate)? Renew the Half-Shekel Fund!
Here is an excerpt:
When we hear the reading of Sh’qalim, we have to ask ourselves, why is there no public organization that collects the Sh’qalim? How can we establish one?
The fact remains that even once the Temple was destroyed and there was no longer a commandment to contribute to it, the sages maintained the practice of publicly announcing the obligation to give, and this perhaps also explains why the tractate of the Yerushalmi found its way into the Bavli: study leads to practice, and this tractate is full of ideally-practical applications. We may not have put them into practice last year, but this year there should be nothing to stop us.
I would even argue that this year, more than any other, when we have experienced three-rounds of useless national elections and society has been overwhelmed by the threat of plague, we should form an official Temple trust for the collection of actual half-sh’qalim, because of what we read in the very first verse of Sh’qalim:
כִּי תִשָּׂא אֶת-רֹאשׁ בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם וְנָתְנוּ אִישׁ כֹּפֶר נַפְשׁוֹ לַיהוָה בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם, וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה בָהֶם נֶגֶף בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם
When you take the sum of the children of Israel according to their numbers, then every man shall give his life’s ransom unto the Lord when you number them, and there shall be no plague among them when you number them.
