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Parshat Ki Tisa
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

כי תשא... ונתנו איש כופר נפשו... ולא יהיה בהם נגף בפקד אותם

"May it be the will before the God of the Heavens to have compassion upon us and cease all plague,  destruction, war, famine, captivity, and spoilage from upon us and from upon all Israel, and say Amen.” (Announcing the New Moon)

Our title quote teaches us that the giving of the half shekel by each man in Israel protects the masses from plague due to a census conducted upon them. This lesson is echoed at the end of the book of Samuel where King David conducts a census, which leads to a plague upon the People. The correlation between census and plague can be explained by our Sages' teaching that 'blessing rests only on something hidden from the eye'. When a census is conducted the multitudes of the People become 'revealed' and 'specified' by a number, causing the blessing that was with them to leave them, causing them to be susceptible to plague, God forbid. Therefore, the Torah commands us not to count the people directly but rather to take a half-shekel coin from each person which, in the collective, indicates the number of people involved.

That said, the fact that the Torah ties this 'coin-enumeration' process to a debut for the Holy Temple, 'to HaShem', adds another facet in the understanding how God wishes to protect Israel from plague. Indeed, we find that the method David was commanded to take in ceasing the plague that erupted at his time due to his census of the people was none other than collecting monies from Israel and using this money to buy the Temple Mount for the sake of the Holy Temple. More deeply, we can explain that 'specification', as in the census above, is referred to in the Torah by the term 'nakva' as in the dialogue between Yakov and Laban. Of course, 'nakva' ressembles (according to the Sages) the word 'nekeva' - the feminine. As we have explained in the past, Israel and the Temple/Holy Land have a relationship like husband and wife. Therefore, when Israel give monies towards the Temple and the Holy Land, these monies 'protect' Israel from the dangers of 'census-specification', measure for measure, just as a wife 'protects' her husband from danger (as a wife is considered by our Sages (Yevamot 62b) to have the virtue of being a 'wall of protection', so-to-speak, to her husband).

David's purchase of the Temple Mount clearly echoes Avraham's purchase of Maarat HaMachpela. Indeed, the Midrash (P. Derabi Eliezer  36) ties David's necessity in buying the Temple Mount from Aravna the Jebusite, specifically by his own free will, to the agreement formed by Avraham in the purchase of Maarat HaMachpela which stipulated, according to the Midrash, that the Temple Mount only be acquired by the free will of the Jebusites. Here we see again how the 'spirit of Hebron', where David also ruled for seven years before Jerusalem, teaches us the important methods of 'connection' and acquisition in Jerusalem. David's efforts towards the Temple in Jerusalem take greater effect after the downfall of the Temple in Shilo as we showed in last week's issue. From the downfall of Shilo till the building of the Temple in Jerusalem we see that the Temple is in flux, especially since the ark is not in the Temple, but rather in some other location - Kiryat Yaarim, City of David, etc. The Temple itself (not the ark) was first (after Shilo) in Nov which greatly resembles the verb root for 'navi', a prophet. Indeed, during the 13 years the Temple stood in Nov we see an accentuated interest in prophecy in Israel as in the rulership of Samuel the Prophet and King Saul, upon who it is said, 'is Saul also among the prophets?' 

The location of the ark in Kiryat Yaarim seems to tie the concepts of Hebron-Kiryat Arba and Shilo we discussed in our last issue (key term: 'connectedness'), since the numerical value of 'yaarim' equals 'shal' (330), the dominant letters in both Shilo ('shalom' and 'shalva' we discussed before) and in Yerushalem. This matter highlights how Kiryat (seemingly related to Kiryat Arba Hebron) Yaarim stands as a middle stage between Shilo and Yerushalayim. Also, the literal translation of 'yaarim' means forests suggesting un-settled land, which describes the 'un-settled' state of of the Temple which during the 20 years of Kiryat Yaarim stood in two - hence the plural 'yaarim' forests -  un-settled places - Nov (13 years) and Givon (7 years of David's reign in Hebron) before settling in Jerusalem.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #158

"About two years ago a book called 'Mishpetei HaShalom', on the laws of peace, was handed out in thousands of copies to the residents of Kiryat Arba-Hebron in order to express and strengthen the 'uniting-peace-making' potential of Hebron, the 'City of Unity'. About a month later, 'House of Peace' - 'Beit HaShalom' in Hebron, was occupied by Jews after being detained its occupation for many years..." M.A

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