Machtzit HaShekel and the Collapse of Fiat Currency in the Month of Adar (part 1)

From the moment that Avraham plopped 400 silver shekels onto Efron the Hittites scale to buy a burial plot for his wife and descendants as well as himself, we see that G-d Himself considers silver more than anything else to be the Real medium of exchange in the World.  When it came to purchasing the holiest places on earth from Avraham buying the Cave of Machpela or David buying the inner courtyard and Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount, it was always Silver that was plopped on the scales (not even gold, not beads, not Monopoly colored funny money, not even greenbacks with pictures of dead American Presidents on them).  It was always meant at least to be silver and not coins with primarily numismatic value, but real silver by Weight (as in the Hebrew word for weight: Shekel).  Now David purchased the holiest parts of the Temple Mount for a bargain.  He only paid 50 silver shekels for the place around the mizbeach and the Holy of Holies while Avraham paid eight times that price for the Cave on the outskirts of Chevron from Efron the Hittite.  But Our Father in Heaven considers both those purchases along with Yosef's tomb in Shekhem to be Eternal purchases whose bill of sale can be redeemed at any time until the completion of the Messianic Era and beyond.  The Hebrew word for Silver, Keseph has a Root (Kaf Samech Pey) which also means Intense Desire or Yearning.  As the Zemer Yedid Nefesh says in the third verse relating to the Vav in HaShem's Name (Nichsof Nichsafti!), I have intensely yearned to quickly see the charisma of Your Strength! as the song goes.   So Keseph, the Silver metal by weight, more than anything else that G-d created reflects the intense desires of our animal souls, the emotional sefirot tied to the Vav in HaShem's Name.  That is the main reason why Nichsof Nichsafti is in that particular third verse of Yedid Nefesh.  Since G-d did create us with an animal aspect to us, serving him with our animal souls or our six emotional sefirot and our intense desires plays an important role in our Divine Service and ultimately in the process leading to the Final Redemption.

Now what is that process?  Well we go through it every year starting just before Rosh Chodesh Adar.  Notice that it begins really on Rosh Chodesh Adar and not Rosh Chodesh Nissan.  The first mitzvah of the Redemption from Mitzraim began with the Sanctification of the New Moon for the month of Nissan, but the Final Redemption b'Rachamim, partly in honor of Purim and the willful acceptance of the Oral Torah during Adar, begins on Rosh Chodesh Adar a full 30 days earlier.  According to Chazal, the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Adar or on that Rosh Chodesh itself is called Shabbat Shekalim, a Shabbat dedicated to reminding us of the importance of setting aside one-half of a Shekel for public Divine Service.  Years ago it was used to buy public Qorbanot in the Beit HaMiqdash.  And even before that in the Desert of Sinai, it was used to make the Adanim (the connecting bases) of the pillars for the Mishkan itself AND the hooks, capstones, and even the decorative hoops around the pillars in the Courtyard of that same Mishkan.  In a very deep way, the Silver dedicated for the Mishkan represents our deepest desires, and the placement of that silver in the Mishkan represents how we use our deepest desires to serve G-d.  Yet, from a perspective of Geulah starting in Adar, the Silver coins of Redemption are the same Machtzit HaShekel.  To be explained deeper into this essay in part 2, they are the silver coins worth half of a shekel that were dispersed amongst the brothers of Yosef to purchase shoes from Midyanite traders when they sold Yosef into slavery.  And when their descendants worshiped the Golden Calf, a Yosef-like idol which confused Prosperity with Utopia (a Day that will be always like Shabbat), then all 603,550 who participated in making and worshiping this idol or the Shekhinah that they hoped would dwell between the calf's horns, all of them need this last generation to redeem them from their servitude to this god or from their servitude to the idea that Prosperity is Yom sheKulo Shabbat... which of course is utterly wrong!  Yet, THIS redemption is only the first step in the process of the Final Redemption, for when they are redeemed by real Machtzit haShekel given by 6 million Jews, it is only the first step to the next phase, the War against Amaleq which leads into Purim.  Now we really have the entire month to give the Machtzit HaShekel because even though this War against Amaleq concludes on Erev Purim the 13th of Adar, it actually began during Pesach of the previous year when Esther risked her life to appear before the King (Achashveirosh and the King of king of kings too) in order to plead for the survival of her people in the vast Persian Empire.  So all of our Machtzit HaShekels have to be in the Treasury of the Temple by Rosh Chodesh Nissan when all Redemptions in Nissan are declared in order to counter the 10,000 kikar of Silver that Haman placed into the Treasury of the King of kings of kings to annihilate us.  .  to be continued in part 2 very soon....