KabbalaOnline.org Vayakhel/Pekudei 5783 Chasidic Masters Insights on the Torah Reading
KabbalaOnline.org Vayakhel/Pekudei 5783 Chasidic Masters Insights on the Torah Reading Charity or Prayer? Chasidic Masters By David Sterne, based primarily on Shem miShmuel. " These are the accounts of the Tabernacle of Testimony, which were calculated, according to the order of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest." ( Ex. 38:21) The parasha then proceeds through the list of all the donations and their weight/worth in shekels , noting: " A beka for every man, that is, half-a-shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who went to be counted, from twenty years old and upward, for six-hundred-and three-thousand, five-hundred and fifty men." ( Ex. 38:26) These half- shekel donations, we were told earlier, would serve as atonement. Shem miShmuel asks: How does a donation perform the job of atonement?...