Forgetting About Parshas Shekalim

(Sorry for posting this late for those who are following the blog. This was from parshat shekalim)

Parshat Shekalim has a way of sneaking up on us.  The other three special maftirs in the coming month- Parah, HaChodesh, and Zachor- do not carry that same element of surprise after Shekalim provides the heads up. 

For those who had Parshat Shekalim marked on their calendar, yashar koach.  Many of us probably realize at some point during the week, maybe some of us see it in the bulletin, and I’m sure there’s few of us who don’t realize it’s Parshat Shekalim until seeing the second Torah. 

It could be worse:

In the mid nineteenth century, Rav Moshe Shick, a prominent Hungarian Rabbi, received a question from another shul in Hungary which really dropped the ball: the entire kehilla forgot Parshat Shekalim.  The gabbayim, the rabbi, everyone- they lained, they finished davening, probably had a Kiddush, and sometime after Shabbat, realized that they were supposed to lain Parshat Shekalim!  What do they do now? 

The question had been posed decades earlier to the famed Rabbi Akiva Eiger, who argued that Shekalim could not be made up: if you miss the laining for Pesach, you can’t make it up after Pesach, if you miss the laining for Sukkot, you can’t make it up after Sukkot.  The proper time to lain Shekalim is the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Adar: if you missed it, you missed it. 

The Rav Shick (known as the Maharam Shick) suggested a different approach:

Why do we read Parshat Shekalim at this time of year?  The gemara in Megilla 29 explains that each year’s communal offerings in the Beis Hamikdash were brought from communal funds, with the year beginning on the 1^st of Nissan.  30 days before, the community would be reminded to donate their machatzit hashekel to pay for the coming years offerings, hence the institution of Parshas Shekalim.  The gemara points out that this 30 day reminder parallels the halacha that one should study the laws of the holiday 30 days in advance of its arrival. 

If a person forgot to begin studying the laws of Pesach 30 days prior, would we tell him that all is lost and there’s no hope in starting 29 days before?  Of course not.  30 days before is the beginning of the process, and if one misses that, he or she should begin as soon as possible.

Similarly, posits the Maharam Shik, if a community forgot Parshat Shekalim, the reminder to gather the shekalim together to contribute to the next year’s communal funds, not all is lost: they can remind themselves next Shabbat, and they should recite Parshat Shekalim then.

The Maharam Shik, like us today, did not have a Beit Hamikdash.  Like 21^st century Riverdale, 19^th century Hungary did not spend the next week collecting half shekels.  But the Maharm Shik felt that still today, our reading of Parshat Shekalim is not simply a one-day occurrence.  Our completion of Parshat Shekalim begins a process, a period of preparation for the month of Nissan. 

We may not have remembered yesterday that today would be Parshat Shekalim, but if we understand its role as the beginning of a process, we must remember it tomorrow.

What is it that we are supposed to accomplish during this process?

The Sfat Emet writes that the anticipation of the 1^st of Nissan parallels the anticipation of the 1^st of Tishrei, Rosh Hashana.  In Elul we come close to G-d through yirah, fear.  Adar we come to G-d through ahava, love.  In Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we pass as sheep before the Shepherd, scrutinized individually.  Purim and Pesach are holidays we come together, and Shekalim is the beginning of that process.  The collection of machatzit hashekel was more than a fundraiser, it represented the community coming together. Let’s use this time before Purim and Pesach to think beyond ourselves and use these holidays as times to unite.