Parashat Ki Tisa is read twice this time, because it is also the reading of Parashat Shekalim. In Parashat Ki Tisa we start with the idea: כִּי תִשָּׂא אֶת־רֹאשׁ בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם וְנָתְנוּ אִישׁ כֹּפֶר נַפְשׁוֹ לַיהֹוָה בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם וְלֹא־יִהְיֶה בָהֶם נֶגֶף בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם (Shemot 30:12). When you want to count Am Yisrael, each person should not be counted one by one. Instead, he should give the machatzit hashekel, kofer nafsho. And if not, velo yihyeh vahem negef; otherwise there will be a plague, people dying.
Two Questions
So there are a few questions here that I was thinking about. First of all, the lashon of Ki Tisa, which means “when you count,” is very strange. It should have said ki tifkod. Counting is pekidah. Tisa means to elevate, to raise, to pick up. What does that mean? I am not elevating right now; I am counting. The lashon here does not seem precise, and we need to explain it.
Secondly, it says that if you do count the people there will be a negef. Why should there be a plague? Rashi says it is because of ayin hara: שהמנין שולט בו עין הרע, והדבר בא עליהם, כמו שמצינו בימי דוד. David Hamelech also counted the people, and because of that there was a plague and people died. So the Torah says: don’t count the people; rather, count what they give, and this way you will know the number of people.
But what does ayin hara have to do with this? Ayin hara is when you see somebody who is very successful in many ways. He has money, he has a nice house, he has things to show off, and he does show off. Then a person looks at him and gives him an ayin hara; the jealousy brings out the ayin hara. That is how the meforashim explain it. But here you are only counting people. What is there to have ayin hara about? And an ayin hara to the level that there will be a plague throughout the nation? That is also not so well understood.
Counting Is Elevating
So the way we explain it, and I think it is beautiful, is that the Torah comes to teach us something. You should know that when you count people, you don’t just count the people themselves. When you put a person in the spotlight, when you count him, you are actually elevating him. When you pay attention to a person, you really look at his qualities. You don’t just keep going, one, two, three, four, five, the way you count animals. When you pay attention to each person, you put him in the spotlight, and you see that he has so many qualities you would never have thought of. And those qualities shine in such a way that the Torah says: if you pay attention to them, it could bring a plague. There would be so much ayin hara in it that it would bring a plague.
You see a regular random person sitting near you on a bus, and you think he is nobody, a regular person. In reality, every person has such qualities. I have been around people, and I thought I was sitting near a regular person, and all of a sudden I see that one is a doctor, one is a professor, another is a talmid chacham, another is such a baal chesed. Each person in Am Yisrael has such qualities. Nobody is a regular person. That is the chiddush here.
So when you look at a person and pay attention to him, what are you doing? You are elevating him. You are not counting him like cows or sheep; you see that the person really has a lot to offer. That is Ki Tisa et rosh Bnei Yisrael lifkudeihem. When you count a person, you put him in the spotlight, and the evil eye comes automatically, so much of it that it could lead to a plague.
The Mistake of David Hamelech
And that is the reason David Hamelech made his mistake. The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh asks: how did David Hamelech make such a simple mistake and count the people? Every child knows the parasha of Ki Tisa, that you are not allowed to count people. And even if, let’s say, he was forgetful at the time and forgot this halacha, he asked his sar tzava to count. Did he forget too? And the sarei meot, the sarei alafim, all the heads, all the ministers, all forgot? And even if they forgot, how did the entire nation not protest when David Hamelech came to count them?
I think the answer to that question is here. David Hamelech thought that it is only forbidden when you count in a way that elevates the person. But if you count them the way you count sheep, that is nothing. That is why there it says that David Hamelech counted, pakad; he just counted, he did not elevate them. Here it says Ki Tisa; you elevate, you put a person up and look into his qualities, and that brings ayin hara. But just to count, one, two, three, four, five, David Hamelech thought that is permitted.
David Hamelech was wrong in that, because there was a plague because of it. What was the mistake? Once the Torah says you are not allowed to do it, you are not allowed to do it. You are right that the reason is what we explained, that you put a person up and look at his qualities. David Hamelech thought that this was the main issur: only if you actually look at his qualities, but if you just count randomly and keep going to the next person, that is nothing. And Hashem brought the plague to say no, it is assur however you do it. The reason for the issur is what you said, but the issur stands by itself.
The Half-Full Cup
But here we learn something more. Every person also has a chisaron. People have advantages and disadvantages, maalot and chesronot. That is why you bring the machatzit hashekel. The meforashim want to know: what is the idea of a half-shekel? The machatzit hashekel comes to show that here you give a kapara for the qualities of the person. The qualities are the half, the full half of the cup, that represent what a person does have. You are right that there is another half, things that are chesronot. But for that half, the half-full cup, which if you look at it could bring such a disaster, such a plague, people dying, a person needs to bring a kapara. And therefore you give the machatzit hashekel: you count it for the qualities of the person, and you don’t concentrate on the person himself.
Based on Rabbi Shay Tahan’s class “Every Person Has Much Qualities.Ki Tisa” (Parashat Ki Tisa): watch the class.
