by  Ariel Ben Avraham – Safed, Northern Galilee, Israel Art by Phillip Ratner “When you count (ki tisa) the head (the total sum) of the children of Israel according to their numbers, let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul when they are counted; then there will be no plague among them when they are counted.” (Exodus 30:12). Our Sages teach that this new census of the Israelites is related to the events that occurred in this portion of the Torah, and those are the final instructions of the assembly of the Sanctuary, the sin of the golden calf, and the Divine attributes of mercy.

This particular census involves the individual contribution of half shekel of silver by every adult for the foundation of the Sanctuary, which represents a dual objective: to be aware that we as individuals are incomplete (halves), because our wholeness is achieved in our unity with the Creator; and we have to offer our individual being (the half that we are) for the foundation of what symbolizes our unity with G-d, the Sanctuary as the highest level of our awareness of His Love.

The verse, “The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the Lord to make atonement for your souls.” (30:15), points out to us that we offer the wholeness of our being that is no more and no less of who we are and what we possess as traits and qualities that make us individually unique. It is this wholeness that we elevate ourselves to the Creator in order to be atoned (transformed) by His Love. This process takes place when we embrace His ways and attributes in the material world. After the final instructions for the construction of the Sanctuary and its anointing, there is a repeated reminder: “(…) ‘You shall keep My Shabbats! Because it is a sign between Me and you for your generations, to know that I, the Lord, make you holy. Thus shall the children of Israel observe the Sabbath, to make the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting Covenant.” (31:13-17). The reminder not only warns us about the preeminence of the Shabbat as the absence of the labors related to the building of the Sanctuary, but to teach us that in it we are One with the Creator, and this makes us holy.

After this preamble the narrative continues with the rebellion of the basic emotions, passions and instincts, led by the ego against the highest awareness of the Creator in our consciousness, represented by Moses and Aaron. All the miracles performed for the liberation from the bondage to ego’s illusions are forgotten, and replaced by those illusions: “They have quickly turned away from the path that I have commanded them; they have made themselves a molten calf! And they have prostrated themselves before it, slaughtered sacrifices to it, and said: ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up from the land of Egypt’.” (32:8). The power of ego, granted by the Creator, is intended to serve Him; but this depends on our free will, and the choices we make every moment: either to follow our materialistic desires or to follow Love’s ways and attributes. In this situation, our higher awareness of His Presence is responsible to lead every aspect of consciousness in His direction.

“Moses said to Aaron: ‘What did this people do to you that you brought a grave sin upon them?’ Aaron replied: ‘Let not my lord’s anger grow hot! You know the people, that they are disposed toward evil’.” (32:21-22), although the battle between true and false, right and wrong, is waged every moment, Love always prevails when we choose His ways and attributes. It is in the permanent awareness of Love that we redeem ourselves from the ordeals imposed by ego’s materialistic agenda. Once we integrate all levels of consciousness into G-d’s Love, and follow His ways, Redemption follows. This unity is achieved in the awareness of His attributes: “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed: ‘The Lord, the Lord, benevolent G-d, compassionate and gracious, patient, and abundant in loving kindness and truth; preserving loving kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and rebellion and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation’.” (34:6-7). As it is widely explained in the book “God as Love”, these thirteen attributes of Divine compassion are inherent to the Love of the Creator for His Creation.