Ever since I was a child (which also means currently, because I am still a child), I've always wondered why "zzzzzzzz" meant that someone was sleeping. Like in cartoons, if they want to express that someone is sleeping, they will write "Zzzzzzzzzzz" right above the character's head. My question is, what does the letter "zzz" have to do with sleep? So I thought, maybe it's supposed to imitate the sound of sleeping, maybe snoring. So I wanted to check if this is accurate, except that I could never hear myself sleeping, because I'm asleep when I'm sleeping. But I'm pretty sure that when someone snores, the sound comes from the throat, or the nose. "Zzzzzzz" sounds like there is a bee flying around my ear, not like someone is sleeping. Who come up with such a weird convention? More importantly, why am I bringing this up?
This week has been a very long week, and I haven't gotten much sleep. Today, I was sitting by my computer, typing something up. All of sudden, my eyelids felt very heavy, and I felt like I was going to fall asleep right on my computer. I quickly shook my head to try to wake myself up. When I looked at my computer screen, right in the middle of my document, I saw the following: "
It seems as though my finger was on the "z" key as I dosed off for a second or two. When I saw the z's on the screen, I got a good laugh out of it. Could this actually be the reason that "zzz" means "sleeping?" I guess we'll never know.
This week's parasha is Parashat Pekudei, and we read a special maftir/haftarah this week, which is called Parashat Shekalim. Beginning the Shabbat prior to Rosh Chodesh Adar (Adar 2, during leap years), we have a four-parasha-sequence that we read throughout the month. The four parashiyot are Shekalim, Zachor, Parah, and HaChodesh. This week, we read Parashat Shekalim, in which we tell each and every Jewish man to give a half-shekel contribution to the mishkan or the Beit HaMikdash. Every man must give a half-shekel. Nowadays that we don't have the Beit HaMikdash (unfortunately), we no longer have this mitzvah to give a half-shekel. However, in order to remember it, we give three half-shekel's to tzedaka. But we must realize that this is NOT the mitzvah of machatzit hashekel, just a remembrance.
In Megillat Esther, which we will be reading in another two weeks, Haman decides that he wants to destroy all the Jews. He approaches Achashverosh and says:
"If it pleases the king, let it be recorded that [the Jews] be destroyed; and I will pay 10,000 silver coins...Then the king said to Haman, 'The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with as you see fit'" (Esther 3:9,11).
Haman offers to pay Achashverosh a large sum of money to be granted the permission to kill the Jews. Not only is Achashverosh okay with this plan to kill the Jews, but he also tells Haman to keep the money. "Just kill them, I don't need your money." Both Haman and Achashverosh are guilty here. The Gemara (Megilla) draws a parallel parable. There are two men: One man has a huge heap of dirt on his field, and the second man has a huge ditch in his field. The first man wants to get rid of this pile, and the second man needs a pile of dirt to fill the hole on his field. So it's a win-win situation for both of them. The first guy gives the dirt to the second guy, the first guy's field is cleaned up, and the second guy's field is smoothed out because he fills the ditch with the dirt. Everyone is happy. The Gemara explains that this is exactly what happened with Achashverosh and Haman. Haman wanted to kill the Jews, and Achasherosh wanted to get rid of them. Both of them were equally wicked. So Achashverosh simply handed them over to Haman and said, "do as you see fit."
However, the Gemara explains that we precede our "coins" to Haman's coins. On Purim, we read this story of Haman offering 10,000 silver coins to kill us. Two weeks prior to Purim, we read Parashat Shekalim, in which every Jewish male makes a contribution to the house of Hashem, towards a good purpose. We precede Haman and use our coins to do something good, to serve Hashem. In that zechut, Haman will not be allowed to use his coins to hurt us in any way.
Obviously, Haman won't hurt us, because we know that Haman is dead. But that's the thing; he's not dead. There are plenty of people who would L-O-V-E to destroy us and remove us off the face of the earth. Plenty of people would pay the highest prices to destroy the Jews. However, if we precede them by giving tzedaka to worthy causes, to the needy, to schools, to synagogues, etc., we will prevent all the bad decrees. We will clip the wings of our enemies and prevent them from ever even getting off the ground.
We often don't realize that when giving tzedaka, the giver receives a lot more than the recipient. He is protected from so many things because of the act of charity, not to mention the reward that he will receive because of this action, both monetary reward and spiritual reward. As we read Parashat Shekalim this week, think about becoming more of a giver. Think about this mitzvah of giving, that it has saved us in the past and will continue to save us in the future. And realize that when you give tzedaka, the one who is receiving the most is yourself.
Shabbat Shalom!
Chodesh Tov!
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