Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

As a rabbi, I’ve participated in many fundraising campaigns. The pattern is always the same: large donors are approached first, and only after a substantial sum has been secured does the campaign go public.  That way, smaller donors then feel they are contributing to a winning effort and are more inclined to give.

Our parasha of the week,  Ki Tissa, opens with a very different model of fund raising. Moses asks every Israelite to contribute a half‑shekel toward building the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary that would house God’s presence as the people journeyed toward the Promised Land. There are no major gifts, no naming opportunities, no early donors. Everyone gives the exact same amount. The wealthy may not give more; the poor may not give less.

The message is unmistakable: for the Mishkan, the goal was not maximizing revenue but maximizing participation. A small, equal contribution ensured that every Israelite felt personally invested in creating a “home,” as it were, for God.

This collection of contributions also served as a census. God instructs Moses to count the people, but instead of counting individuals directly, Moses counts the identical half‑shekels. Interestingly, the Torah does not use the usual verb for counting, lispor. Instead, it uses tissa—“to raise up.” Rabbi Avraham Borenstein (1838-1910), the “Avnei Nezer”, explains that when individuals are gathered for a shared purpose, they are elevated. A person isolated from community may feel insignificant, but one who is part of something larger becomes, like a limb of a body, capable and empowered. Thus, the Torah describes the joint fund-raising effort to build the Mishkan  as an act, not of raising money, but “raising up” the people.

Shabbat Shalom