Welcome to the short, practical Lelamed Weekly Dvar and Daily Aliyah. As always, you can Order The Daily Aliyah <https://mosaicapress.com/product/the-daily-aliyah/> and receive your hard copy of these daily practical and relevant Torah thoughts (all proceeds go to Daily Giving), or join this Whatsapp group <https://chat.whatsapp.com/GFRNDpSWoFHGhHYziqAGYv> to receive one per day. I hope you find this meaningful... _______________________________________________ The parashah begins by counting the people with a half-shekel donation per eligible person as a way to elevate the people and achieve atonement for their sins (30:12). Rabbi Yochanan Zweig asks: How can the mere half-shekel donation be considered so significant that it elevates those that give and forgives their sins? Rabbi Zweig offers a beautiful perspective. The giving of the half-shekel converted the Jewish people from a “corporation,” with clear independent leadership, to a partnership where everyone is an equal owner. With this perspective, we can appreciate that it’s not the amount that is significant but the transformative gesture that is compelling in that it makes everyone equally responsible for each other and personally invested in each other’s successes. Accepting equal responsibility for each other is a vital step in becoming a unified people and an enduring nation. Shlomo Ressler _____________________________________________ Quotation of the week: “True unity arises not from equal wealth, but from equal commitment to each other’s welfare.”