This is a fantastic portion of Scripture.
All kinds of "oddities" and symbols and clues within. A common theme in the volumes of Jewish commentaries (there's a lot to write about) is that the half-shekel itself teaches that "somebody else" must provide the other half, that community is a community effort. Every man to himself would mean that one individual can only be a half. The simple meaning is that it takes two halves to make a whole.
Now seeing that a number of the phrases therein are multiples of 23, 46 (I have a marked-up printout around here somewhere), and that each donation was to be exactly half a shekel (rich or poor, same amount), and that the donation was a gift for the upkeep of the Tent of Meeting (meeting!), and for the atonement of souls (kiss and make up)...
In what real-world dumb obvious situation is it normal for anyone to give half and only half. No more, no less. It would not even be possible for the rich to give more, nor the poor to give less, because it's the natural order of the very creation, unification, and continuation of the community of Israel that is discussed in the commentaries..
23 + 23 = 46
No respect of persons is contained in that fundamental, biological equation. And anything else is a big problem, rarely surviving passed its conception. The continuation of the community depends on that equation. It's the simple meaning.
Furthermore, it is yet another numerical tie-in to the idea that the Messiah brings back the 23rd letter of the alef-beit (the heart formed with two lameds face-to-face, the letter of love), and that he is the one who restores the entire order back to everything and everyone, being the King of Divine restoration and rectification. A veritable soul round-up of the soul of Adam - one nation, one people, one heart. The Messiah son of David makes everything click together again.
A restoration so whole and complete it's as if ServPro scooped the announcement from heaven.
Like it never even happened.
Joseph + Judah, Jacob + Joseph
Jacob and Joseph were separated for 22 years.
Back to the equation.
Human chromosomes are paired off by the 22 like pairs, but the 23rd pair is the odd one out, being either XX or XY.
Thus the natural division within,
[22 + 1] + [22 + 1] = 23 + 23 = 46
The 23rd pair determines a person's identity in the community continuation plan. Boy or girl. Y or X. The father's input dictates the result.
Rachel... Imenu
This year (October 31, 2017 is 11 Cheshvan, 5778) will be 3570 years since her soul went out in Bethlehem, where David was born. The divisor name gematrias in that number alone are real attention-grabbers. There's David, Judah, Edom, Benoni, [Joseph + David], Rachel...
Joseph 156 + Judah 30 + Rachel 238 = 424 = Mashiach ben David
156 + 30 = 186 = Makom (place, but so much more), which has a full spelling of 358 (Mashiach). Joseph's mother Rachel, as we know, died in Bethlehem (giving birth to "Benoni"), where David, of the tribe (father) of Judah was born. But her second son "Benoni" was a fleeting manifestation, like the ohr haganuz. (Benoni permutes to Yinon comes.)
3570 is the 84th triangle number, the sum of the numbers 1-84.
Which goes right back to the incipient point of the human race with the souls that came out of Adam, when Adam knew his wife Eve, Chavah, the mother of all the living. Knew:
יָדַע = 84
Adam 45 + Eve 19. 64. 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2. Everyone has two family lines. One from the father, one from the mother. 23(1) + 23(1). It plays off of the gate concept with there being 231 letter pairs (unique pairings, matches) of the 22 letter alef-beit, because "there are 231" is a play on the name Israel.
Jacob overcame the sar of Esav to be renamed Israel. Jacob 182 + David 14 + Moses 345 = Israel 541
No wonder that fellow never stood a chance. David and Moses, sons of Jacob, were men of great accomplishment in all things. Polymaths. They represent the quintessential Renaissance man. Just ask Michelangelo. ;)
Anyway, see how this stuff just goes on and on to infinity? That's funny because
In the passage that is the subject of this thread, we are informed that a shekel was "20 gerah", a seemingly random and misplaced detail. The gematria of "twenty gerah" is 828, the same as Joseph's name Tzafnat Paaneach. And a half shekel being half that amount is "half of 828", which is 414. 414 = Ohr ein sof, the infinite light. Now can you imagine the wisdom of Joseph? Pharaoh gave him a name that was a doubling of infinite light, an entire shekel as it were, and Pharaoh himself was at the head of all the wisdom of the Egyptians, which was falling short that day. So if anyone would know how to double infinity, and to be a "whole shekel", it would be Joseph.
A child's spiritual identity comes from his mother. And Jacob prevailed over the satan himself, so put those two soulmates together and there's the "whole shekel", Jacob + Rachel = Joseph the Tzaddik.
The whole shekel:
At the outset, the Torah connects Jacob with Joseph. Of all his sons specifically Joseph holds the key to not only Jacob's but the family's mission.
>>>
The Kabbalistic term associated with Joseph is Yesod, meaning "foundation," as in Tzaddik Yesod Olam, meaning "a good and just man is the foundation of the world." Alternatively, Joseph is the foundation of the Jewish people. Had Joseph been killed, or disappeared in the slavemarkets of Egypt, the foundation of the nation would have been missing as well.
Perhaps now we can understand another episode in the Torah. When the Jews finally leave Egypt, Moses heads to the Nile in order to recover the remains of Joseph and to fulfill the promise to bring Joseph's remains out of Egypt.
http://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/48909747.html
>>>The value of “the Nile,” היאר, is 216 or 63, a very important number in Kabbalah. In the whole parshah, there are 6 instances of this word, all in reference to Pharaoh’s dream, while in the rest of the Book of Genesis it does not appear at all. The total gematria of this word in our parshah is therefore 6 · 63 = 64 = 362 = 1296. 36 is the value of היאר in ordinal reckoning.<<<
http://www.inner.org/parshah/genesis/mikeitz/E68-0324.php
Gen 30.24. And she called his name Joseph [= 502 = "I love you", spoken by a man]; and said, The Lord shall add to me [= 216] another son:
Pharaoh named Joseph Tzaphnat Paaneach because of his interpretation of the dream(s) and in knowing how to apply that spiritual information to the physical world, connecting heaven and earth.
At the outset, the Torah connects Jacob with Joseph. Of all his sons specifically Joseph holds the key to not only Jacob's but the family's mission.
Gen 41.45. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-Paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On; And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt:
shem Yosef Tzafnat Paaneach -
the last letters of each word (which also are at a letter skip of 4) spell out maphte'ach, key. Joseph holds the key.
And "the Nile" (היאר) = 216 = Debir (דביר), the Holy of Holies (which is also 36 by ordinal reckoning).
Gen 1.
3. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light: (= 238 = Rachel)
4. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness:
Here is the ohr haganuz made manifest - the original (but fleeting, hidden) light of creation which lasted 36 hours - and it connects right to Rachel, who died at age 36, when she gave birth to her second son "Benoni", not a name by which Benjamin was ever known. Benoni: Yinon came/Yinon comes.
How long was Rachel's labor... if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it was 36 hours. Terrible, and then she died. Gotta be a reason. Jacob must have never been the same after that day.
Tov (good, first appearing in Gen 1.4) = 17, the age at which Joseph dreamed those dreams, which resulted in a little detour into Egypt. Another one of those numbers on the 3570 divisor list. 210 x 17, a real juxaposition there, isn't it. It's like what Joseph said to his brothers:
20. But as for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it to good [l'tovah, 46], to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive:
David x tov = Rachel
17, 22, 36, Joseph, Rachel, Ohr Haganuz:
Light Burst
15. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering to the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls:
16. And you shall take the atonement money of the people of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting [= 156 = Joseph]; that it may be a memorial to the people of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls:
Atonement: everybody needs to kiss and make up, because the unification and continuation of the nation depends on it. The tribe of Levi had no land allotment, but rather Levi (לוי) means "joined" = 46.
Coin of fire, infinite light. It's like the burning bush. Moses saw that it existed, and went to see the great sight why. It was when God saw that Moses turned aside to see, that He spoke to him out of the bush.
In the midrash about Moses and the coin of fire (the half shekel), implicit in the narrative is that Moses saw it, otherwise he wouldn't have been asking God about how it could atone for a soul. It's the kind of foundational element that just *is*, so it goes unnoticed. Light (fire) is reflected in the eyes, which are the windows to the soul. God saw... that Moses saw it. Like with that bush. If Moses hadn't seen it, it would not have been reflected in his eyes (soul).
By extension/reflection, the coin was in his soul, otherwise it would not have been visible in his eyes. Coins, mediums of exchange. Look, observe, give, reflect. Eye contact that never times out is an infinite light reflecting back and forth, a mirror reflecting a mirror. Unification. One soul. A whole shekel.
See what I mean about this passage? What you said:
Right in the middle of discussing blueprints, recipes, and patterns for the Tabernacle is this strange little paragraph about MONEY.
