This week's portion starts out by describing the "raising of the heads" of the Jewish people through a census, performed by each giving a half-shekel in charity. We end this week's reading with a special Torah section regarding the strongest purification process (in order to annul the impurity obtained from direct contact with the dead), which was performed through the ashes of a red heifer.
Interestingly, both the census and the purification process are extremely connected to the notion of loving one another and sacrificing for him or her. The giving of a half-shekel, instead of a whole one, is a reminder that each of us is incomplete without the other. The purification process, which involves priests that were in a state of purity becoming impure in order that others that are in a state of impurity can become pure, is an example of the ultimate kind of self-sacrifice: spiritual self-sacrifice - one that is above logic and similar to the one Queen Esther performed in order to save the Jewish people.
The Rav Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, tells us not just to read the weekly portion, but to "live" it. To live this week's portion is to try as much as we can to internalize both concepts mentioned above.
First, to truly understand that alone, without each other, we are basically nothing, we're utterly incomplete. Then, second, exactly because we're nothing by ourselves, we're expected and sometimes even commanded, to sacrifice everything, even our own spirituality, to help another Jew. No wonder Moses himself had trouble grasping these two commandments. To fully understand this is to tap into the very nature of existance: to have a slight glimpse at how precious we are in God's eyes, and yet simultaneously raising ourselves to the level of being able to say, "Ein Od Mi'lvado," there is nothing else but Him alone.
It is certainly no coincidence that all this comes right after Purim, during the abundantly joyful and logic-defying month of Adar.
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