An Atonement

Weekly Torah Lesson

Parasha: Kitisa – When you lift up the head
Torah: Shemot 30:11 – 34:35

Shemot 30:11 And Avinu spoke to Moshe, saying, 12 When you take the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul to Avinu, when you number them; that there be no plague among them, when you number them. 13 This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of Avinu. 14 Every one that passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to Avinu. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering to Avinu, to make an atonement for your souls. 16 And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial to the children of Israel before Avinu, to make an atonement for your souls.

** Kitisa – to lift up the head – to count – to take a census.

** “..to give a ransom to Avinu for his soul..” Approximately 800,000 men would bring a “half shekel” as a special offering to Avinu. The offered silver would be used to make the “foot plates” to secure the planks and pillars of the sanctuary.

** “..the ransom for his soul..” The value of the silver will be the “ransom price” for the donor. A more popular ‘ransom’ for a soul is the ‘life’ that is in the ‘shed blood’ sacrifice of a predesignated animal.

** “..a memorial before Avinu for the children of Israel..” When Avinu would “see” the silver used in the construction of the Sanctuary, He would remember (hopefully with favor) the children of Israel.

** “..it is an atonement for your souls..” Atonement – kippur – to cover – In the Scriptures, an atonement is effected in several different ways. The blood of an animal, incense and various forms of ‘money’ are used.
A ‘sinful’ person cannot stand before Avinu without an ‘atonement’ a covering that allows the person to present his request and receive it from Avinu.

** “..a ransom for his soul that there be no plague among them..” When a plague broke out in Israel about forty years later, incense was used to “provide atonement” and protect the people from the plague. Here we are told that the half shekel offering will also protect them from an impending plague.

** The impending census occurs twice in the forty year journey of Israel.

** Several hundred years later King David decides that he wanted to count the people of Israel without being commanded by Avinu. In these Scriptures, we might find a deeper understanding of what Avinu meant by “providing an atonement”.

“10 And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said to Avinu, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech you, O AVINU, take away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly. 11 For when David was up in the morning, the word of Avinu came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12 Go and say to David, Thus said Avinu, I offer you three things; choose you one of them, that I may do it to you. 13 So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? or will you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? or that there be three days’ pestilence in your land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. 14 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of Avinu; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man. 15 So Avinu sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand on Jerusalem to destroy it, Avinu repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now your hand. And the angel of Avinu was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 And David spoke to Avinu when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, See, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let your hand, I pray you, be against me, and against my father’s house. 18 And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, raise an altar to Avinu in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as Avinu commanded. 20 And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face on the ground. 21 And Araunah said, Why is my Master, the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to Avinu, that the plague may be stayed from the people. 22 And Araunah said to David, Let my master, the king take and offer up what seems good to him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. 23 All these things did Araunah, as a king, give to the king. And Araunah said to the king, Avinu Elohekah accept you. 24 And the king said to Araunah, No; but I will surely buy it of you at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings to Avinu of that which does cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to Avinu, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Avinu was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.” (2Sa 24:10-25)

What is the ‘evil’ in a census?