בבא בתרא ג

When רבי יצחק of וולוזין came to the בית מדרש of a small town, huge crowds pressed to see him, to the point of סכנת נפשות. When he finally got to speak, רבי יצחק said: “This is an impressive crowd. In פרשת כי תשא, after instructing on giving מחצית השקל, the תורה says ולא יהיה בכם נגף. This is difficult. If the רבונו של עולם wanted to prevent נגף amongst בני ישראל as they were being counted, he could have done so without the מחצית השקל. Apparently, there was reason to be concerned that when בני ישראל would hear that משה רבינו was commanded to count them, each one of them would run בזריזות to be amongst the first to participate in the מצוה and thus there would be a dangerous crush of people. Therefore, בני ישראל were commanded to each contribute the מחצית השקל, assuring that there won’t be rushing and pushing to join the crowd. And so, רבותי, to assure that there won’t be pushing and shoving here, I want to disclose that the reason I’m here today is to collect money for פדיון שבויים.”

06/10/2021