In full disclosure, R' Mansour did not say this vort this week, it actually was his shiur on Parshas Vayakhel/Shekalim which I listened to last Friday morning while I was driving to Court. The shiur struck a chord with me and I very much wanted to blog it this week as it has a strong connection with Pikudei. Same rules as usual apply, although I have not attempted to summarize the entire shiur, I have tried to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Mansour.
In Shemos 38:26, the Torah writes that the collected half shekel was a "bekah." Rashi explains that a bekah is a weight and this weight is half a shekel.
R' Mansour asked why the Torah had to use a new term for the collected piece, rather than "shekel" or "machtsis hashekel?" R' Mansour noted that the root of bekah appears three other times in the Torah. In Bereishis 22:3, it states that Avraham split the wood at the Akediah, using the term "Vayibakah Atzei HaOlah" - this teaches that the term bekah means half - as Avraham split the wood in half.
R' Mansour noted that the root bekah appears in the following Parsha (Chaye Sarah) as the Torah states in Bereishis 22:22, that Eliezer gave Rivka a nosering which was "bekah" mishkalo - half of the weight.
R' Mansour quoted one other time that the root bekah appears, as it states in Shemos 14:22 by the Krias Yam Suf --"Vayibaku HaMayim" - the waters split.
After digressing to discuss the concept of Mesiras Nefesh, R' Mansour noted that the gematria of Shekel is 430, which is the same gematria as Nefesh. If a person gives a shekel to Hashem, he will be allowed to live as Mesiras Shekel and Mesiras Nefesh are somehow linked.
R' Mansour then circled back to the Akeidah - when Avraham split the wood in half he had no self doubt and was willing to give up his son. This was the original bekah - a split which was imbued with Mesiras Nefesh. R' Mansour quoted a gemara (I looked and found this in Medrash Rabbah) which states that in the zechus of the splitting of the wood, the Jews were worthy of having the Yam Suf split for them.
How did that water come to split? Nachshon and some of the Jews entered the water and walked until it was up to their necks and only then Hashem split the water. This was the Mesiras Nefesh which Avraham had implanted in their DNA, which allowed them to take this brave act. And once they did, the water split.
This then brings us back to the story of Eliezer and Rivka. When Eliezer gets to the well and see Rivka and her chesed, he gives her the nose ring as well as two bangles which weighed ten gold pieces. Why does the Torah take the time to describe these in detail? Rashi explains that the two bangles were a hint to Rivka that there would be two tablets and the ten weight was a hint to the Aseres Hadibros - the ten commandments. This jewelry was specially made by Avraham, to be used for this purpose.
R' Mansour opined that Rivka was aware of the hint, because she refused to remove these items when she showed them to her brother. Although in gemara in Shabbos talks about certain jewelry which cannot be taken out in a non-eruv community on Shabbos because she might come to take them off, here Rivka would not. It states in Bereishis 24:30 that Lavan saw the jewelry on his sister - she knew the importance and would not relinquish it.
R' Mansour also noted that bekah are the same letters as Ya'akov if you add a yud - which is the ten weight of the bangles. She was being told, if you marry Yitzchak, you will be the mother to Ya'akov the third of the Avos. Furthermore, there are 172 words in the Aseres Hadibros and the gematria of bekah is 172-- another symbol and hint to Rivka which she recognized and agreed to marry Yitzchak.
But the crown is the Rashi on the word bekah when Eliezer gave the nose ring to her. Rashi says that this was a hint to the shekalim the Jews gave which were bekah. But why is this the mitzvah that Avraham wanted Eliezer to hint to her?
R' Mansour answered that this was the first marriage we are actually aware of in the Torah. We don't know how Avraham and Sarah courted, but this we are aware of. The gemara states that marriage is as difficult as splitting the Yam Suf. Why? Because it is difficult to put together two people who are used to living along and to give up to each other. Without mesirus nefesh of a couple, the marriage wont work. When a person is single there is no reason to give, or to care about someone else's needs.
R' Mansour noted that people translate the word ahavah as love. But in the language of the gemara, "hav" means give. Marriage is about giving and sacrifices, even those you were not willing to do previously. This also explains why a divorce in the gemara is compared to a mizbeyach (altar) which is crying. Why does it cry? Because it knows sacrifice and it recognizes that the people were not willing to give up and sacrifice.
This is what it means that a marriage is as difficult as Krias Yam Suf - the sea did not split by itself, they had to have mesiras nefesh and walk in first. A person entering (or even being in a marriage) has to give up of himself to make it succeed. R' Mansour opined that this is why Avraham tells Eliezer that he must mention the Torah - the ten commandments, as well as bekah - there must be sacrifice and the man that she is marrying is the product of his father's sacrifice. And remember you are marrying into a nation which every year gives the bekah - a symbol of the sacrifice needed to succeed in a marriage.
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