Living with the Parsha
Who is One?

The Gold family was eating in silence. Mrs. Gold had made honey roasted chicken, and everyone was hungrily munching away. Mr. Gold was helping himself to another piece, Mrs. Gold was cutting up some chicken into really small bits so the baby would be able to eat, and Hannah was licking her lips and eyeing the last piece of chicken on the serving platter. Only Eva sat in silence. She was moodily pushing the plain white rice around her plate with a fork. She was clearly unhappy.

Mrs. Gold looked at her nine-year-old daughter and sighed. "Eva dear, I know you refuse to eat the chicken that I made, but will you please try? Look, Hannah is eating it!"

Eva glared across the table at her twin, Hannah. "So what? Who cares if Hannah is eating it!?"

Mr. Gold did not look pleased. "Eva, that's enough now. If dinner is good enough for your twin, then it is good enough for you."

Eva pushed her plate away. "I hate being a twin! Everyone always compares us! It's not like we are the same person or something..."

Mrs. Gold nervously looked at her husband. "You're right, Eva, you aren't the same person as Hannah. And I'm sorry, I forgot you don't like chicken, but…"

A bright smile suddenly lit up Mr. Gold's face. Everyone looked at him curiously, as he slowly put down his fork. "Eva! Thank you! You have just given me an added clarification into this week's Torah portion."

Hannah wrinkled her brow. "Daddy, I don't remember Ki Tisa talking about twins...!"

Mr. Gold smiled. "True, but does anyone remember one of the things G‑d commands the Jewish nation to do, right at the beginning of the reading?"

Eva smiled for the first time that evening. "Sure, Daddy! G‑d commanded Moses to count the Jewish people. This was done by every single person giving half a shekel, which was the currency in those times. Then all the half shekel coins were put together and counted."

Mrs. Gold laughed. "Do you mean to say that a twin is a half, like the half shekel? Isn't that just what Eva is complaining about?"

"Actually," said Mr. Gold, "each one of us is just a half!"

Eva giggled. "I thought we were the only twins in our class." Mrs. Gold was relieved that she didn't seem that bothered about the comparison between twins and halves.

"Half doesn't mean twins," explained Mr. Gold. "Half means that a person is only complete with G‑d as our other half. Each of us is different, but also each person is a half. When we come close to G‑d through Torah and mitzvot, we join together with G‑d and with each other and become complete!"

"I get it," Eva said. "Being a twin doesn't mean you like the same things. You are yourself and different. But it does probably mean you care about each other!"

She winked at her twin, who responded by poking out her tongue.

Mrs. Gold laughed. "So that's why the Jews had to give a half shekel—G‑d was teaching us all a lesson. The lesson of 'who is One!'"