Yeshayahu Chapter 56, which we read as the Haftarah on fast days, presents two characters who approach Hashem with a claim of belonging.
One is the convert, concerned about his past: having been born into a foreign nation, can he fully belong to the Jewish people? The second is one unable to have children, whose similar concern draws from his lack of continuity for the future: “Behold, I am a shriveled tree” (56:3).
How would we respond to such questions? I think many of us would be dismissive. “What’s the problem,” we might say. “Observe the Torah, and you’ll have a share in Olam Haba just like everybody else.” The Abie Rotenberg song applies universally: “There is no need to fear your destination / You’ve earned a place right by the throne.”
Yeshayahu’s response, however, is far more profound: “For thus said Hashem to the barren ones who observe My Sabbaths and choose what I desire, and grasp my covenant tightly. I will give them in My house and within My walls a hand and a name (yad vashem), which is better than sons and daughters. I shall give them an eternal name, which will never be terminated” (56:5).
Eternity in Olam Haba, says the Prophet, is contingent on eternity in this world. Nevertheless, Hashem arranges that even the barren, by means of clinging to the covenant, receive their part in eternity. Their deeds live on after them. Their identity (“name”) and their actions (“hand”) are forever perpetuated among the Jewish people.
More often than not, we cannot know how this perpetuity is crafted; how do our deeds make an eternal impact? Yet, the pasuk tells us that it relates to Jerusalem and the Mikdash: “In My house and within My walls.” Here, at the very core of the Jewish nation and its connection to Hashem, all Jews who keep the covenant – even those who lack a shared past or a shared future – touch eternity. Here, we all live on.
As we begin the journey towards the annual rebirth and redemption of Pesach, we start from Shekalim – the contribution that each and every individual makes to the Mikdash. Both our eternity, expressed in the survival of Purim, and our ultimate destiny, represented by Pesach, inhere in the Mikdash – the core of our national being.
And though we cannot know the precise details, Shekalim reminds us of our duty to invest thought and energy on how we can make a lasting impact – for the good of the Jewish people generally and for Jerusalem specifically. Each one of us has a share.
It is a tremendous zechus to dedicate the Kehillah publication for the iluy neshamah of Binyamin Yisrael ben Shlomo HaLevi z”l, Binyamin Gonsher. It should serve as an eternal Yad Vashem.
