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4) Giving “Half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary.” Half a shekel is like half a hin, which is the Vav, the middle between the two Heys. A stone to weigh with is the Yod, and the “The shekel is twenty gerahs” is Yod. “The rich shall not give more” is the middle pillar, ZA, meaning not give more than the Yod. And we learn in The Book of Creation, only ten Sefirot, ten and not eleven. “And the poor shall not give less.” The poor is a righteous, Yesod. Will not give less than ten, as it is written in The Book of Creation, “Ten and not nine,” from the half shekel, which is the Yod.
“When you take the sum,” when you extend GAR to the children of Israel, “According to their number,” meaning in three points Holam, Shuruk, Hirik, “Then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord,” meaning they will abstain from extending GAR de [of] Hochma in the left. Instead, they will raise them to the Creator. “And there will be no plague among them.” But if they do extend GAR de Hochma, there will be plague among them due to the judgments of the left. “After the shekel of the sanctuary” is extension of Hochma, which is a complete degree. “The shekel is twenty gerahs” because in a complete degree, the ten Sefirot of the male light is dispensed from above downwards, and the ten Sefirot of the female light is dispensed from below upwards. Also, they are twenty Sefirot, and since they are considered left, they are called “twenty gerahs,” from the words, “I have been a Ger [stranger] in a strange land.” “Half a shekel” is ten Sefirot of male light. “An offering to the Lord” means it should be raised to the Lord and not extended, but only to extend half of the female light, which is from below upwards.
Half a shekel, half a hin, means half a measure. The Vav is the middle between the two Heys because the Vav is the middle line, called “scales,” which weigh the two lights, right and left, being the two Heys, so the left will not be greater than the right. This is why he diminishes the left, so it will not shine from above downwards but only from below upwards. And then it is equal with the right, which shines from above downwards. Thus, the Vav divides and makes half a shekel an offering to the Lord, which is the half that is from above downwards of the left.
A stone to weigh with is Yod, and twenty gerahs a shekel is Yod, since a full Yod indicates a complete degree, where the male light, Yod, and the female light—Vav and Dalet, which are ten in Gematria—make twenty together, twenty gerahs the shekel. And he says that the stone with which to weigh the offering to the Lord is Yod, the male light from above downwards. And they receive for themselves only the Yod of the female light, which shines from below upwards. “The rich shall not give more” is the middle pillar, which, from His essence, leans toward the right, to Hassadim, and does not need Hochma, hence its title, “rich.”
To not exceed ten means to not elevate any of the female light to being an offering to the Lord, and to raise only the Yod of the male light and nothing of the female light. In The Book of Creation, only ten Sefirot and not eleven. But if ZA were to exceed the half shekel, meaning raise some of the female light, it would thus be elevating eleven Sefirot, meaning more than ten.
“And the poor shall not give less,” this is righteous, for Yesod leans toward Hochma and needs it. Hence, in regards to that, it is considered poor. Will not fall short of ten means not leaving any of the ten Sefirot of the male light, that is, not rising to the Creator due to craving for abundance of Hochma, as it is written, “Ten and not nine.” This is so because if he fell short of ten Sefirot of the male light and did not raise her, it would not be elevating the whole ten, but only nine. But there must be ten and not nine.
6) The subsequent Mitzva [precept/commandment/good deed] is to sanctify the month, since the holy moon, Malchut, the bride, is sanctified according to the court house—Gevura de ZA. Malchut is built from the left side, Gevura, since the Levis are in Gevura de ZA. It is said about them, “And you shall sanctify the Levis.” Similarly, Malchut, which is from Gevura de ZA, needs sanctity, as well. And once the moon is seen and its light is relished, for she received Mochin, he blesses, “Blessed are You the Lord our God, king of the world, who created the heavens with His word, and all their hosts with the wind of His mouth.” Then she is sanctified and blessed in Tifferet, because she is Tifferet [glory] to those with a full stomach.
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