The Importance Of Actions

The Midrash Tanchuma (Ki Sesa #3) says כשהגיע משה לפרשת שקלים אמר רבונו של עולם שמא משאני מת אין אני נזכר, אמר לו הקב"ה חייך כשם שאתה עומד עכשיו ונותן להם פרשת שקלים ואתה זוקף את ראשן, כך בכל שנה ושנה כשישראל קורין בפרשת שקלים כאלו אתה עומד וזוקף את ראשון שנאמר (שמות ל יב) כי תשא.  Many seforim talk about the meaning of this enigmatic Midrash.  Why did Moshe feel a need to be remembered ,why would he be forgotten, he is all throughout Chumash, why is shekalim specifically the way to remember Moshe and what does it mean he raises the heads of Klal Yisrael? 

I just want to share the idea the Aish Kodesh (Shekalim 5700) says about this Midrash which is very apropos for today, the yartzheit of my grandfather.  He says that the oft cited derash of ושכנתי בתוכם בתוך כל אחד ואחד is not just for a Jew to experience Devine revelation but it is also for the sake of the Shechina which desires to be revealed in the most physical of the worlds.  The reason a person comes into the word is to do physical mitzvot.  Those actions elevate the soul to a greater place than it could reach before it came into a physical form.  He says, therefore, when a person wants to do something to elevate the soul of one who has departed, one should have in mind the departed when they are actually involved in the mitzvah and that will give the departed a piece of the physical mitzvah.  In his words, 

טובה היא להנשמות גם כשזוכרים אותן בעת עשית המצוה ותלמוד תורה, לא זכירה בלבד רק כשנתקשר אתן לעשות המצוה, ללמוד תורה יחד, ואז הן מתלבשות בגוף ובעשי׳ לתורה ולמצוה שהיא התגלות קדושה יתירה, אם הוא ית׳ ככיכול רוצה לשכון בתוך כל אחד מישראל ק״ו הוא איך טובה היא להנשמות לאחר פטירתן שהארה מהן ישכנו כישראל ועמהם יעשו תורה ומצוות.

Says the Aish Kodesh, that was what was bothering Moshe.  How will I be able to do mitzvot when I am no longer alive?  How will I partake in the act of doing a physical mitzvah?  Hashem told Moshe, when Klal Yisrael reads the shekalim you will life their heads, you will elevate them.  That is the action Moshe will do.  Through that actions, Moshe is now connected to every Jew all of their mitzvot and now Moshe is a player in those actions.

What does it mean Moshe lifts up the heads of Klal Yisrael? There are many interpretations given.  One approach based upon the Or Hachayim is that the machatzis hashekel is to achieve a means of atonement for the sin of the agel.  After a sin one's head is hanging low, a person feels low and disgraced.  (In Sefer Hashar it says that man walks upright because we have a neshama that is pulling us upward as opposed to animals that walk bent over because they are connected to the earth.  One who sins, who is overtaken by their animal soul droops downward.)  It is the job of Moshe, of the leader, to be able to access the access the fiery shekel, the internal fire of the person and blow on it until the person rises up (see article by R' Willig and  Toras Menachem 5711.)  When one gets inspiration from the past generations, when one uses their experiences as motivation to actually live a better life, that connects the to one's own actions and gives an iluy nishama .