Parsha:

Ki Tisa 

Description

In the desert, half-shekels were counted in the place of counting the individual Jews. Bracha (blessing) is not revealed in a place where things are counted. Since Hashem made the creation to give His goodness, our purpose is to give nachas (pleasure) to Hashem. Dveykus (bonding) with Hashem is when we are giving Hashem nachas while He is giving us bracha. In a yeridah (spiritual descent), we can mistakenly feel that the mitzvos are getting in the way of our bodily pleasures. In an aliyah (spiritual ascent), we can mistakenly feel that all of our avodah (spiritual work) is insincere. We should also to be careful not to 'count' our deficiencies, but rather look at what we can fix in the future. Teshuvah leads to great simcha.