By Rabbi Motti Wilhelm – Portland, Oregon

Zvika Klein, editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, recently published an op-ed titled “You Can’t Beat Chabad, So Why Not Join Them?”

As an insider, I found the piece entertaining, as it freely interweaves fact with fiction.

Klein writes:

“What makes Chabad emissaries truly unique is how deeply this work is ingrained in them from birth. They are educated and prepared for this role from the moment they can understand it.”

This is true. Chabad is an educational philosophy that, from (pre)cradle to grave, imbues a person with a sense of divine mission and purpose.

He then adds:

“And then there is the branding… A Chabad emissary cannot simply paint the local Chabad House in different colors or use a different font.”

Here he veers into fiction. The Chabad House, by definition, is designed, built, and paid for by the local community.

Whatever Klein’s broader point was, he missed two foundational elements of what it actually means to be a Chabad shliach, elements modeled on the original framework of Jewish communal service.

In the Torah, communal offerings were funded through a universal annual contribution—a flat tax—of a half-shekel given by every member of the community.

There are two striking rules governing this offering.

First, every person must give a half-shekel—no more and no less.
By giving only half, each individual acknowledges that their efforts are inherently incomplete. Success comes only through partnership with the Divine.

Second, the half-shekel must be given all at once and cannot be paid in installments.
Paying in installments would symbolize hesitation—a lack of readiness to give one’s full half. It would mean holding something back, not fully stepping forward.

One must give everything they can, fully and immediately, while knowing that it is still only half of what is ultimately required.

These two principles lie at the heart of how Chabad operates.

A Chabad rabbi is called a shliach—an emissary. A shliach does not act on their own behalf; they represent the Rebbe. The Rebbe, in turn, viewed himself as an agent of his predecessors, who taught that ultimately we are all emissaries of the Divine.

You are only half.

And at the same time, you must give your full half. 

Chabad teaches that there is no time more important than now, no place more significant than here, and no task more vital than drawing down divine energy and becoming the Jew one was meant to be.

Don’t hold anything back.