Why was Moshe perplexed?
When the average person hears of Moshes quandary he is perplexed. Why was it so strange to Moshe that one can achieve salvation for his soul with the half-shekel? After all, even the local town preacher, a person of no exceptional intellectual capacities, and certainly no comparison to Moshe, often explains in very simple terms, that when a Jew does a mitzvah he deserves, and receives, a great reward. The Torah clearly states: “If you follow My laws [statutes] … I will provide you with rain at the right time …” (Vayikra 43:3), which includes also all the additional blessings listed in that chapter. Certainly Moshe who had reached the apex of human intellect could understand that the reward for the mitzvah of half-shekel could be “ransom for his soul”! This question is based on very solid reasoning and it is justifiably disturbing in the eyes of the simple Jew. Perhaps if someone of a loftier mind might think that we should perform mitzvos altruistically — not for the sake of rewar
