Shabbos Shekalim

Rav Melech Biderman told how two brothers, Rav Meir and Rav Zanvil Kahana, came together to visit the tzaddik, the Imrei Yosef of Spinka, on Parshas Shekalim. Both brothers had suffered greatly and needed a yeshua. Rav Meir's wife was ill and they had no children, and Rav Zanvil's children were weak and sickly.

On Erev Shabbos, Rav Meir entered and asked for a berachah. He was told to donate a pidyon of a hundred gold coins, and then he would have a complete salvation. He did so. His brother did not have time to enter the Rebbe's room before Shabbos, and so he approached on Shabbos itself. At the tisch, the chassidim have a minhag to donate bottles of wine, and as each chassid laid his bottle on the table, Rav Zanvil came forward. Soon it was his turn. He laid down his bottle and asked the Rebbe for a berachah for his sick children.

The Imrei Yosef blessed them with a berachah for a refuah sheleimah, and then he explained. On Shabbos Shekalim, all tefillos can be answered. The Gemara in Berachos 26b says that Chazal instituted the tefillos to correspond to the korbanos. The purpose of the machatzis hashekel donation was to raise the funds needed to buy the korban tamid for the entire coming year, so the mitzvah of shekalim prepared the korbanos for the whole year. Shabbos Shekalim is therefore a time when we can daven for the prayers of the entire year to be accepted and fulfilled lerachamim uleratzon, and to be answered.

Needless to say, both brothers' prayers were fully answered, and they received the salvation they needed.