Rav Abba Bronspiegel explains that כי תשא is a command to every Jew to lift up their head because they are a Jew. The אבני אזל asks why is the לשון of תשא which means lift up used for counting? He explains because when a Jew is counted alone there is no חשיבות, only when you lift up your head and become part of בנ״י then you obtain חשיבות. Rav Moshe says that some people are too humble, so we are telling them to lift up their head because they are counted the same way that all the צדיקים are counted. Rav Shternbach says that כי תשא means that you need to lift yourself up if you are meant to be a leader. But then it says ״לפקודיהם״ to teach the leaders not to forget that every Jew is important.
Rav Shlessinger explains that we are only told about the fact that בנ״י had crowns when they were taken away from them because they only appreciated what they had once it was gone. Rav Moshe explains that ה׳ only took away the crowns because בנ״י had taken them off themselves because they gave up on themselves, the message being that we should never give up hope and when we give up hope will ה׳ punish us.
The גר״א explains that the trup on the words העשיר לא ירבה is מונח רביעי, meaning that the rich person should leave over 4/5ths for himself and not give more than that. The רל״ג explains that העשיר לא ירבה means that an עשיר shouldn’t try to just get even richer and הדל לא ימעיט means that a poor person shouldn’t put down what he has and say he has nothing.
The Brisker Rav explains that משה didn’t ask ה׳ what to do with the לוחות because ה׳ had commanded him to go down, so he needed to obey the command. The רל״ג explained that משה dropped it out of shock that they were happy over doing an עבירה. Rav Ovadia Bartenura that since they were singing and dancing they were far away from תשובה, so he broke it. The Square Rebbe says that משה broke the לוחות out of anger because he wanted to be with כלל ישראל and חז״ל tell us that when you act out of anger you did עבודה זרה, so now he was with כלל ישראל who also did עבודה זרה. Another פשט is that he was shocked that the Jews were dancing and that they were happy over doing an עבירה. Rav Aharon Dovid Goldberg quoted Rav Chaim Shmulewitz who explained that even though the יצר הרע usually works slowly to get us to do עבירות here by חטא העגל he convinced them to do it over night because when people are panicking and scared people do things that make no sense. The רל״ג added that ה׳ told משה to be לך רד to go down, teaching us that if we are going down the ladder of רוחניות then do it slowly. The רל״ג also says we talk about כי תשא, then שקל then שבת and then חטא העגל. Why? Because they all show that ה׳ loves us. He lifts us up, counts us, gives us the gift of שבת and forgives us even though we sin.
The תורה ודעת explains that ה׳ responded to משה’s request about who will lead כלל ישראל after him by showing him His תפילין because on the תפילין of ה׳ it says מי כעמך ישראל, showing משה that ה׳ will always have a connection with בנ״י.
Thoughts on the Machtzit Hashekel: 1) The אלשיך says we only give half a שקל because since it was a כפרה for the חטא העגל and the women didn’t participate in חטא העגל, so we only give half a שקל because a man and woman are a whole, so only the man is a half. 2) The כתב סופר explains that you only give half a שקל to teach that there is no end to giving צדקה. 3) Rav Shternbach explains that ה׳ showed משה a fire to explain that they are only giving half a שקל because the other half needs to be filled by the התלהבות from the heart.
Rav Moshe Schor explains that ושמרו בנ״י את השבת means that every Jew should be waiting for שבת, the same way that the פסוק uses the word שמר by יעקב to mean that he was waiting for the dreams of יוסף to be fulfilled. Rabbi Baruch Newman explains that לעשות את השבת is to make שבת the way it is supposed to be by learning, davening and singing zemiros, not just reading sports illustrated the whole day. The רל״ג added that this is why it says לדורותם because if the parents keep שבת this way then the kids will also. There is a story of Rav Moshe who met a guy that told him that it is hard to keep שבת and Rav Moshe said that his kids would go off the דרך and they did. Rav Shternbach explains קודש היא לכם means take the לכם of שבת, the food and singing, and make it holy.