One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
שְׁקָלִים
Sheqel Dues 1
Sefer Zemanim · The yearly half-shekel - the identical coin rich and poor alike must give, and the census of a people taken in silver
½
Shekel each year - rich no more, poor no less
320
Barley corns of silver in a Torah shekel
160
Barley corns - the floor, never give less
3
Dates in Adar the collection unfolds
Part 1The equal, undivided half
- The same coin for everyone. Every adult Jewish male gives a half-shekel yearly; the rich may give no more and the poor no less, and even a pauper must borrow or sell his clothes to give it. (1:1)
- All at once, as one coin. It must be given in a single payment, not a portion today and a portion tomorrow, and as one coin, not several small ones that add up to the sum. (1:1)
- Match the current coin, but never fall short. One gives half of the currency common at the time even if it is larger than the sanctuary shekel, yet never less than the Mosaic half-shekel. (1:5, 1:6)
RememberA gift so exactly equal you cannot tell the rich man's coin from the poor man's.
Part 2The weight of the coin
- A specific weight of silver. The Torah shekel is 320 barley corns of pure silver; the Sages fixed the coin at the sela of the Second Temple, 384 barley corns. (1:2)
- The whole currency, down to the prutah. A sela is four dinarim and a dinar six ma'ah; a ma'ah, the Torah's gerah, weighs 16 barley corns, and a prutah half a barley corn. (1:3)
- Fixed measures for all time. There was also a darcon worth two selaim; these listed weights serve as the standard measures so they need not be restated. (1:4)
RememberThe half is a real, weighable thing - the same silver in every hand.
Part 3Who is counted, and how it is gathered
- Who gives. Priests, Levites, Israelites, converts, and freed slaves are all obligated; women, slaves, and minors are exempt, yet their gift is accepted, though a gentile's is not. (1:7)
- When it applies. The mitzvah is kept only while the Temple stands, then in the Land and the diaspora alike; a father who began giving for his minor son continues each year. (1:7, 1:8)
- The three stages of collection. On the 1st of Adar the court announces it; on the 15th money-changers prod gently in every city; from the 25th the obligated are compelled, but a priest's pledge is never seized by force, for the ways of peace. (1:9, 1:10)
RememberThe people is counted not by heads but by halves, each one reaching for its whole.