One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
שְׁקָלִים
Sheqel Dues 2
Sefer Zemanim · Thirteen shofar-shaped chests, a sealed chamber with three baskets, and an officer sent in with nowhere to hide a coin
13
Chests in the Temple, each shaped like a shofar
9
Seah, the capacity of each of the three large baskets
3
Times a year funds are lifted from the chamber
2
Chests in every city, this year and last year
Part 1Thirteen shofars, and what each one holds
- Easy in, hard out. In every city the money changers set two chests before them, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top like a shofar, so coins could be deposited but not easily removed; one chest for the present year and one for the previous year, since collectors demanded payment from whoever had not given. (2:1)
- Thirteen chests in the Temple. The first two for this year's and last year's shekalim; the third for those obligated in a pair of doves, one a burnt offering and one a sin offering; the fourth for doves as a burnt offering only; the fifth wood for the altar, the sixth frankincense, the seventh gold for the covering of the ark. (2:2)
- Five chests for leftovers, plus one pledge. The eighth through the twelfth hold what remained after a sin offering, a guilt offering, the doves of zavim and zavot and women after childbirth, a nazirite's offerings, and a leper's guilt offering; the thirteenth is for one who pledged money for a burnt-offering animal. (2:2)
- The purpose was written on the outside. Each chest was labeled, and the court stipulated that all money remaining after the offering it was designated for should buy animals for burnt offerings, so the funds of the last six chests all became burnt offerings, with the hides going to the priests. (2:3)
RememberThe awkward last coins of a person's worst year are turned into the one offering that is consumed entirely for God.
Part 2The sealed chamber and the three baskets
- Silver travels as gold. The shekalim collected in each city were sent to the Temple with emissaries and might be exchanged for golden dinarim so the weight would not burden the journey. (2:4)
- Two names for the same silver. In the chamber, doors locked and sealed, the shekalim were stored in three large baskets holding nine seah each and called terumat halishcah, the portion set aside; whatever remained beyond them in the chamber was sheyarei halishcah, the remainder within the chamber. (2:4)
- Three fixed occasions, and a call and response. Funds were lifted on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, on the day before or after Rosh Chodesh Tishrei, and fifteen days before Shavuot; one man entered, asked the guards outside "Should I set aside the funds?" and they answered three times, "Set them aside," and he filled three smaller baskets of three seah each. (2:5)
- Alef, bet, gimmel, and one uncovered basket. The small baskets were labeled so he would empty them in order; he covered each large basket with a handkerchief after drawing from it and deliberately left the last one uncovered, so that four months later he would know where he had stopped. (2:7)
RememberNothing in the chamber is moved by force; everything is decided by designation, down to a handkerchief left off one basket.
Part 3The intention, and the man with no pockets
- Three baskets, three circles of the people. The first basket was filled on behalf of the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael, the second for the walled cities surrounding it and the totality of the Land, the third for Babylonia, Media, the other distant countries, and the rest of the Jewish people. (2:8)
- The intention reaches the coins that are not there. When he set the funds aside he intended to include those whose shekalim were present in the chamber, those whose shekalim had been collected but had not yet reached it, and those whose shekalim would only be collected in the future, so the terumah atones for the entire Jewish people as if their coins were already in the basket. (2:9)
- Nowhere to hide a coin. The officer entering the chamber may not wear a garment in which money could be hidden, nor shoes or sandals, nor tefillin or an amulet, lest people suspect he concealed funds beneath them. (2:10)
- Talked to the entire time. They spoke with him continuously from the moment he entered until he left so he could not place a coin in his mouth, and even with every safeguard in place a poor man or one who craved money was not appointed, so that the matter would not arouse suspicion, fulfilling "You shall be blameless before God and before Israel." (2:10)
RememberBlameless before God and before Israel are two separate jobs, and the second one is why they take away his shoes.