One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
שְׁקָלִים
Sheqel Dues 4
Sefer Zemanim · Where the half-shekel money actually goes - salt and wood, wages and walls, and the leftovers called the altar's dessert
90
Maneh a year for Jerusalem's scroll checkers and robbery judges
2
Ramps built from the chamber's remainder: red heifer and Azazel goat
0
Doves ever bought with the leftovers, never a communal offering
1
Nisan, the date the new year's collection takes over
Part 1What the money buys
- The offerings and everything around them. Terumat halishcah buys the daily and additional offerings, every other communal sacrifice and its wine libations, the salt placed on all the offerings, and the altar's wood whenever the families who supply it fall short. (4:1)
- Down to the scarlet thread. It also pays for the incense spices and the wages of those who compound them, the showbread and the wages of its bakers, the omer, the two loaves, a red heifer, and the goat sent to Azazel with the scarlet thread tied between its horns. (4:1)
- What it may not buy. The bull brought for a communal ruling given in error and the goats brought for communal idolatry are collected separately and not taken from terumat halishcah; the priestly garments, the High Priest's and every other priest's, do come from it. (4:2)
- The sacred vessels come from elsewhere first. The menorah and the other sacred articles are funded from the remainder of the libation money, and only when no such funds exist do they come from terumat halishcah. (4:2)
RememberThe holiest fund in Israel spends most of itself on salt, firewood, and wages.
Part 2The wages nobody was watching
- Public salaries from a holy fund. Those who inspect firstborn animals for blemishes in Jerusalem, the Sages who teach ritual slaughter and taking the handful from a meal offering, and the women who raise their sons for the red heifer rite are all paid from terumat halishcah, at an amount the court decides. (4:4)
- Sabbatical watchmen. In the Sabbatical year, when the produce is ownerless, the court hires guards from the fund to protect self-grown grain so that the omer and the two loaves can be brought from the new harvest. (4:5)
- Free help is refused. A volunteer's offer to guard the produce at no charge is not accepted, since paid guards make it public knowledge that the crop is watched and keep men of force away from that place. (4:6)
- Ninety maneh, and more if needed. Scribes who check Jerusalem's Torah scrolls and judges who preside over cases of robbery there receive ninety maneh a year, and are given more even against their will if it does not cover them, their wives, their children, and their household. (4:7)
RememberA volunteer is turned away because a wage is the community's public declaration that this matters.
Part 3Walls, water, and the dessert
- The remainder builds the city. Sheyarei halishcah paid for the ramp the red heifer was led along and the ramp for the Azazel goat, for improvements to the altar, the Temple building and the courtyards, and for the water conduit, the walls of Jerusalem, its towers, and all the needs of the city. (4:8)
- A gentile's building money is refused. If a gentile, even a resident alien, offers money for these projects or offers to labor on them without charge, the offer is rejected, on the verses that he has no portion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem. (4:8)
- Leftovers become the dessert of the altar. Whatever remains from terumat halishcah and sheyarei halishcah buys male animals for burnt offerings by standing condition of the court, and never doves, since doves are never brought as communal sacrifices. (4:9)
- Nisan resets the books. From Rosh Chodesh Nisan the communal offerings come from the new collection; unblemished lambs bought with last year's funds are redeemed for mundane use, and leftover incense has its holiness transferred onto the artisans' wages and is bought back with the new collection. (4:11, 4:12)
RememberWhen everything owed has been paid, the surplus is spent on offerings nobody asked for.