The Shabbat which either coincides with or immediately precedes Rosh Chodesh Adar (or Adar 2 in a leap year) is Shabbat Shekalim (Mishnah, Megillah 3:4; Rambam, Laws of Prayer and Priestly Blessing 13:20; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 685:1 and 5).
“Parashat Shekalim is in memory of the mitzvah of the half-shekel…which they were obligated to give to the Temple treasury for the continual offering each year" (Mishnah Berurah, 685:1).
The Rambam, following Mishnah Shekalim 1:1- details how and when the half-shekel donation to the Temple treasury was given:
“On the first of Adar the announcements concerning the shekels were made... On the fifteenth, the treasurers would sit in each city, and demand [the half-shekel due] gently…and those who did not give, they did not force them to give. On the twenty-fifth they would sit in the Temple to collect it; and from then on, they would force those who had not yet given to pay up" (Laws of Shekalim 1:9).
These half-shekel taxes were then used from the 1st of Nisan a few days later until the final day of Adar a year later for the Tamid (twice-daily sacrifice) and for the Musaf Offerings (the additional sacrifices on Rosh Chodesh, Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot) of that year (Tiferet Yisrael commentary to Mishnah Shekalim 1:1).
So in memory of the half-shekel donation that once was, and looking forward to the half-shekel donation that will one day be again, we read this parasha in the same week that the Sanhedrin would impose (and will one day again impose) this tax.
Much has been written about the half-shekel, and I offer here just two out of countless observations:
A very obvious question is:
Why did G-d command every Jew to donate half-a-shekel? Why not a whole shekel?
- In order to show that no Jew is whole in and of himself. Only by conjoining with other Jews, by being part of the community, can he be whole.
And second:
Why does the Torah use the unexpected phrase מַחֲצִית הַשֶּׁקֶל for “half-a-shekel"? Why not the expected phrase חֲצִי שֶׁקֶל?
The words מַחֲצִית and חֲצִי both mean “half", but מַחֲצִית is more active, so to speak. It is impossible to convey precisely in English, but חֲצִי suggests half of something, while מַחֲצִית suggests something that has been deliberately halved.
Rabbi Yosef Patzanovski, in his Torah-commentary Pardes Yosef (Exodus 30:13), notes that the centre of מַחֲצִית is the letter צ, denoting the Tzaddik, the righteous man. The two letters adjacent to the צ are ח and י, denoting חַי, “live"; the two letters distant from the צ are מ and ת, denoting מֵת, “dead".
One who is far from the Tzaddik, isolated from the Tzaddik, is dead. One who is close to the Tzaddik, unified with the Tzaddik, is truly alive.
Shabbat Shekalim is the first of five special Shabbatot.
The second is Shabbat Zachor (the Shabbat of Remembrance), commemorating Amalek’s attack on us. This is the Shabbat immediately before Purim (this year on 11th Adar/28th February).
The third is Shabbat Parah, recalling the Red Cow which cleansed from the impurity of death (Numbers 19). This is the Parashah which prepares us to cleanse ourselves spiritually in preparation for Pesach, and is either the final Shabbat or the penultimate Shabbat in Adar (this year on 18th Adar/7th March).
The fourth is Shabbat Ha-Chodesh (The Month), the Shabbat which either coincides with or immediately precedes the 1st of Nissan, which is the basis of the Jewish calendar (this year on 25th Adar/14th March).
And the fifth and last is Shabbat Ha-Gadol (the Great Sabbath), the Shabbat immediately preceding Pesach (this year on 10th Nissan/28th March).
These five special Shabbatot, spanning 7 weeks, are like links in a chain. The first, this Shabbat, is invariably the final Shabbat in Sh’vat, is the harbinger of Adar, and by extension the harbinger of Purim.
The last is the harbinger of Pesach.
This chain, linking Purim to Pesach, begins this Shabbat, and will conclude 47 days later as we sit at the Seder Table to celebrate Pesach.
The Seder Service concludes with חַד גַּדְיָא, Chad Gadya - the one kind which father bought for two zuzim.
This one little kid is Israel, G-d’s first-born son (Exodus 4:22) whom G-d “bought" for two zuzim.
The zuz was a unit of currency (also called a dinar), a silver coin, equal to 192 p’rutot (the smallest unit of currency, a copper coin), and four zuzim made one shekel.
So when our Father G-d “bought" us for two zuzim, He “bought" us for מַחֲצִית הַשֶּׁקֶל - the half-a-shekel that we recall this Shabbat.
As every Jew acquires his share in the Holy Temple for half-a-shekel, so G-d “acquires" His share in Israel for the same half-a-shekel.
The Haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim relates a time of the restoration of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Excerpted from 2 Kings 11:17-12:17, it begins with the aftermath of the revolution which the Judeans had conducted against their evil and idolatrous Queen Ataliya.
As Rabbi Dr Joseph Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1913-1946) notes, the Kingdom of Judea existed for some three-and-a-half centuries, and in all that time there was only one insurrection - and that was against a foreign usurper, Queen Ataliya, who had attempted to exterminate the native dynasty of the House of David
Ataliya’s father was Achav (Ahab), the seventh King of Israel (the northern kingdom) after it had split from Judea (the southern kingdom, which was ruled by the royal line of King David throughout its history). Her mother was the Sidonian idolatress Izevel (Jezebel), who upon marrying Achav corrupted him even further than he already was.
Ataliya had married King Yehoram of Judea, and used her power and influence to foster Ba’al-worship in Judea.
When King Yehoram died her power increased. When Yehu (Jehu) killed her son, his widow should have taken over - and so Ataliya, daughter of the evil idolatress Izevel (Jezebel) proceeded to murder her own grandchildren in order to consolidate her own position on the Judean Throne.
The only survivor was the infant Yehoash (Joash), concealed by his aunt who was married to Yehoyada (Jehoiada), the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). It was Yehoyada who led this popular uprising against idolatry and corruption, inspired the masses to smash the idolatrous temples, revealed the seven-year-old prince and true heir to the Throne of Judea, seated the boy on his Throne, and inspired the people to kill Ataliya by the sword.
The insurrection was over, the people had restored the House of David to its rightful place as kings of Judea, and King Yehoash, infant though he was, was already guiding the nation back to G-d, and restored the Holy Temple.
The מַחֲצִית הַשֶּׁקֶל, half-shekel, was restored. This is a fitting Haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim.
The Haftarah records that the King’s Scribe and Kohen Gadol paid the workers who were appointed over the work in the Holy Temple (2 Kings 12:12). And here there is a peculiarity in the text: the word “appointed" is הַמֻּפְקָדִים - but it is invariably written as הפקדים, without the מ(mem). This is how it appears in all hand-written parchment Scrolls of the Prophets, and in almost all printed editions.
Why is the letter מ(mem) missing here?
- I don’t know why. But I suggest that it balances out King David’s Song of Victory which he composed and sang near the end of his life, “on the day that Hashem saved him from the hand of all his enemies and the hand of Saul" (2 Samuel 22:1), a Song which, with minor changes, constitutes the Eighteenth Psalm:
“Hashem thundered from Heaven, the Supreme One gave forth His voice; He sent out His arrows and scattered them - lightning, and He terrified them" (2 Samuel 22:14-15).
The word for “He terrified them" is וַיָּהֹם - but in this verse, it appears as ויהמם, with an extra letter מ(mem).
Are these connected? Does the missing מ (mem) in the Haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim really compensate for the extra מ (mem) King David’s Song from a century-and-a-half earlier?
- Again, I don’t know. But I do note that Hazal, our Sages, selected this Song of King David as the Haftarah for the seventh day of Pesach.
As the מַחֲצִית הַשֶּׁקֶל, half-shekel, which we recall this Shabbat culminates with the conclusion of the Seder Night, so the missing מ (mem) in the Haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim is balanced out by the extra מ (mem) in the Haftarah that concludes Pesach.