Because Passover began Saturday night, we had a three day holiday, Shabbat and the first two days of Passover, when I couldn’t use my computer after I studied that day’s daf. Instead of a long reflection for each daf, I’m going to share a much shorter one so I can move on to today’s daf. All citations and commentary come from the Art Scroll edition of our massekhet.
1. It is written: This they shall give, all
who pass through the census (a half shekel
of the sacred shekel, 20 gerah is the shekel) (Exodus 30:13) Rabbi
Yehuda and Rabbi Nekhemiya dispute the matter. One says: Since they sinned at
half the day let them give a half shekel.
The children of Israel sinned with the Golden Calf at the sixth hour of the
day which is exactly noon (see TB Shabbat 89a for the Scriptural source for
this). Since their sin was committed at half the day, they must atone for it by
giving half a shekel. And the other one says: Since they sinned at six hours into the day,
let them give half a shekel which makes six garmesin. The biblical half shekel comprised
six garmesin according to Korban HaEidah.
2. Rabbi Yehoshua of the
Academy of Rabbi Nekhemiya in the name of Rabban Yokhanan ben Zakkai said: Because they
transgressed the 10 Commandments, the each one give 10 geirah. By sinning with the Golden calf (Korban HaEidah) it is as if they transgressed the entire 10
Commandments, because one who admits to the truth of idolatry is considered as
if he denied the entire Torah. Therefore the each one give half a shekel which contains 10 gerahs since a whole shekel contains 20 gerahs.
3. Rabbi Pinkhas in the name
of Rabbi Levi says: Because they sold the firstborn of Rachel (Joseph-gg) for 20 pieces
of silver (i.e.
20 dinars) and each one of the brothers
involved in the sale received a tabaah (i.e. two dinars) as his
share of the proceeds, therefore let
each one give for his shekel
obligation a tabaah.
TY Shekalim 7 What do you do with the excess tzdedakkah
money collected?
These rulings make sense to me. If the collection is a
general collection to aid a specific target problem and if more than enough
money is collected to meet the specific needs, then the surplus is saved and
used for similar cases. For example, if more than enough money was collected to
aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina, then the surplus money could be used to
help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. If one is raising money for a specific
person, all monies including the surplus goes to that person. The surplus will
help that person meet all future challenges.
TY Shekalim 8 My happy place
Rabbi
Abahu once came to
Tiberias and the students of Rabbi
Yokhanan who were there perceived
that his countenance was radiant. The
students told Rabbi Yokhanan: Rabbi Abahu has apparently found a treasure! (RabbiYokhanan) approached him, and asked him: What new Torah
teaching have you heard (because he
understood that the radiance of Rabbi Abahu’s visage had a spiritual source, it
was not the result of simple material gratification) (Rabbi Abahu) responded to him: I heard an ancient Tosefta[2]
(that he had not previously known-gg). (Rabbi
Yokhanan) applied to him the verse: “A
man’s wisdom brightens his face.” (Ecclesiastes 8:1)
Studying daf
yomi and sharing it with my readers is one of my happy places.
[1] I know that there’s so much wrong
with a depiction of slavery in Walt Disney’s movie the Sound of the South. So
just focus on the cartoon adaption of the story and not the brief 25 second live
action introduction to the cartoon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da6N3i_vKB4
[2] A
Tannaitic source excluded from the final redaction of the Mishna
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