Shekalim is the fourth tractate in the order of

Moed Moed ( he, מועד, "Festivals") is the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people (also the Tosefta and Talmud). Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. The order of ...

in the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...

. Its main subject is half-shekel tax that ancient Jews paid every year to make possible the maintenance and proper functioning of the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jeru ...

. There is no

Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemo(r)re; from Aramaic , from the Semitic root ג-מ-ר ''gamar'', to finish or complete) is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah ...

about the treatise in the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cent ...

, but there is one in the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...

, and the latter is often printed in the editions of the Babylonian Talmud.

Chapters

There are eight chapters in this tractate, as follows: # בְּאֶחָד בַּאֲדָר (''Be'echad Ba'adar'') --- This chapter is concerned with dates of the payment of the tax and who would pay it. The tax was collected throughout the month of

Adar Adar ( he, אֲדָר ; from Akkadian ''adaru'') is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 ...

. Women, slaves, and minors were not required to pay the tax but could do so if they wished;

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...

s and Samaritans were not allowed to pay at all. # מְצָרְפִין שְׁקָלִים (''Metzrfin Shekalim'') # בִּשְׁלשָׁה פְּרָקִים (''Bishlosha Perakim'') # הַתְּרוּמָה (''Haterumah'') # אֵלּוּ הֵן הַמְמֻנִּין (''Elu Hen Hamemunin'') # שְלשָׁה עָשָר שוֹפָרוֹת (''Shloshah Asar Shofarot'') # מָעוֹת שֶׁנִּמְצְאוּ (''Ma'ot Shenimtze'u'') # כָּל הָרֻקִּין (''Kol Harukin'')

References

External links

Mishnah Shekalim text in Hebrew and EnglishMishnah Shekalim text in Hebrew
{{Mishnah Mishnah