Shekalim is the fourth tractate in the order of

Moed Moed (, "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 Moed consists ...

in the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

. Its main subject is the 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 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 Jerusalem. Accord ...

. There is no

Gemara The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemore) is an essential component of the Talmud, comprising a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah and presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aram ...

about the treatise in the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) 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 centerpiece of Jewi ...

, but there is one in the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

, 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 (Hebrew: , ; 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 days. ...

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

pagan Paganism (, 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 Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

s and

Samaritan Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...

s 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 Tractates of the Talmud