Torah Portion: Ki Sisa
This shall they give — everyone who passes through the census — a half shekel of the sacred shekel… as a portion to Hashem (Shemos 30:13).
It is a positive commandment for every Jew from the age of twenty and up, whether poor or rich, to give a half shekel every year into the hands of the kohanim, as it is written, This shall they give — everyone who passes through the census — a half shekel of the sacred shekel… as a portion to Hashem(Shemos 30:13). All of the coins would be placed in one of the chambers of the Temple, and from there they would take what they needed to spend on purchasing [communal] Tamid and Musaf offerings, or for any other communal sacrifices, and for the libations, salt for the offerings, the wood for the fire on the Altar, the Show Bread, the ’Omer, the “Two Loaves,” the Red Heifer, the goat that was sent off on Yom Kippur and for the crimson string.
Among the roots of the mitzvah is the aim that the Holy One wished — for the benefit of all Israel and for their merit — that everyone should have an equal share in all the offerings that are brought regularly throughout the year and in all of the above-mentioned communal items; that everyone, poor or wealthy, will be equal in one mitzvah that comes before Him, so that the memory of them all that arises from the mitzvah (in which they are all included) will be for the good.
The laws of the mitzvah include: On the first of Adar announcements are made regarding the shekalim. Even the most poor Jew is obligated to give it. It is not given piecemeal but must be given all at once. Everyone is obligated to give it — Kohanim, Levites, and Israelites, converts and freed-slaves, but not women, children and slaves. If any of these latter individuals gave it anyway, it is accepted from them. But we do not accept [half-shekalim] from gentiles; they have no share with us.
This mitzvah applies when the Holy Temple stands, to Jews all over the world, both those in the Land of Israel as well as those outside the Land. But nowadays, because of our sins, when we have no Temple or shekalim, it is customary among all Jews to perform a token of this as a reminder by reading the Torah portion of Ki Sisa (until the words and you shall take the money of atonement…) every year on the Shabbos that precedes the Rosh Chodesh of Adar.
