THERE WERE THIRTEEN COLLECTION CHESTS IN THE TEMPLE, בסד AND UPON seven of THEM WAS WRITTEN, respectively: NEW SHEKALIM; [19] OLD [SHEKALIM]; [20] BIRD-PAIRS; [21] YOUNG OLAH BIRDS; [22] WOOD; [23] LEVONAH; [24] GOLD FOR SERVICE VESSELS. [25] AND upon the remaining SIX chests was written: FOR VOLUNTARY OFFERINGS. שלשה עשר שופרות היו במקדש - והיה כתוב עליהן - תיקלין חדתין - ועתיקין - קינין - וגוזלי עולה - עצים - ולבונה - וזהב לכפרת - וששה לנדבה 18. Shekalim 6:5. [Emendation follows marginal gloss.] 19. [During the Temple era, there was an obligation upon males from the age of twenty and up to donate a pure silver holy half-shekel each year to the Temple (see Exodus 30:12-16; Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvos, Positive Commandment § 171; Chinuch, Mitzvah 105; cf. Rambam, Hil. Shekalim 1:7; Ramban, Exodus 30:12 and Minchas Chinuch ibid. regarding the age at which one becomes obligated). These pure silver holy half-shekalim were used to purchase the obligatory communal offerings, e.g. tamid and mussaf offerings. One would properly donate his pure silver holy half-shekel in the month of Adar; however, one who did not donate in Adar would place his pure silver holy half-shekel into this chest at any time during the year. Three times a year the store of shekalim (kept in a certain Temple chamber) would be opened and a terumah of shekalim would be separated from it for the purchase of the communal offerings (see Shekalim 3:1-2). Before each of these three separations, the collection chest for new shekalim would be emptied into the store of shekalim, so that the new shekalim contained in the chest would be subject to the terumah separation about to be made (Rashi). 20. One who failed to pay his pure silver holy half-shekel during the course of the year pays it the following year and places it in the chest marked old shekalim. The trustees (גזברים) of the Temple treasury take these shekalim and add them to the שירי הלשכה , the [half-shekalim] remaining in the chamber from the previous year. These leftover shekalim are used to pay for the maintenance of the walls and towers of Jerusalem and for other city needs, as taught in Shekalim 4:2. The half-shekalim paid into the chest for old shekalim go to this fund because they too are last years shekalim, and would have been left over had they been paid during that year (Rashi). 21. There are four mechusrei kapparah (literally: people lacking atonement) who must bring a pair of birds - one as a chatas and one as an olah - as part of their purification from tumah. Bringing the offering completes the process of their becoming tahor and allows them to once again enter the Temple Courtyard and touch and eat kodashim. The four mechusrei kapparah are the zav, the zavah, the woman who has given birth [if she is too poor to bring an animal chatas and olah] and the metzora [who is too poor to bring an animal chatas and olah]. Such people would place the money necessary for the purchase of a pair of birds in the chest marked kinnim (bird-pairs). Since the court supervising the Kohanim in the Temple did not disband for the day until this chest marked kinnim (bird-pairs) had been emptied and all the money in it had been used to purchase bird offerings and offer them on the Altar, the people who dropped money into this chest were permitted to partake of kodashim at nightfall (Rashi, in accordance with the opinion of the Sages in Shekalim 6:5; cf. opinion of R Yehudah ibid.). 22. One who wanted to donate a pair of young pigeons as olah offerings would place the money necessary for their purchase in this fourth chest. When the Kohanim emptied this chest, they would use the money to purchase young pigeons and offer them as bird olos (Rashi, in accordance with the opinion of the Sages ibid.; see Hagahos HaGra who notes that someone wishing to donate a pair of mature turtledoves as olah offerings would also place the money for his offering in this chest). 23. This fifth chest was for one who vowed to donate wood for the Altar (fire (אש)) (Rashi). [The minimum amount he must donate is two blocks, each measuring an amah by an amah, whose thickness was like that of the block used to level off excess grain from a seah container (see Shekalim 6:6 with Rav, and Zevachim 62b).] 24. This sixth chest was for one who vowed to donate levonah (frankincense) to be burned upon the Altar (Rashi). [The minimum amount he must donate is one kometz of levonah (Shekalim ibid.).] 25. The word כפרת in this context refers to the vessels known in Chumash as מזרקות , the bowls used to receive and throw the sacrificial blood. The word derives from I Chronicles 28:17 and Ezra 1:10, where Scripture calls the receiving bowls: כפורי זהב . One who promises to donate gold for these vessels places money into this chest (Rashis second explanation, as emended by Shitah Mekubetzes § 21; cf. Rashis first explanation, as emended by Shitah Mekubetzes § 20, and Riva cited by Tos. Yeshanim, Yoma 55b דה לכפורים). תלמוד בבלי מסכת תמורה כג Talmud Bavli Tractate Temurah 23b3 Artscroll 68 The Schottenstein Edition The Schwartz Edition of Seder Kodashim Mesorah #Talmud #Torah #Gemara
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 21:46:20 +0000
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