Shekalim (tractate)

Shekalim
	Ancient shekel coin c.66-67 CE, of the type used during the First Jewish Revolt against Rome.
Tractate of the Talmud
Seder:	Moed
Number of mishnahs:	52
Chapters:	8
Jerusalem Talmud pages:	33
Tosefta chapters:	3
	← Pesachim Yoma →

Shekalim is the fourth tractate in the order of Moed in the Mishnah. 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.

There is no Gemara about the treatise in the Babylonian Talmud, but there is one in the Jerusalem Talmud, and the latter is often printed in editions of the Babylonian Talmud.^[1]^[2] It is the only tractate in Seder Moed not included in the Babylonian Talmud.^[3]

History

When Daniel Bomberg published the editio princeps (first printed edition) of the complete Babylonian Talmud from 1519 to 1523,^[4] he also included many tractates of Mishnah for which there was no tractate in the Babylonian Talmud. Shekalim, published by Bomberg in 1522, was the only such tractate for which he included the Jerusalem Talmud version of the tractate in his 44-volume work, though he never explained why this was case. The Jerusalem Talmud version of Shekalim has since been included in subsequent printed versions of the Babylonian Talmud.

When Rabbi Meir Shapiro initiated the Daf Yomi cycle on the first day of Rosh Hashanah in 1923, he included a version of Shekalim that had the 12 pages included in the Zhitomir edition of the Talmud, though this has since been changed to the 21-page version used in the Vilna Edition Shas; it differs from the 11 pages in Bomberg's printing and is the only tractate where the pagination used in the Daf Yomi cycle has changed.^[5] Study of Shekalim in the first Daf Yomi began on November 27, 1924, with daf 2 (the first printed folio page) and concluded with daf 13 on December 8, 1924.^[6] The change from 12 pages for Shekalim to 21 pages was made in 1975 as part of the eighth Daf Yomi cycle, increasing the total length of the cycle from 2,702 days to its present length of 2,711.^[7]

Commentaries

In the early 1800s, Yisroel ben Shmuel of Shklov published Mishnas Eliyahu and Hagahos Ha'gra, a series of commentaries from the Vilna Gaon on tractate Shekalim that he organized for printing, along with Tiklin Chadtin, which included his own commentary on the tractate. These three texts have been incorporated into the Vilna Edition Shas version of tractate Shekalim.^[8]

Chapters

There are eight chapters in this tractate, as follows:^[9]

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. Women, slaves, and minors were not required to pay the tax but could do so if they wished; pagans and Samaritans were not allowed to pay at all.^[10]
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

↑ "Introduction to Tractate Shekalim - Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem". Learn.conservativeyeshiva.org. Retrieved 2018-06-15.^{[permanent dead link]}
↑ "Shekalim". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
↑ Massekhet Shekalim: Introduction to the Tractate, Steinsaltz Center, October 20, 2013. Accesed May 2, 2026. "Shekalim is the only tractate in the order of Mo’ed which is not included in the Babylonian Talmud.... To fill this void, scholars have availed themselves of Massekhet Shekalim from the Jerusalem Talmud."
↑ Heller, Marvin J. "Earliest Printings of the Talmud" in Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein, Archived August 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Accessed May 2, 2026.
↑ Morsel-Eisenberg, Tamara. "What is Yerushalmi Shekalim Doing in the Babylonian Talmud?", Lehrhaus, March 23, 2021. Accessed May 1, 2026. "Tractate Shekalim is actually a bit of an exception where pagination is concerned. While it was always included in the Daf Yomi cycle, the amount of days varied slightly depending on which popular edition was used: Bomberg’s Shekalim has eleven pages; Zhitomir, which was more widespread when R. Shapiro inaugurated the Daf Yomi, has twelve; but Vilna has twenty-one, which is the amount of days spent on the tractate among Daf Yomi learners today.... After having printed twelve tractates, the third of Tishrei 1522 saw the printing of Tractate Shekalim, 'edited with great care' (im rav ha-iyyun), as the title page proclaims.... Nowhere does Bomberg’s team provide any explanation as to why they decided to print a Jerusalem Talmud text of Shekalim as part of the Babylonian Talmud rather than just leaving it out or providing only the Mishnah, as they had done for other tractates."
↑ 1st Daf Yomi cycle, Kollel Iyun HaDaf of Yerushalayim. Accessed May 1, 2026.
↑ Shekalim 2, Kollel Iyun HaDaf of Yerushalayim. Accessed May 1, 2026. "Incidentally, this phenomenon explains the mysterious 'lengthening' of the Daf Yomi cycle in the eighth Daf Yomi cycle (which began in June 1975). Rav Meir Shapiro's original calendar was tailored to a 13 Daf Shekalim. When that edition became uncommon, the cycle was changed to accommodate the 22 Daf version of the Vilna edition, lengthening the Dafyomi cycle from 2702 days to 2711 days."
↑ Kornfeld, Mordecai. Introduction to Maseches Shekalim, Kollel Iyun HaDaf of Yerushalayim. Accessed April 30, 2026. "Tiklin Chadtin, Mishnas Eliyahu, Hagahos Ha'gra. These three commentaries, printed together in the Vilna Shas, were written by Rav Yisrael Mi'Shklov, a disciple of the Vilna Ga'on. The 'Tiklin Chadtin' is a line-by-line commentary on the Gemara, whose explanations often differ significantly from those suggested by the Korban ha'Edah. The 'Mishnas Eliyahu' contains in-depth discussions of various topics in the Gemara, and it often analyzes differences between the Yerushalmi and the Bavli or differing opinions of Rishonim."
↑ "Shekalim". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
↑ Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "SHEḲALIM". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

External links

[1] "Introduction to Tractate Shekalim - Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem". Learn.conservativeyeshiva.org. Retrieved 2018-06-15.^{[permanent dead link]}

[2] "Shekalim". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.

[3] Massekhet Shekalim: Introduction to the Tractate, Steinsaltz Center, October 20, 2013. Accesed May 2, 2026. "Shekalim is the only tractate in the order of Mo’ed which is not included in the Babylonian Talmud.... To fill this void, scholars have availed themselves of Massekhet Shekalim from the Jerusalem Talmud."

[4] Heller, Marvin J. "Earliest Printings of the Talmud" in Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein, Archived August 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Accessed May 2, 2026.

[5] Morsel-Eisenberg, Tamara. "What is Yerushalmi Shekalim Doing in the Babylonian Talmud?", Lehrhaus, March 23, 2021. Accessed May 1, 2026. "Tractate Shekalim is actually a bit of an exception where pagination is concerned. While it was always included in the Daf Yomi cycle, the amount of days varied slightly depending on which popular edition was used: Bomberg’s Shekalim has eleven pages; Zhitomir, which was more widespread when R. Shapiro inaugurated the Daf Yomi, has twelve; but Vilna has twenty-one, which is the amount of days spent on the tractate among Daf Yomi learners today.... After having printed twelve tractates, the third of Tishrei 1522 saw the printing of Tractate Shekalim, 'edited with great care' (im rav ha-iyyun), as the title page proclaims.... Nowhere does Bomberg’s team provide any explanation as to why they decided to print a Jerusalem Talmud text of Shekalim as part of the Babylonian Talmud rather than just leaving it out or providing only the Mishnah, as they had done for other tractates."

[6] 1st Daf Yomi cycle, Kollel Iyun HaDaf of Yerushalayim. Accessed May 1, 2026.

[7] Shekalim 2, Kollel Iyun HaDaf of Yerushalayim. Accessed May 1, 2026. "Incidentally, this phenomenon explains the mysterious 'lengthening' of the Daf Yomi cycle in the eighth Daf Yomi cycle (which began in June 1975). Rav Meir Shapiro's original calendar was tailored to a 13 Daf Shekalim. When that edition became uncommon, the cycle was changed to accommodate the 22 Daf version of the Vilna edition, lengthening the Dafyomi cycle from 2702 days to 2711 days."

[8] Kornfeld, Mordecai. Introduction to Maseches Shekalim, Kollel Iyun HaDaf of Yerushalayim. Accessed April 30, 2026. "Tiklin Chadtin, Mishnas Eliyahu, Hagahos Ha'gra. These three commentaries, printed together in the Vilna Shas, were written by Rav Yisrael Mi'Shklov, a disciple of the Vilna Ga'on. The 'Tiklin Chadtin' is a line-by-line commentary on the Gemara, whose explanations often differ significantly from those suggested by the Korban ha'Edah. The 'Mishnas Eliyahu' contains in-depth discussions of various topics in the Gemara, and it often analyzes differences between the Yerushalmi and the Bavli or differing opinions of Rishonim."

[9] "Shekalim". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.

[10] Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "SHEḲALIM". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

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