By Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein This week’s essay presents a meticulous examination of the Hebrew word cheilev (often translated simply as “fat” in English) and its ostensible synonyms. The word cheilev appears approximately 90 times throughout the Bible, with a plurality of those appearances clustered around the opening chapters of the Book of Leviticus in […]
By Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein Last week, Jews the world over celebrated Purim Katan, a minor holiday observed in the month Adar I of a leap year, exactly one month before the regular Purim is observed in Adar II. To start getting into the Purim spirit, this essay explores the names of two heroes from […]
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Exodus 30: 13-16) to collect a half-shekel tax, the shekel being 20
gerah of the shekel of the sanctuary, at the time of each census. During the time of Moses there were no coins, so we understand this to mean the weight of half a shekel, according to the standards set by the sanctuary. Subsequently, it is suggested that the half-shekel was paid annually (
II Kings 12 5-17 and
Nehemiah 10:32-33). In the
Book of Nehemiah, it was referred to as a “third-shekel” but scholars generally believe that this was either an error of transcription or a reference to Persian weight standards, commonly used in coins of the day. The Temple tax is also mentioned in