There are two Torah readings for this special Shabbat. The weekly reading, Mishpatim, chapters 21 through 24 of Exodus, forms the backbone of the legal code of the ancient Israelites. Two years ago I wrote the weekly D'var Torah for Mishpatim, which I entitled Judaism and the Death Penalty. I have the option this week of writing on some other aspect of Jewish law, as construed by the rabbis, but instead I'm going to write about the second Torah reading for this special Shabbat, Exodus 30: 11-16.
This special Shabbat is known as Shabbat Shekalim, the Sabbath of the Shekels - the currency of ancient and modern Israel. It's the first of five special Shabbats between now and Passover, which means despite the snow and cold where some of you live, spring is just around the corner. In this diary, we'll be studying the book of the Mishnah Sheklaim, but, before we start, I thought I would provide some background of what the Mishnah and the Talmud is:
A short history of the development of the Talmud:
The origins of the Talmud can be traced back to the destruction of the First temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, followed by expulsion of the Jews from Israel into Babylon. Until 586 BCE, the ancient Israelite religion was focused solely on the sacrificial cult at the Temple in Jerusalem, but now there was no more Temple, and the Jews had been expelled from Jerusalem. It is believed that Jewish sages began to meet and ask themselves, What do we do now? And they developed the radical concept of public prayer. The Bible records instances of private prayer, see, e.g. First Samuel 1: 10-12, now the sages began to write the daily prayers that are still recited by pious Jews thrice daily. And they developed a second radical concept - that we serve God not only by sacrifices at the Temple, and not only by public and private prayer, but by deeds of lovingkindness.
Even after the decree of Cyrus, Emperor of Persia, authorizing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the Temple, the sages continued to meet, discuss, argue, and build upon an oral tradition. They developed another concept: That God gave Moses on Mount Sinai two Torahs - a written Torah - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, but also an oral Torah. This oral Torah was the oral law the sages were developing, for they believed it originated with Moses and Mount Sinai. But at this point in the historical development of the Talmud, the oral Torah could not be written down, it had to remain flexible and adaptable to changing times. Yeah, I know, these are two inconsistent ideas, but bear with me.
We know almost nothing about these early sages, only a list of names (see lines 1 - 11) and a single teaching for each of these early sages. But beginning with Rabbis Hillel and Shammai, who lived shortly before Jesus, we begin to have details about who these rabbis were. Hillel and Shammai each established an academy, and over time more academies were established, and the teaching at these academies expanded, but nothing was yet in writing.
That changed after the Second Jewish Revolt, 132-136 CE. The Emperor Hadrian responded by mass murder of the Jews - it's estimated he murdered up to 600,000 Jews in Judea. And he was determined to wipe out Judaism by murdering all the rabbis. His armies broke into the academies, arrested the rabbis, and subjected them to horrible tortures before murdering them. But two of the sages managed to escape, Rabbi Meir and his remarkable wife Bruriah, who, because she was a woman was never called a rabbi, but who sat with the rabbis and argued with them as an equal. Rabbi Meir and Bruriah knew that the oral Torah had to be written, or it would be lost forever. So they began to write - being a guy, Rabbi Meir gets all the credit, but it's my theory that Bruriah must have helped him - and their writing became the Mishnah. They did not live to see their work completed - that task would be completed, somewhere between the years 180 and 200 CE, by Rabbi Judah the Prince, or Yehudah HaNasi.
After the Mishnah was completed, the rabbis in their academies in Israel and Babylon studied and argued the work, and resolved, or attempted to resolve, issues that the Mishnah did not resolve. The part of the Talmud containing their discussions and arguments is known as the Gemara. Over 90% of the text of the Talmud is Gemara. There are a few lines of Mishnah - the writing is very concise and to the point, with little or no reasoning, although dissenting opinions are often noted. This is followed by Gemara - a summary of the often long and rambling discussions and arguments that occurred in the rabbinical academies between 200 and 500 CE. The legal discussion is called Halakha; the arguments are often intricate and difficult to follow. The rabbis may have felt the same way, because they often broke off their discussions and arguments with Aggadah or Midrash, stories and parables, often featuring rabbis as heroes and Roman emperors as the bad guys. After struggling through pages of halakha, these stories are a delight to read.
Unfortunately, after the Christianization of the Roman Empire beginning with Constantine, the Christian-Roman authorities made it impossible for this work to continue. By the late 4th Century, the academies in Israel had closed and most of the rabbis joined their colleagues in Babylon, where the Persian Empire respected the Jews' religious freedom and protected the rabbinical academies. The work that had been compiled in the academies in Roman Palestine was collected in the Jerusalem Talmud, a relatively undeveloped and shorter work compared to the Babylonian Talmud, which I don't believe has been fully translated into English. When people say they study the Talmud, they are almost always referring to the Babylonian Talmud, which, at the close of the rabbinic period, was compiled in the Fifth Century first by Rabbi Ashi and, on his death, by the second Rabbi Ravina, based on notes and oral teachings that spanned many centuries. The Babylonian Talmud is 5,422 pages long in the standard Vilna edition, it takes up a full bookshelf, it has been translated many times into English, and page cites to this day refer to the page in the Vilna edition.
Mishnah Shekalim: The Jewish version of the money changers in the Temple.
We are now ready to study Shekalim. Here is a link to the English translation. In case you are wondering, there is a Gemara for the Mishnah Shekalim in the Jerusalem Talmud but not in the Babylonian Talmud. Apparently the rabbis in the Babylonian academies just weren't interested in the taxing and spending policies in Roman Palestine while the Temple stood - Israel was a far away land and the Temple had stood so long ago. But for the rabbis at the academies in Israel, the Temple hadn't been destroyed that long ago and there was the chance the Temple would be rebuilt.
Before we start with Shekalim, lets take a quick look at the second Torah reading: Exodus 30: 11-16. This seems to have been a one-time tax of a half shekel of all Jewish males 20 years of age and older. The tax apparently facilitated a census: if Moses collected 100,000 shekels, he knew he had 200,000 men 20 years of age and up available for military service. The sages, however, understood this tax as a permanent command in effect as long as the Temple stood.
The Mishnah opens with the statement that on the first day of the month of Adar - this year the first of Adar will coincide with Friday February 20th - they: the Temple priests and other Jewish authorities - proclaimed that the payment of the half shekel will soon be due in just one month - the first day of the month of Nisan. On that first day of Adar, the Jerusalem Talmud states that heralds went forth from Jerusalem proclaiming that the tax would be due in a month. The Talmud goes on to state that on the 15th of Adar - this year that would correspond to Friday March 6, 2015, they set up money changers in the provinces, and on the 25th of Adar, that would correspond this year to March 16, 2015, they set up those money changers in the Temple that upset Jesus so much. As I said, the taxes were due on the first of Nisan, which this year will be on Saturday/Shabbat March 21st. So aren't you lucky living in the good ole USA where you have 3 extra weeks - until April 15th - before your taxes are due?
Now, why were there money changers in the provinces, and why were there money changers in the Temple? Because the tax was 1/2 shekel, and when people were ready to bring their shekels from their homes to Jerusalem, they needed to make change - you gave the money changer a shekel and he gave you two 1/2 shekels and you could then take your 1/2 shekel to Jerusalem to pay your tax. And there were other coins in circulation as well. From Mishnah Shekalim 2:4:
Rabbi Yehudah says. . . . When Israel returned from the Babylonian exile, darkons were their shekels, later selaim were their shekels, still later tevain were their shekels, and they wished to contribute dinars as their half shekels.
And by the time of Jesus, no doubt they were paying the tax with Roman coins. You brought your Roman coins to the money changer and he gave you change so you could pay your 1/2 shekel tax. And Shekalim 2:1 states that people in the provinces were encouraged to put light weight coins in their pockets "to lighten the burden on the way;" then the money changers in the Temple would change the light weight coins for the half shekel. On the 25th of Adar, the taxpayers would start arriving in Jerusalem right before the 1st of Nisan tax payment deadline, and many of them still needed change for their shekels, hence the money changers in the Temple. And according to the Jerusalem Talmud, the money changers in the Temple were there not only to give change but also to collect the 1/2 shekel tax, note the taxpayer's payment, and hand out receipts.
And these guys sat at simple tables in the Temple (the Mishnah describes their simplicity) where the shekels and half shekels and coins of other currencies would pile up. There were also 13 collection chests set up in the temple - two were for the 1/2 shekel tax and the other 11 were for voluntary contributions, so if you had exact change and you didn't want to deal with the money changers, or if there was a long line at their tables, you could drop your 1/2 shekel into either of these 2 collection chests marked for the collection of the mandatory 1/2 shekel tax. And according to Gemara discussion in the Jerusalem Talmud, if the 1st of Nisan came and went and you haven't paid your tax, the Temple authorities would seize something of yours that had some value, sell it, and refund to you the sales price minus the half shekel tax.
So where did the tax money go? According to Shekalim 2:5, appropriations were made for the public sacrifices that would be made daily over the coming year. With all those bulls and lambs and pigeons being killed everyday, it must have been a heavy expense. We can thank the founders of Christianity and the rabbis for replacing animal sacrifice with public prayer - it really cuts down on the expense. Funds were also set aside to sustain the poor, redeem captives (yep - that meant paying ransoms), and paying for the funerals for families who could not afford to bury their dead. Funds were also used to repair the roads (Shekalim 1:1), to maintain the water canal that provided water to the city of Jerusalem, and, indeed for "all the needs of the city." (Shekalim 4:2).
How were funds allocated to the poor? The Mishnah (Shekalim 5:6) explains:
There were two collection chambers in the Temple. One was called "the chamber of the discreet" and the other was called "the utensil chamber." What purpose did the "chamber of the discreet" serve? The God-fearing would deposit money into the chamber quietly, and the poor of good families supported themselves from it discreetly.
Unlike right wing politicians of today, back then they not only believed in taxing people to support the poor, but in treating the poor with dignity so that they would not be embarrassed to receive public funds.
As I was typing this up I, of course, couldn't help thinking of Jesus and the money changers - the incident is recounted in all four of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. John 2:13 states the incident occurred shortly before Passover - according to Shekalim, the money changers operated in the Temple from the 25th of Adar to the First of Nissan - just over two weeks before Passover. Is Jesus accusing the Temple authorities of corruption - of stealing from the poor? Perhaps. According to Shekalim 3:2, however, the Temple authorities took steps to prevent corruption:
The one who withdraws the funds may not enter the Temple treasury wearing pockets, nor wearing shoes or even sandals, nor wearing tefillin nor an amulet, lest he become poor and the people might say, "Because he has been stealing from the treasury, he has become impoverished!" Or lest he become rich and the people might say, "He has enriched himself from the funds of the treasury!"
And to further deter any official from becoming corrupt (Shekalim 5:2):
There may not be less than three treasurers in the Temple nor may they have less than seven supervisors. Nor may any financial authority be set up over the community with less than two officers.
Final Thoughts (and sorry this diary was so long):
Shekalim confirms the account in all four Gospels that there were money changers in the Temple but contradicts the New Testament, affirming that the money changers had a positive purpose that was essential to the Jewish community of the time. Indeed, the Book of Shekalim affirms that in the time of Jesus there was a system of public taxation - albeit a "flat tax" - and that public funds, collected from all Jews, were used to maintain the poor, the roads, and the aqueducts, indeed, "all the needs of the city."
But the contradictions between the Jewish and Christian sources remain. Unless someone reading this can figure out a way to harmonize the two accounts, I can only say that Jews and Christians can learn from each others' traditions. And Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Atheists should all understand each other, and love and respect each other. Daily Kos has seen enough religious pie fights.
Shabbat Shalom, Happy Valentines Day, and best of luck with your taxes!