Day 37: The Jewish People as a Living Whole

I want to introduce a word in that back and forth, which is the term that is used to describe dialogue in the Talmud.

It's called shakla v'tarya, giving and taking.

That's literally what it means.

Shakla v'tarya, the back and forth, the give and take.

So there's the following back and forth that appears in the first chapter in the Talmud on the fourth mishna.

In the Jerusalem Talmud, it's not paginated in the same way as the Babylonian Talmud, so the way that we cite it is one colon four.

That's the first chapter, the fourth mishna on the Talmud over there.

And they have the following question.

The Talmud says that everybody had to give the half shekel for communal sacrifices, and there was a question that arose.

Does that also include Kohanim? Are the priests, the Kohanim, the ones who serve in the temple, the ones who are offering all the sacrifices, do we also have to contribute this half shekel? And they came up with actually a very interesting reasoning.

They said, "It's a problem if we have to contribute to this." Why? They reasoned as follows, and this is directly from the Talmud Yerushalmi Shekalim.

Sheha-Kohanim dorshin mikra ze la'atzman.

The Kohanim interpreted the following rule for themselves, and they said, "If we end up donating a half shekel, it's going to be a problem for all the communal sacrifices." Why? Because when a Kohen offers a mincha offering, specifically when a Kohen offers, it gets entirely burnt on the mizbeach, on the altar.

It gets entirely burnt.

And the Kohanim said that's a rule that applies to any time a Kohen brings this kind of offering.

There's a problem, though.

When we offer the communal sacrifices, we don't actually do that.

We don't actually ensure that it gets entirely burned.

So if we end up donating and taking part in this, the problem is it's gonna have to be burnt entirely because it's gonna be accepting money and ownership also from Kohanim, and yet we're not following the rules of when a Kohen offers a sacrifice, this specific kind of mincha, that is entirely burnt.

Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai responds and says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You absolutely need to give, and if a Kohen does not give and contribute the half shekel, they are sinners." What is this back and forth? What is this-- Let's use the Talmudic term.

I want to introduce a word in that back and forth, which is the term that is used to describe dialogue in the Talmud.

It's called shakla v'tarya, giving and taking.

That's literally what it means.

Shakla v'tarya, the back and forth, the give and take.

So there's the following back and forth that appears in the first chapter in the Talmud on the fourth mishna.

In the Jerusalem Talmud, it's not paginated in the same way as the Babylonian Talmud, so the way that we cite it is one colon four.

That's the first chapter, the fourth mishna on the Talmud over there.

And they have the following question.

The Talmud says that everybody had to give the half shekel for communal sacrifices, and there was a question that arose.

Does that also include Kohanim? Are the priests, the Kohanim, the ones who serve in the temple, the ones who are offering all the sacrifices, do we also have to contribute this half shekel? And they came up with actually a very interesting reasoning.

They said, "It's a problem if we have to contribute to this." Why? They reasoned as follows, and this is directly from the Talmud Yerushalmi Shekalim.

Sheha-Kohanim dorshin mikra ze la'atzman.

The Kohanim interpreted the following rule for themselves, and they said, "If we end up donating a half shekel, it's going to be a problem for all the communal sacrifices." Why? Because when a Kohen offers a mincha offering, specifically when a Kohen offers, it gets entirely burnt on the mizbeach, on the altar.

It gets entirely burnt.

And the Kohanim said that's a rule that applies to any time a Kohen brings this kind of offering.

There's a problem, though.

When we offer the communal sacrifices, we don't actually do that.

We don't actually ensure that it gets entirely burned.

So if we end up donating and taking part in this, the problem is it's gonna have to be burnt entirely because it's gonna be accepting money and ownership also from Kohanim, and yet we're not following the rules of when a Kohen offers a sacrifice, this specific kind of mincha, that is entirely burnt.

Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai responds and says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You absolutely need to give, and if a Kohen does not give and contribute the half shekel, they are sinners." What is this back and forth? What is this-- Let's use the Talmudic term.