Haftorah Parashat Shekalim
Parshat Shekalim, Melachim II 11;17-12;17
A Misleading Similarity
Since the selection from navi tells of Yehoash changing the established system for how to maintain the Mikdash, its connection to this Shabbat’s Torah reading, Parshat Shekalim—which tells of men’s obligation to give a half-shekel a year to the Mishkan/Mikdash– might seem clear.
Before we question that, we should remind ourselves that choosing a portion of navi to read for the haftarah based on the special reading rather than the regular one suggests that we see that as in some way more the topic of the day than the parsha.
The connection between that Torah reading and haftarah becomes problematic when we realize that the Mishnah sees the half-shekels as primarily for daily communal sacrifices, rather than the upkeep of the Beit haMikdash. If so, the collection of money in the navi was not the same as in the Torah reading. Further, the half-shekels were compulsory whereas the navi discusses voluntary contributions.
The People Come Back to God
One more question is raised by the different starting points for the haftarah in the Sefardic and Ashkenazic communities. While Ashkenazim understandably start the reading with Yoash’s ascent to rule, since he is the one who changes the system, Sefardim start with the last four verses of the previous chapter. There, Yehoyada, the High Priest who saved Yoash as a child and then placed him on the throne, makes a covenant between the nation, king, and God, and then between the nation and the king. The people then clean house, destroying the House and altar of Baal, killing its priest, placing Yehoash on the throne, and killing Atalyah.
In the part that the Ashkenazim also read, we learn that Yoash did all that Hashem wanted as long as Yehoyada was alive. His dependence on his mentor for adhering to proper values dovetails with issues we will see below, so I mention it here.
Try the Old System First
When Yoash takes over, the system he inherits has the priests collecting donations for the maintenance of the Mikdash (according to Rashi in Divrei haYamim II;24;25, they were also responsible for raising that money), with the obligation to apply that money to its maintenance.
Rashi in Gittin 30a points out that Kohanim expected gifts from their friends. The system flourished on networking; priests established social and familial connections, building a base of supporters for his endeavors, including the Mikdash. It would be somewhat akin to choosing to support a yeshiva because you know the head of it or a teacher there. One problem with that is the lack of institutional safeguards; for example, I wonder whether the Kohanim who collected more would also have more of a say in how the upkeep should be handled.
After 22 years, Yehoash sees the system is not working, and devises a new one. The text seems to blame the priests for the failure, meaning the money was there, and they did not do their jobs. Yehoash’s solution also indicates that the problem was in applying the money to the Mikdash’s needs, not in raising it.
Unless the priests were corrupt—collecting money for one purpose and then keeping it—or evil, it would seem they failed to devise a way to care for the Mikdash. Lacking assigned responsibilities, those charged with caring for it watched it fall into disrepair.
Specific Tasks for Specific People
Yehoash’s new system, which the priests seem to have welcomed, addresses that problem. Instead of a diffuse obligation to see to the Mikdash’s upkeep, the “accountants” of the system, the king’s scribe and the High Priest, were given the job of assigning money to the craftsmen who would actually fix the Mikdash.
The king’s trust of the craftsmen—the navi tells us that they were not called to account for their work—contrasts with the priests, who could not handle an honor system. Perhaps the greater specificity of his job eased the woodworker or metalworker’s (in any case thrilled with his government contract) ability to produce the necessary results.
The Introduction to the Haftarah and the Connection to Shekalim
The priests’ inability to shoulder their responsibilities suggests a reason for starting the haftarah where the Sefardim do. Yehoyada’s covenant was supposed to inaugurate a time when people would take care of communal needs without needing exact guidance, not just one instance of freeing themselves of Baal or Atalyah. The priests’ falling short thus mirrors what happened in the rest of the society.
In a mature society, members take care of social needs even without being told they have to; that was supposed to be how the upkeep of the Mikdash worked, it was what Yehoyada was trying to teach the people, and it might be the point of the half-shekel in the Torah reading. The money itself is fairly negligible, since halachah assumes all Jews could afford it. Perhaps one aspect of it was to give a yearly reminder that each male Jew is obligated to insure that communal institutions run well and properly.
Accepting that idea turns the first of Adar into a time when Jews would be reminded of their overall responsibilities as Jews. That connects Shekalim to Purim more meaningfully than otherwise as well, since one part of the Purim story is Esther’s being told by Mordechai that she must step forward to do what she can to save the Jews. His sharp words—revah ve-hatsalah yavo layehudim mi-makom aher, salvation will come from elsewhere—tell her that it is her job if it needs to get done, regardless of whether someone else could do it also.
Which suggests that we might use this Shabbat to rededicate ourselves to helping advance the cause of avodat Hashem not only in ways specifically defined by God and tradition, but in other ways as well, the ones that are clear to us as being necessary but not taken up by anybody in particular. Shabbat Shalom.
II Melachim, Chapter 11
[17] And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people that they should be the LORD’s people; between the king also and the people.
[18] And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD.
[19] And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings.
[20] And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king’s house.
[21] Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.
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2Kgs.12
[1] In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.
[2] And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
[3] But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
[4] And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the LORD, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of the LORD,
[5] Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance: and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found.
[6] But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.
[7] Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests , and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.
[8] And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house.
[9] But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.
[10] And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD.
[11] And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD,
[12] And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
[13] Howbeit there were not made for the house of the LORD bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD:
[14] But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD.
[15] Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.
[16] The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests’.