Shabbat Shekalimשַׁבַּת שְׁקָלִים

Shabbat Shekalim (“Sabbath [of] shekels” שבת שקלים) recalls the half-shekel collection, announced on the 1st of Adar and due by the 1st of Nisan, in which each adult male Jew contributed half of a Biblical shekel for the upkeep of the Tent of Meeting. The Torah portion Exodus 30:11-16 is read. This Shabbat takes place on the Shabbat before the 1st of the Hebrew calendar month of Adar, or on the 1st of Adar itself if it falls on Shabbat. In leap years on the Hebrew calendar, when there are two months of Adar, Shabbat Shekalim is on the Shabbat before the 1st of Adar II (or on the 1st of Adar II itself if it is Shabbat). Shabbat Shekalim carries a communal theme: every adult Israelite male over twenty gave exactly the same amount, "the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel," so that no person's standing in the community could be measured by their wealth. The equal contribution made every Jew an equal stakeholder in the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and, later, in the daily communal Temple offerings it funded. Shabbat Shekalim is also the first of the Arba Parshiyot, the four special Sabbaths (Shekalim, Zachor, Parah, Hachodesh) whose readings lead the community through the season from Adar toward Purim and Passover. In Temple times the half-shekel became an annual tax collected during Adar, and this Shabbat's reading served as the public announcement that the collection season had begun.

Shabbat Shekalim falls on the Shabbat immediately before Rosh Chodesh Adar (the 1st of Adar), or on the 1st of Adar itself when that day is Shabbat. In Hebrew leap years, which add a second month of Adar, it is read before or on the 1st of Adar II, since Purim and the half-shekel season fall in Adar II. The date is the same in Israel and the Diaspora, with no calendar difference between communities. Communal differences appear in the haftarah rather than in the date.

The special maftir is the half-shekel census passage, Exodus 30:11-16 from Parashat Ki Tisa (6 verses), read from a second Torah scroll. The haftarah recounts King Jehoash (Yehoash) of Judah collecting funds to repair the First Temple, paralleling the Torah reading's theme of communal contributions for the sanctuary. Ashkenazim generally read II Kings 12:1-17, while Sephardim typically begin earlier at II Kings 11:17-12:17 (opening with the removal of the Baal idols). When Shabbat Shekalim coincides with Rosh Chodesh, three scrolls are used: the weekly parashah in six aliyot from the first, the Rosh Chodesh reading, Numbers 28:9-15, as the seventh aliyah from the second, and the Shekalim maftir from the third. No special cantillation melody is used for Shabbat Shekalim; unlike Esther on Purim, Lamentations on Tisha B'Av, or the High Holiday Torah readings, the Four Parshiyot are chanted in the ordinary Torah and haftarah trope.

The defining practice is the additional special maftir read from a second Torah scroll together with its dedicated haftarah, which together announce that the season of the machatzit ha-shekel (half-shekel) donation has arrived. A related living custom is giving "machatzit ha-shekel" coins to charity around the Fast of Esther, just before Purim, commemorating the ancient half-shekel Temple tax; many communities give three half-units of the local currency. Shabbat Shekalim opens the Arba Parshiyot cycle that leads up to Purim and Passover.