Hello chevra and welcome back to our pre-Pesach Mishnayos learning program where we are learning Mishnayos related to the period leading up to Pesach and also related to Pesach itself. Tonight we are going to start, we're going to move forward from about Shushan Purim period all the way to Chaf Tes Adar, the day before Rosh Chodesh Nissan. As we'll see over the next few Mishnayos, this day played a role in a number of different topics. Tonight we will begin with the Mishna in שקלים פרק ג משנה א. As you can see from the picture that I posted, the topic of our Mishna covers two distinct topics. One is regarding the Shekalim, the monies that were the half-shekel that was collected from the Bnei Yisroel from all the adults. There being an obligation that every adult contribute a half a shekel to the Beis Hamikdash and that money was then used in part to purchase the Korbanos for the that the Beis Hamikdash needed. So when every day there was a Korban Tamid and the Beis Hamikdash needed to buy the animals for that, they would use the money from that from the Machatzis Hashekel. Similarly, when they needed Korban Musaf on Shabbos or Yom Tovim or Rosh Chodesh or Yom Kippur or for any of the other Korbanos that the Beis Hamikdash brought on behalf of the Klal Yisroel, all the money would come from the Machatzis Hashekel. The way the Machatzis Hashekel was stored it was put into a big room in a lishka, in a large room and the money would be there and then three times we'll see in our Mishna that three times a year they would go in and they would dig out and they would collect money from the room and put it into three boxes. Now the boxes were named Alpha, Gamma, Beta, the Greek letters of ABC or Aleph, Beis, Gimmel and the money was then used to like I said to purchase the Korbanos and the reason why they would do it three times a year is because the Machatzis Hashekel, people sending in their money from all over the world and it didn't always arrive at the Beis Hamikdash in time to do the first kind of the first what they called toreim, the first time they would dig they would put money into the boxes and so therefore they would want to do it three times so at least everybody had a fair chance of their half-shekel, their specific half-shekel being part of the money used to buy the Korbanos. The second topic of our Mishna as you can see in the graphic as well is what's called Maaser Behema. The Torah tells us that just like you give one-tenth of your produce to you give to the Levi and you have to give Maaser and Terumah to the Kohen and Maaser to the Levi. In similarly, when it comes to your animals, every tenth animal, the tenth every tenth animal you also supposed to treat as Maaser Behema and you would bring those animals up to Yerushalayim and you would use them as a korban. You were allowed to eat it but you kept it but you had to bring it to Yerushalayim. And so again, three times they although the animals might have children, babies throughout the year, there were three times during the year correlating to the same times that they would be toreim the lishka, that they would separate the Machatzis Hashekel into the boxes. They would similarly set aside the Maaser Behema, they would count out the Maaser Behema during that period as well and the reason is because as it was getting close to Yom Tov and your need for animals grew, you wanted to make sure that you fulfilled your obligation to do Maaser Behema and then the Beis Hamikdash could feel free to buy the animals that they needed and also especially let's say around Pesach time when you needed all the lambs and little baby goats for the Korban Pesach, you wanted to make sure that Maaser Behema was given. The way Maaser Behema was given you would have all the sheep in a pen and each sheep would walk through a very narrow gate where you would count them and every tenth one you would mark with red and you would know that that one was for Maaser Behema. Our Mishna suggests that the is basically talking about the dates on which you did the you separated the Machatzis Hashekel into the boxes and also when you did this Maaser Behema ceremony as well. We'll see that there does not seem to be a machlokes, a dispute regarding the shekalim, however when it came to Maaser Behema there seems to be a machlokes, a three-way machlokes in our Mishna although the dates are very similar to one another. They're slightly different and we won't go into the exact reasons as to why they differ but they're roughly around the same time and according to two of the three shittos it one of those dates was Chaf Tes, the twenty-ninth day of Adar. Before we begin the Mishna just note that regarding the part of the Mishna that relates to Maaser Behema, that same Mishna can be found in בכורות פרק ט משנה ה. There is a slight addition in that Mishna which we will not discuss. In our Mishnah, but for the most part it is a replica of our Mishnah or that Mishnah was actually probably brought into our Mishnah here in Shekalim as well. So let us begin with the Mishnah. The Mishnah begins Beshlosha Perakim Bashana. There are three times or three periods in the year, three times during the year, Tormin Es Halishka. We torem, we separate the coins from the lishka, meaning to say that we go into the lishka, the room that had the vault that had all the coins and we separate some of those coins into boxes like I said, three boxes. And when was that? Bepros Hapesach, Bepros Atzeres, Bepros Hechag. Pros here means is defined, it means 15 days before Pesach or half a month really, half, pros like pras, Kedei Achilas Pras, which means like to eat a half a loaf of bread, which comes up when you eat on Yom Kippur or when you're going to eat your matzah on Pesach you have to eat it within the time it would take to eat a half a loaf of bread, so pros means half. So meaning half a month before Pesach, a half a month before Atzeres means Shavuos, Bepros Hechag means a half a month before the chag of Sukkos. Chag generally in the Mishnah is referring to Sukkos. And so that would generally be the 29th of Adar. That would be a few days before Rosh Chodesh Sivan. And then also roughly around Rosh Chodesh, what we would call Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Chodesh Tishrei, but really the 29th of Elul as well as we'll see. And continues והן גרנות למעשר בהמה, and the same dates are the dates used for us to do the granos of maaser behemah, meaning to separate the maaser behemah as we said, you let them walk through the fence and you paint them red. Divrei Rabbi Akiva. That's what Rabbi Akiva holds. As you'll see I highlight the names in gold so you can see the names of the Tannaim that are mentioned here in our Mishnah. Rabbi Akiva says that the same dates that you use to separate the machatzis hashekel are the same dates that you do the maaser behemah. Ben Azzai Omer. Ben Azzai says, Be'esrim Vetesha Be'adar, that you separate the behemos, the maaser behemah on the 29th of Adar, Uve'echad Besivan, the first day of Sivan, which is only a few days before Shavuos, Uve'esrim Vetesha Be'av, and on the 29th of Av. And the reason why he says a little bit later closer to Shavuos is because from Pesach to Shavuos is not such a long time and so therefore they extended the time because you didn't need to, you wanted to have more animals ahead of Shavuos and then you did it again on the 29th of Av heading into the yom tov. רבי אלעזר ורבי שמעון אומרים, Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon both say, Be'echad Benisan, not really the 29th of Adar but rather the Rosh Chodesh Nissan, Be'echad Besivan, similar to Ben Azzai, the first of Sivan, and then Be'esrim Vetesha Be'elul, not the 29th of Av, but actually the 29th of Elul very close to Rosh Hashanah. And then the Mishnah explains, מפני מה אמרו בעשרים ותשעה באלול, when according to Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon really it should have been on Rosh Hashanah. But why do we say the 29th of Elul when you're getting ready for Rosh Hashanah? ולא אמרו באחד בתשרי? They didn't say the first of Tishrei. מפני שהוא יום טוב, because we all know that it is a yom tov, the yom tov of Rosh Hashanah. ואי אפשר לעשר ביום טוב, and the rule is that as a general matter you do not separate maaser no matter what type of maaser you don't do it on yom tov. לפיכך הקדימוהו לעשרים ותשעה באלול. Therefore they brought it earlier and made it on the 29th of Elul. And so as we see a three-way machlokes in our Mishnah although the dates are quite similar nonetheless they each have a reason for their particular dates. And with that I wish you well and hatzlacha.