quantity
coins
שקל · סלע · בקע · דרכמון
Bottom line
Shekel does not mean the same thing in Tanach and in Mishnah. In Tanach a shekel is the full weighed coin; the Mishnah calls that coin a sela and uses shekel for the half-shekel of the annual donation (Ramban to Shemos 30:13). Render Biblical שקל shekel and Mishnaic סלע sela, never "shekel," and check the register of a Mishnaic שקל before writing "shekel." Beka is half a shekel, from "splitting."
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| שקל | shekel | shekel (Tanach) / half-shekel (Mishnah) | the word shifted register; Rabbinic usage halved it (Ramban) |
| סלע | sela | sela | the Mishnaic name for the Biblical shekel (Yerushalmi Kiddushin 1:3); also still "rock" |
| בקע | beka | half-shekel | root ב-ק-ע, "to split" (Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Radak); only Bereishis 24:22 and Shemos 38:26 |
| דרכמון | darkemon | darkemon | a distinct coin, two selaim (Rambam to Shekalim 2:1); Targum Yonasan uses it loosely for "coin" |
Where the authorities disagree
Does Onkelos hold that a beka is a full shekel? He renders beka as tikla (Bereishis 24:22, Shemos 38:26), the Aramaic of shekel with shin turning to tav. Rashi (to Shemos 38:26), Rashbam (to Bereishis 24:22), Ibn Ezra (both places), and Radak (Sefer HaShorashim) say beka is half a shekel. Rabbi Yaakov Zev Lev (Me'at Tzari) dissolves the clash: they speak two dialects. Onkelos's shekel is the Rabbinic one, already equal to the Biblical half-shekel; Rashi and Ibn Ezra mean the Biblical shekel. The Bottom line follows this, since it leaves every source saying the same amount.
Why the piyut on Shabbos Shekalim says "a shekel I will bear." The piyut, ascribed to Rabbi Elazar HaKallir and said customarily on Shabbos Shekalim, reads "a shekel I will bear in the prepared and exalted house," which on its face is inaccurate, since the mitzvah is a half-shekel. Barring poetic license, the wording needs accounting for. Rabbi David Schlussel of Munkatch: the paytan used shekel in the Rabbinic sense, so he means exactly the half-shekel the mitzvah requires; Rabbi David Cohen applies the same to the name of Maseches Shekalim. Rabbi Elazar Rokach of Amsterdam reads it esoterically: in at-bash the letters of שקל come to twenty-six, the gematria of the Shem HaMeforash, and since Hashem's Name is incomplete until Amalek is wiped out (Rashi to Shemos 17:16), the shekel is halved now and will be whole in the days of Mashiach. The Bottom line follows Rabbi Schlussel; Rabbi Elazar Rokach's is a derush on the same fact, not a rival lexicography.
Why the Rabbis chose sela. No source states it. Rabbi Asher Gvirer of Beitar Illit suggests it is because sela means a strong rock, marking the stronger, more valuable coin. That is a suggestion, not a ruling.
Distinctions
shekel (שקל)
Root ש-ק-ל, "to weigh": a metal coin of a fixed weight, twenty geirah to the shekel (Shemos 30:13). Ramban (there) explains the shift: because of the annual half-shekel, people began calling the coin they actually handed over "the shekel," until the word attached so firmly to the mitzvah that it lost its full-weight sense. Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano says the same. Hence the Mishnah in Shevuos 6:7 can stage a dispute in which a shekel is worth less than a sela: the lender lent a sela, the lost pledge was worth a shekel. The article also floats, without pursuing it, whether the name of the Pelishti coastal city Ashkelon is somehow related to shekel or to the root it comes from.
sela (סלע)
In Mishnaic Hebrew the word carries two senses, the coin (Peah 8:7, Shekalim 1:6, Bava Metzia 4:3, Bechoros 8:2-8, and many more) and the Biblical "rock, bedrock" (Kilayim 2:8, Shabbos 6:6, Bava Basra 2:1, and many more). That the coin is the Torah's shekel is stated by Rabbi Chanina in Yerushalmi Kiddushin 1:3, "all the shekalim in the Torah are selaim," and in Bechoros 50a, where Rava defines the sela d'oraisa from Shemos 30:13 and Rabbi Chanina is cited as saying that all unspecified kesef in the Torah is a sela. It shows in how the Mishnah cites pesukim: the five shekalim of pidyon haben (Bamidbar 18:16) are five selaim in Bechoros, the two shekalim of the asham (Vayikra 5:15) two selaim in Kerisos. Rashi (to Bechoros 5a), Rambam (Hilchos Arachin 4:3, Hilchos Shekalim 1:2), and Sefer HaChinuch (mitzvah 355) state the equation plainly; Onkelos and Targum Yonasan render every shekel of the parashah sila, the Aramaic form.
beka (בקע)
Twice only in Tanach: the golden nose-ring Eliezer gave Rivkah (Bereishis 24:22), and "a beka per skull, half a shekel by the holy shekel" in the Mishkan's silver count (Shemos 38:26). Root ב-ק-ע, "to break" or "to split," hence half. (On the head tax there, the article adds that the English capital is cognate with cap, hat and head, all of them said to go back to the Proto-Indo-European kaput.)
Onkelos's tikla for beka is the Aramaicized shekel, the Hebrew shin turning to an Aramaic tav as it often does. The word appears in the writing on the wall in Daniel, mene mene tekel u'farsin, count, count, weigh and split (Daniel 5:25), and the Mishnah (Shekalim 6:5) speaks of taklin chaditin, new shekalim, meaning those donated for that year's tax. The article suggests that the name "New Israeli Shekel" may have been coined as a play on that Mishnaic expression.
darkemon (דרכמון)
Four times in Tanach (Ezra 2:69; Nechemiah 7:69-71), with adarchon twice (Divrei HaYamim I 29:7; Ezra 8:27) and darkon once in the Mishnah (Shekalim 2:1). Rambam (to Shekalim 2:1): one darkon is two selaim, four times a half-shekel, so on the article's reading it does not make much sense to identify a beka with the darkemon coin; that is why it presumes that Targum Yonasan used the word only in the general sense of "coin." Modern Hebrew darkon, "passport," is from derech, the documentation for travel on the road, and seems unrelated to the Mishnaic darkon. As for the coins themselves, the article reports that scholars are unsure which are meant, but typically associate these words with the Persian daric and the Greek drachma; the latter name was taken into Arabic as the dirham, which is still in use, and which the article says may somehow be related to the surname of Rabbi David Abudraham.
Rendering guidance
- Torah context: שקל is "shekel," חצי השקל is "half-shekel," בקע is "a beka (half a shekel)."
- Mishnah or Gemara context: סלע is "sela," not "shekel." A Mishnaic שקל is "half-shekel," or "a shekel (half a Biblical shekel)" where that is unclear."
- Trap: English "shekel" absorbs both שקל and סלע, which is the very error the sugya turns on. Where a source quotes a pasuk beside a halachah (five shekalim / five selaim for pidyon haben), keep both words in English.
- סלע in a Mishnah is not automatically money. Check whether the context is bedrock (Shabbos 6:6) before writing "coin."
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Vayakhel (Shabbat Shekalim)," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 25 Adar I 5782 (2022-02-26): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/9595-vayakhel-shabbat-shekalim.md. Primary loci: Shemos 30:11-16, 38:26, 17:16 with Rashi; Bereishis 24:22; Vayikra 5:15; Bamidbar 18:16; Bechoros 50a and Rashi to Bechoros 5a; Yerushalmi Kiddushin 1:3; Mishnah Shevuos 6:7, Shekalim 2:1 and 6:5; Ramban to Shemos 30:13; Rambam, Hilchos Arachin 4:3, Hilchos Shekalim 1:2, and to Shekalim 2:1; Sefer HaChinuch mitzvah 355; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim; Me'at Tzari to Bereishis 24:22; Daniel 5:25; Ezra 2:69, 8:27; Nechemiah 7:69-71; Divrei HaYamim I 29:7. The companion piece on sela against the other words for rock is "Like a Rock" (November 2018).