פירוש על שקלים 1:7

השוקל ע"י עני – for a poor person

If one paid the shekel on behalf of a poor man or on behalf of his neighbor or on behalf of his fellow-townsman, he is exempt [from the kalbon]. But if he loaned [it] to them he is liable.
Brothers who are partners who are obligated for the kalbon are exempt from the tithe of beasts.
But when they are liable to the tithe of beasts they are exempt from the surcharge.
And how much is the kalbon? A silver ma'ah, the words of Rabbi Meir. But the sages say: half a ma'ah.
This mishnah continues to discuss the kalbon, the extra surcharge paid with the shekel.
Section one: If someone pays the shekel for a friend as a gift, the rabbis did not make him pay the kalbon as well. The same is true, as we shall see below, if a father pays the kalbon on behalf of his son. However, one who pays the shekel on someone else’s behalf as a loan does have to pay the kalbon.
Section two: This section refers to two different types of partnerships between brothers who have inherited from their father. The first type is when they have already divided up the inheritance and then pooled their money together to form a business partnership. In such a case they are liable for the kalbon as are all partners who pay each other’s kalbon, but they are exempt from paying the tithe on beasts (domesticated animals) since partners do not pay this tithe on their shared animals. The second partnership is one in which they have not yet divided up the inheritance. In such a case the money is treated as if it still belonged to one person, their father. They are liable for the tithe but they are exempt from the kalbon, since this is similar to as case in which a father pays the shekel on his son’s behalf.
Section three: Rabbi Meir holds that the kalbon is a ma’ah, which is 1/12 of a half-shekel. This matches Rabbi Meir’s understanding of the kalbon as compensation for the non-pure elements which are customarily put into silver coins. This ma’ah is supposed to increase the silver of the shekel so that it now reaches the value of the Torah’s half-shekel. The sages, however, hold that the kalbon is in place of a fee paid to the moneychanger. The fee is a lesser amount, only half a ma’ah.

פטור – since he gives it to them as a gift.

האחין השותפין שחייבין בקלבון – brothers who are partners that split and came back and became partners again – are obligated for the surcharge like two people who gave Selaim.

פטורים ממעשר בהמה – all cattle that are born to them all the days of their partnership do not need to be tithed, for we expound in the [last] chapter of [Tractate] Bekhorot (see Chapter 9, Mishnah 3 – Talmud Bekhorot 56b) (Numbers 18:15): “]The first issue of the womb of every being, man or beast, that is offered to the LORD,[ shall be yours/יהיה לך;” – yours but not of a partnership, and we establish this verse with tithes, and even though that it is written with regard to first born.

וכשחייבים במעשר בהמה – that is when they didn’t divide it, then they are obligated for tithing, as we expound – that he is able, even if they didn’t purchase it as that which belongs to the estate (before division), as the inference teaches us, “it will be”/יהיה – in all cases (see Numbers 18:18).

פטורים מן הקלבון – for the money of their father stands in its legal status as it is like a father who gives for his sons and for or for his neighbors and is exempt.

מעה כסף – one twenty-fourth of Selah, and its weight is sixteen S’eorot.

חצי מעה – one forty-eighth and its weight is eight S’eorot, and the Halakha is according to the Sages.