Eles são obrigados a dar um kolbon [kal-bon, isto é, algo "leve e pequeno", que é adicionado ao meio-shekel]: levitas, israelitas, prosélitos e escravos libertos; mas não Cohanim, mulheres, servos e menores. Se alguém der o shekel por um Cohein, uma mulher, um escravo ou um menor, ele é isento (do kolbon) [como quando os emprestou. Pois, uma vez que são isentos (do meio siclo), não são responsáveis pelo kolbon. E se ele não os emprestou, mas pagou por eles, mesmo que ele desse o siclo para quem é obrigado, ele está isento do kolbon, como explicado abaixo.] E se alguém der o siclo para si e para seu amigo [ (Isso, em um caso em que ele o empresta. Ele dá um siclo: um meio siclo para si mesmo e um meio siclo que ele empresta a seu amigo)], ele é responsável por um kolbon. [Pois este tanna sustenta que quem der o meio siclo especificado na Torá está isento do kolbon, sendo escrito (Êxodo 30:13): "Isso eles darão"—Exatamente como eles devem dar e não mais, de modo que, com dois que dão um siclo, apenas um kolbon é dado.] R. Meir diz: Dois kolbonoth. [R. Meir sustenta que quem dá meio siclo é responsável por um kolbon, de modo que, se dois derem um siclo, serão responsáveis por dois kolbonoth. A halachá não está de acordo com R. Meir.] Se alguém der um sela [um shekel inteiro, ao cambista do Templo], e ele pegar um shekel ["um shekel" aqui é um meio shekel, ou seja, ele recebe metade do que deu], ele é responsável por dois kolbonoth. [Aqui o primeiro tanna admite que ele dá dois kolbonoth: um para compensar o meio shekel que ele recebe do templo, e outro porque ele não deu o meio shekel (exato) especificado na Torá.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
קולבון – קל/easy בון /to understand – that is to say, something light and small that we add to the one-half Shekel to harmonize between them.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
Introduction
The rabbis added onto the half-shekel a surcharge which is called a “kalbon.”
Rabbi Meir and the other rabbis disagree over the nature of the kalbon and therefore over who has to pay it. According to Rabbi Meir everyone who gives the shekel has to pay the kalbon. Rabbi Meir reasons that the kalbon is a surcharge because they coin he is giving is probably not as pure as the coin demanded by the Torah. Hence, there is always an obligation to give the kalbon.
The other sages understand the kalbon to be a surcharge because when he gives a coin they will have to exchange it with a moneychanger. Therefore they hold that anyone who gives his half-shekel in one coin to the Temple need not give the kalbon, because there is no exchange. If two together give one shekel then the two must add one kalbon, because had they split their coin into two, they would have had to pay the moneychanger. The sages decreed that the money saved by not giving it to the moneychanger should go to the Temple.
In our mishnah and in the following one we learn some details about who pays the kalbon.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
השוקל ע"י אשה [וכו'] פטור – for example that he lent them since they are exempt, they are not obligated in agio/surcharge, but he pays the debt for them, even paying the half-shekel for someone who is obligated, he is exempt from the surcharge, as is mentioned later.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
The following are liable [to pay] the kalbon (: Levites and Israelites and converts and freed slaves; but not priests or women or slaves or minors. This is the same list that appeared above in mishnah three with regard to taking pledges. The kalbon was paid only by those from whom they took pledges in order to collect the half-shekel. The kalbon was not taken from those who don’t owe the half-shekel in the first place. The one exception may be the priests, whom according to our mishnah do not pay the kalbon. Albeck explains that the priests were lenient on themselves. Another explanation might be that this mishnah goes according to Ben Bukri in mishnah four who said that priests do not have to give the half-shekel. Finally, there are some manuscripts that do not have the word “priest” in this mishnah.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
אם שקל על ידו ועל יד חבירו – when he lends him, we are speaking about and he pays a full shekel – one half of a shekel for himself and another half-shekel that he lends to his fellow.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
If a man paid the shekel on behalf of a priest, or on behalf of a woman, or on behalf of a slave, or on behalf of a minor, he is exempt. Since the person for whom the shekel is being paid is exempt, the one who pays it on their behalf is also exempt.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
חייב קלבון אחד – for he holds that whomever gives the one-half shekel that is clearly defined in the Torah is exempt from the surcharge, as it is written (Exodus 30:13): “This is what everyone….shall pay”/"זה יתנו" – like this he will give and no more; and the second one who gave a full Shekel, does not give other than one surcharge.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
If a man paid the shekel on his own behalf and on behalf of his fellow he is liable for one kalbon. Rabbi Meir says: two kalbons. The first opinion is that of the sages, which I explained in the introduction. They are only liable for one kalbon because only one exchange was made. Rabbi Meir holds that everyone is always individually liable for a kalbon. Hence, if one person pays on behalf of him and another person, he must add two kalbons.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
ר' מאיר אומר שני קלבונות – Rabbi Meir holds that the person who pays in the one-half shekel is obligated for a surcharge, therefore two paid in a full Shekel [together] are liable for two surcharges, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
If one gave a sela and received a shekel, he is liable to pay two kalbons. In this case a person gives the Temple treasurer a sela, which is the value of a Torah shekel. This is twice the amount he needs to give. He takes back in change a “mishnaic shekel”, which is a Torah half-shekel. In this case he must pay a kalbon for the shekel he gave and for the shekel he took, since both exchanges carry surcharges. We see from here that high banking fees are no modern invention!
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
הנותן סלע – that is a full shekel to the money changer of sanctified contributions, and he takes from it the one-half shekel that remains to him with him, and the Shekel that is mentioned here is the one-half shekel.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
נותן ב' קלבונות – in this the first Tanna/Teacher [of our Mishnah] agrees that he gives two surcharges, one surcharge to keep the balance from the one-half shekel that he takes from the sanctified monies, and the other, for since he did not give the one-half shekel as is delineated in the Torah, he is obligated for the surcharge.
