O excedente do incenso [ou seja, o que resta todo ano] —O que é feito com isso [para queimá-lo (no serviço de sacrifício) no ano seguinte? Pois não há ano em que não haja excedente. Pois havia 368 porções de incenso e três porções das quais o sumo sacerdote encheria as mãos de Yom Kipur. E nem tudo isso poderia estar em suas mãos (para que houvesse um excedente). Além do mais, havia um excedente a cada ano regular (em oposição a um ano bissexto), havendo 354 dias no ano regular.] Eles se separam [isto é, da lishkah], o salário dos artesãos [a especiaria misturadores. Eles (os funcionários do Templo) recebem seu salário (dos artesãos) do terumah da lishkah, mandam um dos tesoureiros adquiri-lo em nome dos artesãos e ele (o dinheiro) se torna mais barato. E mesmo que o hekdesh não se torne chullin, a menos que algo se torne hekdesh em seu lugar, o terumah do lishkah é diferente, e o beth-din está autorizado a alocá-lo para vários propósitos. E depois que eles adquirem o dinheiro em nome dos artesãos], eles o resgatam (o incenso) pelo salário dos artesãos. [O dinheiro é assim consagrado para o velho terumah (o do ano anterior)], ele (o incenso) é dado aos artesãos como seu salário e é então comprado novamente com (o dinheiro do) novo terumah. [Este procedimento é mais "modesto" (ou seja, de acordo com a natureza do hekdesh) do que simplesmente vendê-lo e comprá-lo novamente.] Se chegou a seu tempo, foi retirado do novo terumah. [Se os novos shekalim foram levados à Rosh Chodesh Nissan, que é a hora do novo terumah, o excedente do incenso é comprado do novo terumah através da redenção, conforme explicado acima.] E, se não, do antigo. [Se o novo shekalim ainda não havia sido trazido, ele (o excedente do incenso) é comprado do antigo terumah, se já tivesse sido resgatado. E se ainda não havia sido resgatado, é queimado (no serviço sacrificial), pois o novo, não tendo chegado, deve ser usado o antigo.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
נותר הקטורת – that remains every year.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
Introduction
This mishnah deals with the extra incense. Every day there were two incense offerings, one in the morning and one in the evening (Exodus 30:7-8). The incense for 365 days and for three extra incense offerings on Yom Kippur was prepared ahead of time. The lunar year is only 354 years, so the extra incense was to be saved up for the leap year, when they would add a month. The problem is that from the first of Nisan the incense had to be offered using the new shekels. Our mishnah describes a way in which they could save the incense for the following year and yet still pay for it with new shekels.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
מה היו עושין בה – to offer as incense to God in the next year, for there is no year without surplus for the incense was made into three-hundred and sixty-eight minas for three-hundred and sixty-five minas is like the three hundred and sixty-five days of the solar [year] and three minas that from them, the High Priest would bring in his handfuls on Yom Kippur but they would not all enter with their handfuls. And furthermore, in each ordinary year, there was a surplus since an ordinary year had three-hundred and fifty-four days.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
What was done with the surplus of the incense? They would separate from it the wages of the craftsmen, and they would exchange it for the wages of the craftsmen, and they would give it to the craftsmen as their wages, and then they would buy it back again out of a new appropriation. This is how they would turn the incense for the previous year into incense for the following year. First they would separate an amount of incense that would be used to pay the wages of those who make the incense. Then they would redeem that incense with money set aside to pay those craftsmen. The money then would become sacred and the incense would be non-sacred. They then would give the non-sacred incense to the craftsmen as their wages and then they would buy back the incense with new shekels. The craftsmen would have their wages, and the incense was bought with new shekels. They could have done all this in a much simpler way they could simply sell the old incense and then buy it back with new money. However, the rabbis thought that the arrangement of using it for the craftsmen’s wages was more appropriate for sacred money.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
מפרישין ממנה – from the chamber.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Shekalim
If the new month had arrived in time they would bring it with the new appropriation, but if not, they from the old one. If the first of Nisan came on time, meaning that Adar had only twenty-nine days, then they would immediately begin to use the new appropriation to buy the incense and all of the public sacrifices. However, if Nisan did not come on time, meaning Adar had thirty days, they would bring it from the incense bought with the old shekels.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
שכר האומנין – from the pounding of the incense, they would take their payment from the chamber of the sacred donations and they would take possession of the monies for artisans through one hand from the treasurers and they are non-holy [produce], and even though what is holy does not become non-holy if they don’t bring something else in its place for holiness. The sacred donations of the chamber are different since the Jewish court makes a condition upon them to give them for several things. But after the monies were transferred for the needs of the artisans, they would redeem the incense with those monies. But the sacred monies from the old sacred donations, they would give the incense to the artisans as their payment and go back and repurchase it from them with monies of the new sacred donations. And in this way, the matter was much more discreet to not sell it and then go back and repurchase it.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
אם בא חודש בזמנו – that they brought new Shekalim prior to Rosh Hodesh Nisan which is the time for the new sacred donations, they purchase the surplus of the incense from the new sacred donations through redemption as we explained above.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Shekalim
ואם לאו – they had not yet brought their new Shekalim, they purchase it from the old sacred donations if they redeemed it already, and if they had not redeemed it, they offer incense for since the new [donations] had not yet come, they must bring it from the old.
