T ORAH P ORTION
The Taxman Cometh: Implications
BY RABBI JOEL SELTZER
PARSHAT VAYAKHEL
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the
street, If you try to sit, I’ll tax your
seat. If you get too cold I’ll tax the
heat, If you take a walk, I’ll tax your
feet. Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some
more ‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah,
I’m the taxman
— George Harrison,
“Taxman,” 1966
FROM BENJAMIN Franklin’s
certainty regarding “death and
taxes” to the Beatles lamenting
Britain’s progressive taxes of
the ’60s, one theme of human-
kind remains consistent
regardless of age or era: taxes.

And don’t tell me you’re not
thinking about it right now. Th e
dutiful among us have already
met with their accountants and,
from what I’m hearing around
the coff ee maker, it isn’t looking
pretty. Others of us are pro-
crastinating — a temporary
reprieve from inevitability.

But the truth is, long before
the Fab Four sang about them,
and millennia before our
native son Benjamin Franklin
complained about them, taxes
are actually a biblical notion,
and the diff erent types of taxes
a society needs to levy in order
to function are painstakingly
laid out throughout the Torah.

Th is week’s Torah por-
tion, Vayakhel, also heralds
the coming of Rosh Chodesh
Adar II, which means that as
a maft ir (additional) reading,
we add the fi rst of four spe-
cial maft ir portions that are
added in advance of Purim and
Passover. Th is week’s portion,
known as Parshat Shekalim,
describes one version of such
a biblically ordained tax, the
Mahatzit HaShekel, the half-
shekel tax.

In Exodus chapter 30, God
speaks to Moses, explaining
that he is to take a census of the
people; those who are enrolled
in the counting shall pay “a
half shekel of the sanctuary
weight — twenty gerahs to the
shekel — a half-shekel as an
off ering to the Lord.” Th en, in
verse 15, an enjoinder is added
to this tax: “Th e rich shall not
pay more, and the poor shall
not pay less than half a shekel
when giving the Lord’s off ering
as expiation for your persons.”
This extra prohibition, this
mandate for the tax to be
levied equally among the cit-
izens regardless of economic
status piques the interest of
the commentators.

Ramban (Nahmanides)
expresses concern that this
injunction is equally applica-
ble to the rich (who must not
add more than a shekel) as it
is upon the poor, (who cannot
add even an ounce less than the
prescribed weight), and per-
haps this is why the Ramban
does not count this verse as
one of the 613 commandments.

And the Hasidic commentator
Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel
sarcastically opines: “Th e rich
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are extremely zealous in their
observance of this negative
commandment, it’s as though
they have never transgressed it
in their lives!”
Now, before we go and
institute a national fl at tax
based on the above passage, it
is important to note that the
Bible has several other types
of taxes such as Terumot and
Ma’asrot, gift s to the priestly
classes in the temple and tith-
ing to the poor (see Numbers
18; Deuteronomy 14; 26.) Th ese
other taxes would be examples
of proportional taxes, where
each citizen had to set aside
one-tenth of their wealth to
support the most sacred insti-
tutions to the society, as well as
to help those in their commu-
nity who are less-fortunate.

And that is what makes the
half-shekel tax all the more
remarkable. Whereas the other
taxes have clear economic and
societal import, this tax is
given to the operations of the
Tent of Meeting “as expiation
for your persons.” To cleanse
our sins.

5:34 p.m.

5:42 p.m.

Th is type of tax, whose pur-
pose is spiritual, cannot be
a tax that is levied based on
status or class. Th is type of
burden must be born on the
shoulders of each member of
the community, equally. For in
this way, says Rabbi Ovadiah
ben Ya’akov Sforno, when all
the community are lined up
in solemn solidarity, “we can-
not tell who is rich and who
is poor.”
So in this, the high holy
days of the tax season, let us
dream of a time and a world
where we can once again give
equally and with united pur-
pose — because our souls may
depend upon it. ●
Rabbi Joel Seltzer is the executive
director of Camp Ramah in the
Poconos. The Board of Rabbis of
Greater Philadelphia is proud to
provide the Torah commentary for
the Jewish Exponent.

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