parshat Vayakhel

The Parasha opens with the command to refrain from working on Shabbat. There is a story where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was against his students leaving Israel in order to work.

A weekly shiur by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for the weekly portion "Vayakhel- Pekudei".

The six p’sukim of our maftir, known as Parashat Shekalim (Shemot 30:11-16), combine so many separate concepts that at first appear as referring to the same thing that it is difficult to keep things straight. At the center of it all, though, is the half-shekel coin. Let us see what it is apparently connected to.