Shekalim 19 a, b

Halacha 1 of Chapter Seven looks at what we should do if coins have fallen between two collection chests.  The assumption is that we have 13 chests (though we are offered two alternatives at the start of today's daf).  We learn a general rule: when a coin lies closer to one chest, it is donated to that chest as a leniency.  However if it sits equidistant between two chests, a stringent ruling holds and the coin is put in the designated chest: Young olah birds, voluntary communal offerings, levonah.  In addition, a pile of coins between the regular coins and maaser sheni chest should be given to the maaser sheni.

Halacha 2 extends this idea to include other found items. These include coins, meat, and other things one might find lying in the Temple courtyard.  The rabbis agree that we make assumptions about to whom/what those found items belong based upon the time of year.  The adjacent religious festival can help us determine the proper designation of a found item.  Stringencies take effect here: for example, coins found on the ground are almost always assumed to be maaser sheni following a festival.  The reasoning?  People would not leave Jerusalem with their maaser sheni coins, as the money had to be used on food to be eaten in Jerusalem.  Thus the coins might have been dropped by either a pilgrim or by a merchant doing business with a visitor.

The rabbis pay special attention to the status of found meat, which seems bizarre.  For example, they discuss how a found 'limb' and found 'slices' should be categorized and then used.  Many different prohibitions are in competition here, but the rabbis continue to argue regarding the most pertinent halacha.  Notions of kashrut, 'fitness', ownership, burning, majority, etc. are at play.

We are told a story about a non-Jew eating flesh from his horse.  The story is told in a way that leads me to believe that the horse was alive, but that seems to be only my assumption.  Instead the story is told to illustrate the importance of how we understand that meat is kosher or not kosher based on the community in which it is found.

The rabbis share another story, this one about a Jewish butcher who refuses to sell meat to a Jew.  The Jew asks a Roman to buy meat from this butcher, who sells non-Kosher meat to this Roman. In the courts, the rabbis were made to decide what to do with this butcher who sold non-kosher meat in the Jewish marketplace, thus confusing our ideas about 'majority' - that we can assume that meat found in a Jewish market is kosher.

Shekalim allows us to witness the intersection of a number of principles of reasoning and categories of halacha.  We are dealing with halachot regarding money and exchange of goods, but we are also looking at halachot regarding ownership, designation, Festival offerings, eruvin, and so many others.  Some of what I am learning seems perfectly logical; other passages are steeped in philosophy and practice that is unfamiliar and disconcerting.  With only two more dapim before beginning a new masechet, I am sadly certain that I will not secure a more secure grasp on this material.