[Avodah] Machatzis Hashekel in the Mishkan / Mikdash

[Akiva Miller]

We read yesterday about Machtzis Hashekel. On Ki Tisa 30:13, Rashi cites
the Midrash that Hashem showed Moshe a sort of fiery coin whose weight was
a half-shekel, and said, "They will give something like this."

I understand that Hashem needed to show the New Moon to Moshe so that he
would see and understand the proper shiur and such. I also understand that
Moshe couldn't figure out what the Menorah should look like until Hashem
showed him. But this case seems different. Why did Hashem have to show
Moshe this coin? What did Moshe get from this vision that he couldn't
figure out from the rest of that pasuk, "shekel hakodesh", "20 gerah", etc?

It seems to me that the mitzva of Machatzis Hashekel either requires us to
give a certain amount of money, or it requires us to give a certain coin.
If it requires us to give a certain amount of money (as I've always
understood, and I can provide sources if anyone asks) then this vision
seems utterly superfluous. But if the mitzvah requires us to give a certain
coin, and the pasuk has already explained the material and weight of the
coin, then it must be that the purpose of the vision is to specify a
particular design for that coin, in which case, we must have been minting
specific Machtzis Hashekel Coins all the way from the days of the Mishkan
through Bayis Sheni, and they were identical to the one that Hashem showed
to Moshe. But I have never heard any description of what this coin looked
like; has anyone else?

Any thoughts? What did Moshe learn from this vision?

Thanks!
Akiva Miller
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20180304/d719c102/attachment.html>