Shekalim 2:3 - 2:4

המכנס מעות – he collects/gathers bit by bit, penny by penny for his [one-half] shekel and states when he began to collect/gather that these are for his [one-half] shekel. But when he comes to consider what he has gathered and found that there was excess to his shekel.

ב"ש אומרים מותרן נדבה – they would fall to the horn-shaped chests in the Temple, that stand to offer with their monies burnt offerings of the summer for the altar. And the School of Shammai, according to the reasoning, hold that whatever is dedicated to the Temple property, in error, is called dedicated to Temple property.

ובה"א מותרן חולין – for they did not intend this to be sanctified, but only up to their [obligatory one-half] Shekel.

שאביא מהן שקלי שוין שמותר חולין – for it is like saying explicitly – that if I bring in more than a Shekel, I will bring from them a Shekel and the remainder will be non-holy produce.

אלו לחטאתי – and if he gathered/collected monies and said, “these are for my sin-offering,” the School of Hillel agrees that the remainder is a free-will offering.

מה בין שקלים לחטאת – what is the difference that regarding Shekalim when one collects/gathers monies and says, “these are for my [half-]Shekel, that the School of Hillel states that the excess is non-holy and that regarding Sin-offerings, that they agree with the School of Shammai that the excess is a free-will offering?

שקלים יש להן קצבה – as it is written (Exodus 30:15): “the rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less,” therefore, he definitely did not intend other than the [half-]shekel, and the excess is an errant dedication to the Temple, but the sin-offering has no limit. If he wants, he should bring a sin-offering of silver M’ah, and if he desires, he can bring greater sums. Therefore, the monies are seized but the excess is a donation.

היו שוקלים דרכונות – coinage of the Persian kingdom that came up with them from the Diaspora and it was of gold. It was worth two Selaim, and people were accustomed to do business with that coin, and like the time of the First Temple when their coin was the Shekel, they would give the one-half Shekel. So, now, when their coin was a Darkon/daric, they would give one-half daric.

חזרו לשקול סלעים – after the Kingdom of Persia passed on, the coinage of the daric was cancelled, they returned to do business with Selaim which was their first coinage that was in usage at the time of the First Temple and they gave one-half shekel as at the first.

חזרו לשקול טבעין – the coin in usage returned to be the Tevaim which is the one-half shekel that they desired to give was one-half of that coinage, that is one Dinar. For a Selah is four dinars and they did not accept it from them for they had to supplement to the Shekel of the Torah because they changed the going currency at that time but not to decrease from it. Therefore, we see that the Shekel also had no definite limit for sometimes the Shekels were large and at other times, the Shekels were small, for they would not give ever other than one-half shekel according to the currency in vogue at the time.

אעפ"כ יד כולן שוה – that is to say, that still the Shekalim are not similar to the sin-offerings, for in each and every time period, the one-half Shekel was equivalent for all. This [person] would donate according to that [person] – each individual one-half Shekel according to the going rate of that time period. But sin-offerings are not equivalent ever, for this one brings a Selah and the other brings two or three Selaim, and in this, the rationale of the School of Hillel agrees with that of the School of Shammai.