Page 252 - Tzurba M'Rabanan Volume1

250 · Hilchot Purim Tzurba M’Rabanan

There are different customs concerning the amount given for zecher lemachatzit hashekel:
• Some give only one half of the basic coin of the currency of the locale, e.g., half a shekel, half a dollar etc.
(Ma’aseh Rav of the Vilna Gaon, cited in Kaf Hachaim 694:23).
• Some give three of these coins since in the parsha of machazit hashekel (Shemot 30) the word teruma
appears three times (Rema cited above).
• Sefardim customarily give the value of a half shekel of biblical times. This is equivalent to 9.6 grams of
silver (Chazon Ovadia, Purim), which in 2017 was valued at approximately twenty shekels in Israeli
currency.

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