Fifty Shekels or Six Hundred?

But only in the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes; there you shall offer up your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.                                    Deuteronomy 12:14

In one of your tribes – in the portion of Benjamin, yet above Scripture states “Of all your tribes,” [verse 5] how can the verses be reconciled? When King David purchased the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he collected money from all the tribes, yet the threshing floor itself was within the portion of Benjamin.                                              Rashi

            King David’s purchase of the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, which is the site of the altar of the Temple [II Samuel 24:18] is described twice in the Bible. Toward the end of Second Samuel, the verse states “David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver;’" [ibid.,v.25]      while First Chronicles [21:25] reports that “David gave to Ornan (who is Araunah) for the place six-hundred  shekels of gold weight.” Our Sages were sensitive to the apparent contradiction, and teach:

It was taught: One text says, “David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight;” whereas it is written, “David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” How can these be reconciled? He collected fifty (shekels) from each tribe, which amounted to six hundred in all.                                Babylonian Talmud. Zevaḥim 116b

            Our Sages’ tradition is that King David collected fifty shekels from each of the twelve tribes for the purchase of the threshing floor of Araunah, and hence the total price paid was six-hundred shekels. Thus, there is no contradiction between the verses; rather, Second Samuel presents the unit price per tribe, while First Chronicles presents the total price.

            There is great significance to our Sages’ comment. The Temple Mount and the altar are intended to unite the tribes of God into a single nation, and it is therefore inconceivable that they belong to any single tribe as opposed to belonging to the Collective Israel. Therefore King David collected an equal sum of money from each of the twelve tribes to insure that the threshing floor belonged to all the tribes rather to any single tribe.

            This approach is consistent with our Sages’ opinion that Jerusalem was not divided among the tribes. [Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 12a; Megila 26a; Bava Kama 86b; and cited by Maimonides as halacha, Laws of Impurity of Tzara’at 14:11] The simplest explanation of the Sages’ opinion is that since Jerusalem is destined to unite the nation of Israel, it cannot possibly belong to any single tribe, but must be the domain of the Collective Israel.

            In fact, the concept of Jerusalem in general and the Temple specifically as that which unites Israel runs as a golden thread through the Holy City’s history, and one who does not understand this point simply cannot understand the essence of Jerusalem.

       This understanding of Jerusalem’s destiny explains our Sages’ determination that Jerusalem was destroyed because of unfounded hatred among the Jews. [Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b] Once Jerusalem became a focus of hatred among the Jews, she ceased being herself, and the city’s destruction became inevitable.

            Equally, this understanding explains Rabbi Kook’s famous comment: “Given that we were destroyed and the entire world destroyed because of unfounded hatred, we will be rebuilt and the world will be rebuilt with us through ‘unbounded love’.” When we bring Jerusalem to realization of her destiny of uniting Israel, her rebuilding will become inevitable.