Rome's Thornbush Tax and the Half-Shekel That Lifted Israel

Rabbi Yaakov bar Yuda in the name of Rabbi Yonatan of Beth Gubrin opened: "The way of the slothful man is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway" (Proverbs 15:19). "The way of the slothful man": this is the wicked Esau. "Like a hedge of thorns": for it resembles this thornbush, which you disentangle from here and it catches on you from there. So too the wicked Esau twists about: he claims your poll-taxes, your assessments, your land-tax; if a man has none, he plunders him and extorts from him. "But the path of the upright is a highway": this is the Holy One, blessed be He, of whom it is written, "For the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them" (Hosea 14:10), for He made His speech straight for Moses and said, "When you take the sum of the head of the children of Israel" (Exodus 30:12).