Absence at the precipice of a passing massekhet.  Sheqalim is primarily concerned with administration, not matters of the individual.  The massekhet does not even deign to mention that the per Israelite payment consists of half a sheqel.  References merely to "sheqalim," on a collective basis.

Perhaps individual practices were so deeply ingrained that R Yehuda Hanasi felt they need not be included in the mishnaic text.  Or maybe this represents a tannaitic value judgment on the relative importance of temple practice as against the individual.

One last possibility: the oral law has been compiled by Borges.  The massekhet is a riddle whose answer is the "half-sheqel."

Homogenize or pluralize?  Confronted with the Other, Judaism admits neither evangelism nor ignorance.  Non-Jews wishing to offer certain types of sacrifices in the Jewish temple may do so.  Even more, should they forget to accompany their sacrifices with the required drink offerings, funds must be taken from the communal fund.

In his Israel and Humanity, Elijah Benamozegh famously conceives a comprehensive system: Mosaism for Jews, Noachism for the non-Jewish world.  Every adherent plays a role.

Benamozegh's approach is not universally accepted.  In 1865, the Aleppan rabbinic leadership publicly burns copies of his biblical commentary, Em Lamiqra.  Damascene leaders quickly follow suit.

Takanah, tool for compassion.  What should be done in the case where one passes away after pledging beasts for sacrifice, but neglects to designate monies for the required drink offerings?

The family of the deceased must generally underwrite these costs.  An exception is made with respect to a convert.  Unlike a native-born Israelite, the convert may lack family members willing to defray such temple-related costs.  To face this challenge, tannaim promulgate the takanah requiring such funds to come from the public collection; in the case of the convert, the community must carry on the will of the deceased.

A sentiment that accords well with the root of the word; takkanah comes from the Hebrew word "tikkun," lit., "to fix."  Sensitively perceiving an injustice, takanah is the tannaitic tool of healing, unity and drawing near.

Mishna abhors insignificance. Coins, meat, cattle found on the streets and in the hills in or around Jerusalem cannot be due to an innocent forgetfulness. To these objects are imputed a specific intent; the presumption they are misplaced gifts to the temple. The precise nature of the offering dependent on its location and the time of year when found. The Hebrew word in these mishnayot for “found” is the familiar “nim-si-‘u” (lit., “they find”).

The previous chapter concludes with a midrashic harmonization between two biblical verses. The mishna’s language betrays its origin. ”Thus it turns out that both scriptures are fulfilled” is a phrase belonging to the school of Aqiba. In midrashim stemming from the school of Ishmael, the expression “how can these two verses be reconciled?” proves more frequent. See David Weiss Halivni, Midrash, Mishnah, and Gemara (1986) at 124, n.14.

The Well of Souls. The Staff of Ra. Gratuitous face melting. And now this mishnaic nugget:

A priest was going about his business and saw that a block of the pavement [in the temple courtyard] was slightly different from the rest. He came and told his fellow. He did not finish telling him before he dropped dead. Then they knew without doubt that there the ark had been stored away.

The notion of the ark as source of magic can be derived from the Tanakh. Joshua’s crossing of the Jordan seems to stem from the ark’s presence. Causing plagues after its capture by Philistines. Inducing death by touch during its later journey to Jerusalem.

Tradition betrays an ambivalence regarding such magical traditions. Tannaitic accounts like the above stoke popular fear and wonderment. That it merits inclusion in a definitive text like the Mishnah reveals the strength of these legends.

Other traditions de-emphasize these legends. Jeremiah prophesies a time when the ark “will not come to mind, they will not mention it, will not recall it.” Rashi comments that in this future time the ark will simply not be needed; the nation will be so imbued with the divine spirit that it will effectively replace the ark. A mirror of the movement to a post-temple reality.

The Second Book of Maccabees records Jeremiah hiding the ark in Mt Nebo, where Moses was buried. Tied so closely with Moses, constructed during his tenure, a fitting resting place. And like the body of Moses, the author of the text seems to suggest, it too ought not be overly venerated.

Disappearing houses, missing relics.  Of the countless tannaitic authorities, it seems curious if only Hillel and Shammai establish "houses."  A rare reference to the House of Gamliel and the House of Hananiah, segan of the kohanim.  Whether these houses were excised from tannaitic literature due to politics or natural loss of followers is unclear.

Instead of the usual thirteen temple prostrations, members of these houses prostrate fourteen times.  The extra one, in the direction of the temple woodshed, the hiding place of the lost ark of covenant according to family tradition.  More than 600 years after its loss, observing a daily remembrance. 

An archaeology-based faith.  The pilgrim seeking to present a drink offering in the temple exchanges his money for a seal matching the specific type of drink offering.  The seal is then exchanged for the drink offering itself.  By controlling the substance of the offering, temple officials ensure its sanctity.

In December 2011, archaeologists announced the discovery, amidst the rubble of the southern temple wall in Jerusalem, of one such seal.  For the curious observer, an interesting find; for the more zealous, incontrovertible proof of the veracity of the Jewish faith.

The temple treasury enjoyed no less than three revenuers, seven supervisors and two advisors with respect to the matters of property.  Despite this plurality, a single treasury, a single nation.

Goitein sketches out a similarly unitary structure in the high middle ages in Egypt:

In cities with more than one synagogue, donations were sometimes made and houses acquired for individual synagogues, but the social services were usually communal, comprising all the coreligionists living in one place, rather than congregational.  In the capital of Egypt, which in those days consisted of two different cities, Old Cairo (Fustat) and the newly founded Cairo, even the payrolls and of the various synagogues sometimes appear combined in one list.

S.D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, vol II: The Community (1971) at 99.