10222. A shekel of twenty gerahs. That this signifies all things of good, is evident from the signification of “twenty,” as likewise being all things, and the remains of good, as also what is holy. (That it denotes all things and hence what is full, see n. 9641; also the remains of good, n. 2280; and what is holy, n. 4759, 7842, 7903.) For when said of the Lord, “twenty” signifies what is His own, which is what is Holy itself (n. 4176); which shows why a shekel contained twenty gerahs or oboli, and why it is called a “shekel of holiness” in this and other passages (as Leviticus 27:3; Numbers 3:47, 50; 7:13, (Numbers 7:13) 19, 25, 31, 37, 49, 55, 61, 67, 73; 18:16). That the shekel was a weight both of silver and of gold, see Genesis 24:22; Exodus 38:24; Ezekiel 4:10; 45:12.

7831. In the tenth of this month. That this signifies a state of initiation of the interiors, is evident from the signification of “the tenth” (namely “day”) as being the state of the interiors; for by “day” is signified state (n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 575, 893, 1738, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672), and by “ten” are signified remains (n. 576, 1906, 2284), that is, truths and goods stored up by the Lord in the interiors of man (n. 1050, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5897, 7560, 7564); and as remains are in the interiors, and by them man is prepared and initiated to receive good and truth from the Lord, therefore by “the tenth day” is here signified a state of initiation of the interiors. (That man is regenerated by means of remains, consequently is by them initiated into receiving the influx of good and truth from the Lord, see n. 5342, 5898, 6156; and that by means of them man communicates with heaven, n. 7560; for these goods and truths are from the Lord, and not from man, n. 7564.) By a “month” is signified an entire state from its beginning to its end (n. 3814), thus the whole state of liberation which is signified by the passover in the complex. From all this it is evident that by “in the tenth of this month” is signified a state of initiation of the interiors. This state, namely, of the initiation of the interiors, was from the tenth day of that month even to the fourteenth day thereof, within which days the paschal lamb was to be kept. By the paschal animal is signified the good of innocence, which is the inmost; thus it is signified that this inmost, together with the interiors in which it is, should meanwhile be secluded and withheld from such things as defile. This state is a state of initiation of the interiors, that is, of preparation to receive the influx of good and truth from the Lord. This is the holy thing which is contained in these words; for without something holy stored up within, it would not have been commanded that in the tenth day of the month the paschal animal should be taken, and should be kept even to the fourteenth day; nor that afterward it should be killed between the evenings; and should be eaten roast with fire, not boiled with water; that they should not leave anything of it until the morning; that they should burn what was left with fire; that they should not break a bone of it; and other particulars, which everyone who ponders upon it may know must involve holy things hitherto unknown to anyone; and that these holy things are spiritual things, which are of the church and of heaven, and which relate to the Divine, from which every detail of the Word has come down.