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Week 167 - Friday - 7 February 2003

ARAKHIN: CHAPTER 8: MISHNAH 2

If one said: It is mine for ten selas, and another said, For twenty, and another said, For thirty, and another said, For forty, and another said, For fifty - if the one of fifty retracted, they take pledges from his property up to ten. If the one of forty retracted, they take pledges from his property up to ten. If the one of thirty retracted, they take pledges from his property up to ten. If the one of twenty retracted, they take pledges from his property up to ten. If the one of ten retracted, they sell it for what it is worth and collect the difference from that of ten. If the owner bids twenty, and any other bids twenty - the owner takes precedence since he adds a Fifth.

Kehati

The redemption of hekdesh items must be preceded by its official announcement to the potential bidders. Our mishnah deals with a bidder who offered a certain amount and then retracted.

If one said - when a field was being redeemed from hekdesh – It is mine - i.e., I bid for it ten selas, and another said, I will acquire it For twenty selas, and another said, For thirty selas, and another said, For forty selas, and another said, For fifty selas – if the one whose bid was of fifty selas retracted, they even forcibly may take pledges from his property up to ten selas and give the field to the bidder of forty selas. Thus hekdesh suffers no loss. Even though the bidders assume only a verbal commitment, he who retracts must pay his excess over the other bidders since any verbal transaction touching the Sanctuary has the force of a legal act (Rabbenu Gershom).

If the one of forty selas retracted, they take pledges from his property up to ten and they give the field to the bidder of thirty selas; thus hekdesh collects ten selas from the bidder of fifty, ten from the bidder of forty and thirty from the one who bid thirty - a total amount of fifty selas.

If the one of thirty retracted, they take pledges from his property up to ten and give the field to the bidder of twenty selas which together with the pledges taken from the others amounts to fifty, as explained above.

If the one of twenty retracted, they take pledges from his property up to ten and give the field to the bidder of ten.

If the one of ten retracted, they sell it for what it is worth and collect the difference from that of ten - if it was redeemed for less than ten selas then the bidder of ten selas must pay the difference. The Gemara elaborates: This rule applies only if they retracted successively (i.e., the bidder of forty had not yet retracted when the bidder of fifty did so), but if all of them retracted simultaneously they distribute it among them. Rambam explains: The difference is divided equally among them. How so? If the first said, I acquire it for ten, and the second said, For twenty, and the third, For twenty-four, and the third and the second retracted simultaneously, they give the field to the first for ten selas and take pledges for seven from the second's property and seven from that of the third, thus hekdesh receives twenty-four. So also if all three retracted simultaneously and the field was sold for three selas, pledges for seven are taken from each of the three (i.e., one third of the difference) and so forth (Rambam Hil. Arakhin 8:4; Rambam's reasoning is explained by his supercommentators thus: since they retracted simultaneously they have thereby become partners to the resultant loss; see Ravad's glosses for his variant interpretation of the Gemara's text "they distribute it among them" which he shares with Rashi; see Gemara and Rashi Arakh. 27b).

If the owner bids twenty to redeem the field, and any other also bids twenty selas for its redemption - the owner takes precedence over anyone else since he adds a Fifth to the redemption amount, i.e., one quarter of the value, being a fifth of the final amount. Thus he pays twenty-five selas whereas others would pay only twenty selas.

As mentioned above, Rashi and Ravad differ from Rambam in their interpretation of "they distribute it among them." The following is a summary of their commentary: In their view the Gemara does not mean that they pay an equal share of the difference. Rather, since every additional bidder encompasses the amounts of the previous ones, he must share in the payment of their differences, whereas the previous bidders do not share in the amount added by the following bidder. Thus each additional bidder must pay a larger share of the difference than his predecessor. I.e., if the first offered ten selas, the second twenty and the third twenty-four, and the third and second retracted simultaneously, they give the field to the first for ten selas, and the difference of fourteen selas is collected from the third and the second as follows: the third pays whatever he bid over and above the first two (4 selas) plus half the difference between the second and the first (5 selas), i.e., nine selas; the second pays only half of what he added, i.e., five selas.

If all three retracted simultaneously, and the field was sold for four selas, the difference thus being twenty selas, it is collected from them as follows: from the third his addition (four selas) plus half of the second's addition (five selas) plus one third of the first's difference (two selas); since the third included in his offer the ten of the first, the additional ten of the second as well as his own additional four, he must pay all his own additional amount, half of the second's addition and one third of the first's difference, i.e., a total of eleven selas; following the same principle the second pays half of his own addition (five selas) plus one third of the first's difference (two selas), i.e., seven selas; the first pays only one third of his difference, i.e., two selas.

ARAKHIN: CHAPTER 8: MISHNAH 3

If one said, It is mine for twenty-one - the owner must give twenty-six; for twenty-two - the owner must give twenty-seven; for twenty-three - the owner must give twenty-eight; for twenty-four - the owner must give twenty-nine; for twenty-five - the owner gives thirty, for he does not add the Fifth to what the other bid more. If one said: It is mine for twenty-six - if the owner was willing to give thirty-one and one dinar, the owner takes precedence; but if not, they say: It is yours!

Kehati

The above, a continuation of the last section of the preceding mishnah, teaches further rules concerning the owner's precedence over other bidders, since he pays the added Fifth.

If after the owner bid twenty selas one said, It is mine for twenty-one - i.e., he added one sela - the owner must give twenty-six; since the owner is willing to pay twenty-five, i.e., the twenty he bid plus the "external" Fifth (i.e., one fourth of the initial amount), they do not give it to anyone else for twenty-one, in order not to deprive the Sanctuary of the difference; however, since the other one had added one sela to the initial bid the owner cannot receive it for less than what the other bid. Hence they compel the owner to pay also the additional sela offered by the other, but he need not pay the added Fifth on it, as explained below, hence our mishnah teaches that the owner pays twenty-six;

If one said, It is mine for twenty-two - the owner must give twenty-seven - the twenty-five he was willing to pay (comprising the principal and the added Fifth), plus the two selas capital increase offered by the other bidder which the owner must pay, as explained above;

If one wanted to acquire the field for twenty-three selas - the owner must give twenty-eight - his twenty-five plus the three added by the other; if one said, It is mine for twenty-four - the owner must give twenty-nine - his twenty-five and the other's added four selas; if one wanted to acquire it for twenty-five - the owner gives thirty - his twenty-five and the other's increase of five.

The Gemara demurs: Since the owner can argue that the other bidder equals his own bid, and hekdesh incurs no loss, why then is he compelled to redeem the field? The answer is that our mishnah refers to where the owner bid, e.g., twenty selas and one perutah, which detail was omitted; since there is a difference of one perutah between the owner and the other bidder, the former is compelled to pay the other's added amount, i.e., thirty selas and one perutah;

For he does not add the Fifth to what the other bid more - this clause, applying to all the instances listed in the mishnah, teaches that though the owner is compelled to pay the increase offered by the other bidder, he need not pay the added Fifth thereon, since "he does not add the Fifth to what the other bid more" - but only to what he offered originally. According to the Gemara this is so only if the field was not valued by three experts. But if it was and they assessed its value at the amount offered by the last bidder, the owner must add a fifth also to what the other offered in excess.

If one said: It is mine for twenty-six - if the owner was willing to give thirty-one selas and one dinar - according to the Gemara, our mishnah means that the owner's initial bid was twenty-one selas which with the added Fifth amounts to twenty-six selas and one dinar (one sela is four dinars, thus the sela's added fifth is one dinar); i.e., together with the other bidder's additional five selas that the owner must pay, the latter pays a total of thirty-one selas and one dinar. This is the meaning of "if the owner was willing to give thirty-one and one dinar," i.e., if the owner originally wanted to give an amount which now requires him to give thirty-one and one dinar, as explained above, the owner takes precedence - for if it is sold to the other bidder, hekdesh would incur a loss of one dinar; but if the owner first bid twenty and not twenty-one, they say to the bidder of twenty-six: It - the field - is yours! (Rabbenu Gershom). According to Bartenura the owner is not compelled to redeem the field if initially he offered only twenty and the other bid twenty-five, since the former may argue that the other gives likewise twenty-five; and it is given to the other.

We followed the interpretation of most commentators. According to Rambam, however, the Gemara's explanation applies to the entire mishnah, i.e., in each instance of the mishnah the owner added one perutah to the other bidder's amount; if he did not, he pays only twenty-five selas, i.e., the principal plus the added Fifth. Thus Rambam (Hil. Arakhin 8:5): "If one came and said: It is mine for twenty-one, then if the owner was silent and did not add anything they sell it to him for twenty-five; if the owner added even only one perutah to the twenty-one, he must give twenty-six and one perutah: twenty-one and one perutah that he bid and five on account of the added Fifth over the initial offer..." (see Ravad's glosses ad loc).

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